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Is it necessary to run a "full node" including port forwarding in order to solo mine Bitcoin without any involvement of a pool? I see that pools are offering solo mining as an option, but why would I trust them to not take my 25 BTC? I am willing to free up 30GB for the blockchain data on my hard drive.

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  • "but why would I trust them to not take my 25 BTC" what do you mean by this? Any way you can clarify further?
    – Charles S
    Dec 18, 2015 at 17:01
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    @CharlesS He means the pool operator can steal his 25 BTC reward, I guess.
    – Jannes
    Dec 19, 2015 at 0:00
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    if the pool is located in a foreign country then there is no transparency, no accountability, and no guarantee of justice if the pool steals coins
    – bitcoy
    Dec 19, 2015 at 1:45
  • Yeah the whole concept of solo mining with a pool seems strange to me. Why would I solo mine with a pool when I could pool mine with a pool? Isn't the whole point of solo mining to actually mine solo, as in not with a pool? That way you avoid the pool fee and guarantee the reward will be all yours and there will be no middle man holding something extra back. Trying to solo mine with a pool almost sounds like trying to pool mine with a solo, it's almost a contradiction of terms. It's like trying to get married in order to remain single so you can enjoy both of your singleness times two.
    – still_dreaming_1
    Nov 15, 2020 at 6:01

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Are you aware how much hashing power you need to stand a chance to solo mine? In case you don't the rest of the answer is moot and you'll need to study the topic of mining some more.

Yes you'll need a full node. You don't necessarily need port-forwarding though. Full node means you validate the full blockchain and has nothing to do with network connectivity.

A full node is more like 60GB disk space at the moment and will likely be >100GB within a year.

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  • Yes I do understand but the amount of money that a miner can earn in a pool is extremely small without $2000 hardware, so really for the hobbyist the days of mining with the intent of playing the game the usual way are over; therefore what is left is treating mining like a smalltime lottery.
    – bitcoy
    Dec 19, 2015 at 1:43
  • That's one way to do it. Have you calculated your odds?
    – Jannes
    Dec 19, 2015 at 3:57
  • No I expect the odds are terrible. but with 10 GH/s hashing ability I can only earn from a pool 50 cents per month anyway.
    – bitcoy
    Dec 19, 2015 at 17:34
  • I don't understand why do you need full node. Miner only needs info from mempool and last block hash. Isn't that? Why can't miners just ask other nodes this information? Yeah you need to validate UTXOs but why it's not possible to just ask other nodes for them?
    – Marat Mkhitaryan
    Mar 31, 2021 at 4:03
  • How do you suggest they check that both that previous block hash and those transactions are valid? It's either "validate" or "ask somewhere else". Those are not the same thing.
    – Jannes
    Mar 31, 2021 at 7:27

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