Home Mining, Solo Lotteries and Mining Scams

At home, a newcomer can do three useful things with mining: run a small, quiet miner to learn how it works, enter the solo-mining lottery for a whole block reward, or use a miner as an electric heater that pays back a little bitcoin. What home mining won’t give you is a steady profit on household electricity, and offers that sell you mining income instead of mining hardware are where beginners lose real money. With the real odds and the real costs in hand, you can enjoy mining as a hobby, get the most from its heat, and keep your savings away from offers that can’t deliver what they promise.

What Fits in a Home in November 2026

Miners are measured by hashrate: how many guesses at a valid block they make per second. One TH/s (terahash per second) is a trillion guesses a second; 1 PH/s is 1,000 TH/s, and 1 EH/s is a million TH/s. As of November 2026 the whole network makes around 1,000 EH/s, about 1 zettahash per second. Home devices come in three sizes.

Small open-source miners: the Bitaxe

In its basic form, the Bitaxe is a palm-sized circuit board with one mining chip, a small fan and a Wi-Fi controller. It is open-source hardware: its design files are published under an open license (CERN-OHL-S), so anyone can study, build or improve it. Its firmware (the software that runs the device), ESP-Miner, is published under the GPL, an open-source software license. The single-chip Bitaxe Gamma uses the BM1370 chip from Bitmain’s Antminer S21 Pro and makes about 1.2 TH/s. It runs only on 5 volts, from a power adapter that can supply more than 20 W. You set it up from a web page called AxeOS on your home network. Versions with more chips, such as the two-chip GT and the six-chip Gamma Hex, make more.

Buy from a seller on the sellers list at bitaxe.org, which the community reviews before a seller is added, and install firmware only from the project’s own releases (the lesson on verifying Bitcoin software shows the habit). “NerdMiner” gadgets, built on a hobby microcontroller, make roughly 50,000 to 80,000 guesses a second on common boards, some 15 to 25 million times slower than a Bitaxe. At that speed the average wait for a block is hundreds of billions of years, many times the age of the universe, so treat them as learning gadgets.

Small home units: Canaan’s Avalon line

Canaan, one of the three big makers of full-size machines, has three current home models. The Avalon Nano 3S is a desktop unit. The Avalon Mini 3 is shaped and sold as a space heater, with mining, heater and night modes. The Avalon Q, launched in March 2025, is a full-power home unit that runs on any household voltage from 110 to 240 V, including North America’s 120 V outlets. Other makers sell home units too; FutureBit’s Apollo combines a small miner with a full Bitcoin node.

Device	Hashrate	Power draw	Runs on	Power, roughly like
Bitaxe Gamma	about 1.2 TH/s	about 17–18 W	a 5 V power adapter rated above 20 W	a phone charger
Avalon Nano 3S	6 TH/s	140 W	its own power adapter	two old 75 W light bulbs
Avalon Mini 3	37.5 TH/s	800 W (about 400 W in night mode)	an ordinary household outlet (110–240 V)	a small space heater
Avalon Q	up to 90 TH/s	about 800 W to about 1,670 W	a household outlet (110–240 V); at full power on 120 V, a dedicated 20 A circuit	a full-size space heater
Antminer S21 (full-size, for comparison)	200 TH/s	3,500 W	220–277 V only	more than two space heaters

Figures from manufacturers’ launch material and published spec sheets, checked in November 2026. The models are examples, not endorsements, and prices are left out because they change weekly.

Do Miners Need 240 Volts? Only the Big Ones

You will often read that ASIC miners (machines built only for Bitcoin’s hash function) need a 240 V circuit. That is true of full-size machines, not of mining in general. Voltage (volts, V) is the electrical pressure an outlet supplies, current (amps, A) is how much electricity flows, and power (watts, W) is the two multiplied together. What limits a home circuit is the current it can carry nonstop, and a miner runs nonstop.

Full-size machines: Bitmain’s spec for the Antminer S21 accepts only 220–277 V. In the US and Canada, ordinary outlets supply 120 V, so these machines need a dedicated 240 V circuit like an electric dryer’s. In most of Europe the mains is already 230 V, but 3,500 W still means about 15 amps around the clock, so the machine needs its own circuit, checked by an electrician.
Small devices: a Bitaxe (under 20 W) or a Nano 3S (140 W) draws no more than a small appliance.
Mid-size home units: under the US electrical code, a circuit should carry no more than 80% of its breaker’s rating nonstop, which is 12 A on a common 15 A circuit. A Mini 3 at 800 W draws about 6.7 A at 120 V and fits if nothing else heavy shares the circuit. An Avalon Q at full power draws 13–14 A, so it needs a dedicated 20 A circuit or a lower power mode (the ASIC lesson has the safety detail).
At 230 V the same machines draw about half the current: an Avalon Q at full power pulls about 7 A, well under the 16 A rating of a continental European (Schuko) socket or the 13 A of a British plug.

