The global race
Specialized machines test hundreds of quintillions of hashes per second, worldwide.
Step 7 of 143 min readUpdated October 5, 2026
Machines built for one task#
Today’s mining is done by machines called ASICs, built to compute SHA-256d and nothing else. A single recent machine computes around 200 trillion hashes per second (200 TH/s). The network’s total is equivalent to several million of them, running in data centres around the world, each trying nonces on its own candidate block.
Orders of magnitude#
The chances below are computed with the difficulty of block 969,985 and the same formulas the app uses. The network figure is the three-day average on 5 October 2026.
| Who | Hashrate | Chance of a block per day | Average wait for one block |
|---|---|---|---|
| A browser (Mini Miner, Max) | 1.38 MH/s | 1 in 4.8 trillion | 13.1 billion years |
| Industrial ASIC farm (100 TH/s) | 100 TH/s | 1 in 65,974 | 181 years |
| One mining machine | 200 TH/s | 1 in 32,987 | 90 years |
| The whole network | 946.5 EH/s | 100% | 10 minutes |
The whole network finds a block every ten minutes, by construction. A browser would need, on average, billions of years. Both numbers are true at the same time.
Every hash is a fresh draw#
Mining has no progress bar. Ten minutes of hashing do not bring you closer to a block than the first second did: each hash is an independent draw with the same tiny chance. Your share of the wins is simply your share of the total hashrate.
Pools, and solo mining#
Most miners join a pool: everyone works on the pool’s blocks and the rewards are shared in proportion to the work done, which smooths income. Mini Miner uses a solo pool: the pool only coordinates; whoever finds a block receives the reward, minus the pool’s fee, and nobody else is paid.
Technical details
Pools measure each participant’s work with shares: hashes below an easier target set by the pool. They prove effort without being valid blocks. Mini Miner counts them to measure the work your browser sends to the pool; in solo mode they earn nothing by themselves.