The rule of thumb: watts ÷ volts = amps. Compare that with 80% of the breaker the machine will share, and when the answer is close, call an electrician.

Amps each home miner pulls from a 120 V outlet, found by dividing watts by volts: a Bitaxe Gamma at about 18 W, under 0.2 A; an Avalon Nano 3S at 140 W, about 1.2 A; an Avalon Mini 3 at 800 W, 6.7 A, which fits a shared circuit if nothing else heavy shares it; an Avalon Q at full power, 1,674 W, 13 to 14 A. Two lines mark the most a circuit should carry nonstop: 12 A, 80% of a shared 15 A circuit, and 16 A, 80% of a dedicated 20 A circuit. The Avalon Q passes 12 A, so it needs a dedicated 20 A circuit or a lower power mode. A full-size Antminer S21 at 3,500 W won't run on 120 V at all: it accepts only 220 to 277 V and pulls about 15 A on its own 240 V circuit. At 230 V, as in most of Europe, the same watts draw about half the amps: an Avalon Q at full power pulls about 7 A. — **Only the full-size machines need a 240 V circuit.** Divide a miner’s watts by your outlet’s volts and compare the amps with 80% of the breaker. Small devices draw no more than an appliance; at 120 V the Avalon Q at full power needs its own 20 A circuit.

Solo Mining: A Lottery, With Honest Odds

The pools lesson showed that a small machine in a pool earns a tiny, steady income, while alone it waits a very long time for one big payment. Small devices make the second option easy through a solo pool. It gives your device work and builds each candidate block (the block template) so that its first transaction, the coinbase transaction that collects the reward, pays your own Bitcoin address. Find the block and the whole reward goes straight to you, minus any pool fee, which is paid to the pool inside the same transaction; otherwise you get nothing. Your Bitcoin address is your username. CKPool’s solo service charges 2%. Public Pool, open-source software you can also run on your own node, charges no fee.

The prize, as of November 2026, is 3.125 BTC of new coins plus the block’s fees: about 3.14 BTC, or roughly $239,000 at a bitcoin price of $76,000. Your chance at any single block is your hashrate divided by the network’s, and there are 144 blocks a day, about 52,560 a year:

Device	Fraction of the network	Chance of a block in a year	Average wait for one block
Bitaxe Gamma (1.2 TH/s)	1 in 860 million	about 1 in 16,400	about 16,400 years
Avalon Nano 3S (6 TH/s)	1 in 172 million	about 1 in 3,300	about 3,300 years
Avalon Mini 3 (37.5 TH/s)	1 in 28 million	about 1 in 525	about 525 years
Avalon Q (90 TH/s)	1 in 11.5 million	about 1 in 220	about 220 years
Antminer S21 (200 TH/s)	1 in 5.2 million	about 1 in 100	about 98 years

Computed with the network at about 1,035 EH/s (November 2026); as the network grows, every wait gets longer. Three facts help you read these numbers.

1. Every block is a fresh draw

A device that has hashed for a year has exactly the same chance at the next block as an equally fast one switched on this morning. Nothing builds up. A share is a hash that beats the pool’s easier target and proves your device is working; almost every share misses the network’s real target (the pools lesson explains). AxeOS shows a “best difficulty”: the difficulty of the best share your device has found, its nearest miss so far. A block needs a hash at the network’s difficulty (the number that sets how hard a valid block is to find), which AxeOS shows on the same screen: about 148 trillion in November 2026. A higher best difficulty is a souvenir, not a step closer.

Two Bitaxes, each about 1.2 TH/s. One has been hashing for a whole year: about 52,560 blocks have gone by, all found by others, and its best difficulty, its best near miss, has climbed. The other was switched on this morning. At the next block both have exactly the same chance of finding it: 1 in 860 million. Every block is a fresh draw; nothing builds up, and near misses don't add up. A block needs a hash at the network's difficulty, about 148 trillion in November 2026. — **A year of hashing doesn’t bring the next block any closer.** Each block is a new draw, so two equally fast devices have the same chance at it however long they have run. A rising best difficulty records near misses; it isn’t progress.

2. Winners make the news

Small devices do win. In July 2026, block 957,382 was found through Public Pool by a miner that the pool’s own statistics showed as a single Bitaxe averaging about 995 GH/s (just under 1 TH/s), and the coinbase paid the full 3.138 BTC to one address. The other side is far larger. On 6 November 2026, about 23,000 addresses were connected to CKPool’s solo pool, together about 120 PH/s over the previous week: roughly 0.012% of the network, enough for about six blocks a year among all of them. In the year to 6 November 2026, mempool.space credited all the solo pools it recognizes with 24 of about 52,300 blocks. Each of those blocks paid one miner, while the thousands of others connected at the same time paid for their electricity and received nothing.

A field of 23,000 small grey dots, one for each address mining on CKPool's solo pool on 6 November 2026, together about 120 PH/s, 0.012% of the network. Six dots are orange: at that hashrate the whole crowd can expect about six blocks a year among all of them, each paying one miner. Everyone else pays for electricity and receives nothing. All solo pools together found 24 of about 52,300 blocks in the year to 6 November 2026; one of them, block 957,382 in July 2026, came from a single Bitaxe. — **Solo wins are real, and very rare.** Among about 23,000 addresses on CKPool’s solo pool, about six can expect a block in a year. The rest pay for their electricity and receive nothing.

3. The average is the same as in a pool, and smaller than the power bill

Solo or pool, your expected value (what you would collect on average over a very long time) is your part of what the network pays, minus fees. For a Bitaxe that is about $15 a year at November 2026 numbers, while its roughly 18 W costs about $28 a year at 18.2 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh, the energy of 1,000 watts running for one hour), the average US household price that the Energy Information Administration forecasts for 2026. In a regular pool it would earn about 50 satoshis (hundred-millionths of a bitcoin) a day before fees. Choose by what you enjoy, about 50 satoshis a day or a tiny chance at three bitcoin, and treat the electricity as the price of the ticket.

One Bitaxe Gamma at 1.2 TH/s for a year, at November 2026 numbers. The prize is about 3.14 BTC, roughly $239,000. The chance of finding a block in a year is about 1 in 16,400. Prize times chance gives the average, its expected value: about $15 a year, the same solo or in a pool. Its electricity, about 18 W at 18.2 cents per kWh, costs about $28 a year. You pay about $28 a year for a ticket worth about $15 on average. — **The average win is smaller than the power bill.** Prize times chance gives a Bitaxe’s expected value: about $15 a year, solo or in a pool. Its electricity costs about $28 a year, the price of the ticket.

Setting up a solo device

Get an address from your own wallet. A win pays straight to it, so use a fresh address from a wallet whose keys you hold, ideally a hardware wallet.
Enter the pool details. On the device’s settings page (AxeOS on a Bitaxe), enter the solo pool’s stratum address (its server address) and port, your Bitcoin address as the username, and the password the pool asks for (often just “x”); the pool setup guide shows the same fields.
Check that it works. Look up your address on the pool’s page; the device should show about its rated hashrate.
Know what a win looks like. The reward arrives inside the block and, like every coinbase payment, can be spent after 100 more blocks, about 17 hours (the mining lesson explains why). Mined coins are public on the blockchain; see managing mined coins privately.
Optional: run the pool yourself. If you run a node (see Umbrel vs Start9), Public Pool runs on it as an app, so your own node, not a pool operator, builds the template and picks the transactions in any block you find.

Mining as a Heater: Where the Numbers Can Work

A miner turns essentially all the electricity it uses into heat. An 800 W miner warms a room exactly as an 800 W electric heater does: about 2,730 BTU (British thermal units) an hour. An ordinary electric heater, called a resistance heater, also turns electricity into heat one for one. In winter, then, a miner is a resistance heater that also hashes.

Worked example (November 2026). An Avalon Mini 3 in mining mode at 800 W, running all day, uses 19.2 kWh. At 18.2 cents per kWh that costs about $3.49. Its 37.5 TH/s earns about $1.25, so the net cost is about $2.25 for 19.2 kWh of heat: about 11.7 cents per kWh of heat instead of 18.2 cents from a plain electric heater. That is a real discount.

A heat pump changes the picture. It moves heat in from outside instead of making it, and a typical household heat pump delivers about four units of heat for each unit of electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. It would give the same 19.2 kWh of heat for about 4.8 kWh of electricity, under $1 a day. Against a heat pump, the miner-heater costs more than twice as much. Heat pumps work less well in deep cold. Even so, a heat pump that the US ENERGY STAR program labels for cold climates must still deliver at least 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at −15 °C (5 °F). At that floor the same heat costs about $2.00 a day, still less than the miner’s $2.25.

The cost of the same 19.2 kWh of heat for a day, with electricity at 18.2 cents per kWh (November 2026). An 800 W electric heater uses 19.2 kWh and costs $3.49. An Avalon Mini 3 at 800 W uses the same 19.2 kWh but earns about $1.25 back, so its heat costs $2.25 net: 11.7 cents per kWh of heat instead of 18.2. A cold-climate heat pump at minus 15 °C (5 °F), which must give at least 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity, uses at worst about 11 kWh: $2.00. A typical heat pump, about four units of heat per unit, uses 4.8 kWh: $0.87. A miner beats a plain electric heater; a heat pump beats the miner. — **Mining heat is a discount on electric heat, not on a heat pump.** An 800 W miner warms a room exactly like an 800 W heater and pays back part of the bill. A heat pump moves heat in from outside, and a cold-climate model stays cheaper than the miner even at –15 °C.

So mining heat pays off where you would use electric resistance heat anyway (a room with a fan heater, a cold workshop or garage), and only in the cold months. In summer the same heat becomes a cost: switch the miner off or vent the air outside. In living spaces use the quieter modes and give the machine free air. If you heat with gas or oil, compare with your own fuel price.

How Beginners Lose Money

With a small miner, the cost is a visible electricity bill. The large losses come from offers that sell mining income rather than mining hardware, and one test covers them all: real mining income moves every day with bitcoin’s price, the network’s hashrate and fees, so a promised fixed return is the warning sign. The scams that target coins you already hold are covered in the scams that empty self-custody wallets.

Cloud-mining contracts

In cloud mining you pay upfront for a slice of a company’s machines (sold as “hashrate”) for a set period, in return for what they mine, often promised as a fixed daily amount. Ask why anyone would sell it: a company with working machines and cheap power can keep the bitcoin itself. A return above what the machines really earn has to come from somewhere, usually new customers’ deposits. You can test any offer against what its hashrate really earns: at November 2026 numbers, 200 TH/s (one Antminer S21’s worth) earns about $6.65 a day before electricity and fees, so a contract for 200 TH/s that promises a fixed $15 a day is promising more than twice what the machines can make. That rate is hashprice: at November 2026 numbers it is about $33.26 per PH/s a day, or $0.033 per TH/s (452.9 BTC a day ÷ 1,035,000,000 TH/s × $76,000; the profitability lesson shows the calculation), and it already includes transaction fees. Multiply it by an offer’s hashrate in TH/s (1 PH/s is 1,000 TH/s, and 1,000 GH/s make 1 TH/s) to see what that hashrate earns before electricity and fees. A promise stated as a percentage works the same way: 1.5% a day of $1,000 is $15 a day. Turned around, $15 a day would take about 451 TH/s at November 2026 numbers, more than two Antminer S21s, before electricity and fees. An offer that doesn’t say how much hashrate it sells can’t be checked at all, which is a red flag in itself.

A cloud contract for 200 TH/s, one Antminer S21's worth of hashrate, at November 2026 numbers. That hashrate earns about $6.65 a day before electricity and fees, and the amount changes every day. The contract promises a fixed $15 every day. Mining could pay up to $6.65 of it; at least $8.35 a day has to come from somewhere else, usually new customers' deposits. The warning sign is a fixed or guaranteed return above what the hashrate earns. — **A return above what the hashrate earns has to come from somewhere else.** 200 TH/s earns about $6.65 a day before electricity and fees. A contract promising a fixed $15 a day owes at least $8.35 a day that the machines can’t make, usually paid from new customers’ deposits.

Paying earlier customers with later customers’ money is called a Ponzi scheme. HashFlare sold more than $577 million of contracts between 2015 and 2019. The US Department of Justice called it a Ponzi scheme: it lacked the computing power for the vast majority of the mining it sold, and its dashboards showed customers falsified data. The two men who ran it pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in February 2025. A promise below what the hashrate earns doesn’t clear an offer either: the electricity and the seller’s cut come out of those earnings, and a seller can sell mining power it doesn’t have, as HashFlare did. Red flags: a fixed or “guaranteed” daily return, referral bonuses, withdrawals that unlock only after another deposit, and machines you can never see or check.

“Mining” apps on your phone

Apple’s App Store rules forbid apps from mining on the phone itself and allow mining only “off device (such as cloud-based mining)”. An app that shows bitcoin piling up while your phone “mines” is either doing no mining at all or selling a cloud contract. In 2021 the security firm Lookout found more than 170 Android apps advertising cloud mining in which no mining took place. More than 93,000 people paid for the apps and their in-app “upgrades”, losing at least $350,000; 25 of the apps had been on Google Play.

Fake hosting deals

Hosting means a facility runs your machine for you and charges a price per kWh. Real hosting exists for full-size machines, and so do fakes. In April 2024 the US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) charged Geosyn Mining, a Texas mining and hosting company, along with its chief executive and its then chief operating officer. The SEC alleges they raised about $5.6 million from more than 60 investors to buy and run mining machines, never bought or switched on machines for some of them, falsely claimed favorable electricity contracts, and paid out about $354,500 as “profits” from a business that appears never to have been profitable. The check that matters: your machine should hash to your pool account or your own address, so you watch its hashrate on a dashboard you control, under a worker name you chose. Also get serial numbers, a written price per kWh and the terms for getting your machine back.

Too-good ROI calculators

A seller’s ROI (return on investment) chart often freezes today’s difficulty and bitcoin price, or assumes the price rises. It may pair the “up to” hashrate with the lowest power mode, use an electricity price without the delivery charges on your bill, leave out pool fees, taxes, shipping and wiring, and skip the next halving at block 1,050,000 (expected around early-to-mid 2028), which cuts the new-coin reward in half.

Run the honest version. Canaan’s spec sheet lists the Avalon Q at 90 TH/s and 1,674 W at full power. At November 2026 numbers it earns about $2.99 a day and uses about 40 kWh. At a cheap 7 cents per kWh that electricity costs $2.81, leaving about $0.18 a day before pool fees. Each $1,000 of purchase price would take about fifteen years to earn back, and the 2028 halving halves the revenue long before that. At the US average of 18.2 cents, the same machine loses about $4.30 a day. The profitability lesson gives the break-even formula. These earnings already include transaction fees, which make up less than 1% of miners’ revenue today (see fees and the security budget). For hardware that never ships, see where to buy safely in the ASIC lesson.

The honest version for an Avalon Q at full power, 90 TH/s and 1,674 W, at November 2026 numbers. It earns about $2.99 a day before pool fees. Its electricity, about 40 kWh a day at a cheap 7 cents per kWh, costs $2.81, leaving about $0.18 a day. At that rate each $1,000 of purchase price takes about 15 years to earn back, if nothing changed. The halving, expected in early-to-mid 2028, comes long before that: it halves what the machine earns to about $1.50 a day, less than its $2.81 of electricity, so after it nothing is left over to pay the machine back. At the US average of 18.2 cents per kWh, the same machine loses about $4.30 a day. — **Run the honest version before you buy.** On cheap 7-cent power, an Avalon Q at full power keeps about $0.18 a day, so each $1,000 would take about 15 years to earn back. The 2028 halving halves its revenue long before that.

Key Takeaways

Home mining in 2026 means small devices, from a Bitaxe drawing under 20 W for about 1.2 TH/s to Canaan’s Avalon Q at up to 90 TH/s.
Only full-size machines need a 240 V circuit. For any miner, divide watts by volts and keep the amps under 80% of the breaker.
Solo mining is a lottery: a Bitaxe has about a 1 in 16,400 chance of a block per year (November 2026). Wins are real and rare, and every block is a fresh draw.
Mining heat beats a plain electric heater in winter; a heat pump makes heat far more cheaply.
Before buying, compare your all-in electricity price with the machine’s break-even price. Pay for hardware you hold, never for promised income, and mine to your own address.

Check Your Understanding

1. Your Bitaxe’s “best difficulty” has climbed all week. Are you closer to finding a block?

Answer

No. Every hash is an independent guess, so your chance at the next block is the same as on the first day: for a 1.2 TH/s device, about 1 in 6 million per day at November 2026 hashrate. Best difficulty records your best near miss. A block needs a hash at the network’s difficulty, about 148 trillion, and near misses don’t add up toward it.

2. Your electricity costs 18.2 cents per kWh. Is an 800 W miner cheaper heat than an 800 W electric heater? Than a heat pump?

Answer

Cheaper than the electric heater: both turn 19.2 kWh a day into the same heat, but the miner earns about $1.25 back, so its heat costs about 11.7 cents per kWh instead of 18.2. More expensive than a heat pump, which gives about four units of heat per unit of electricity and makes the same heat for under $1 a day, against the miner’s net $2.25.

3. A website offers “90 TH/s for 12 months, $1,200, guaranteed $8 a day.” What is wrong with it?

Answer

At November 2026 numbers, 90 TH/s earns about $3 a day before electricity and fees, so $8 a day is well over twice what that hashrate can produce. Real mining income changes daily, so it cannot be guaranteed, and a return above what the machines earn has to be paid from somewhere, usually new customers’ money: the pattern of a Ponzi scheme.