SHA-256 Mining Coins — Solo Mining Calculators
The easiest SHA-256 coin to solo mine right now is Quai-SHA (QUAI) — a block roughly every 4.9 years per GH/s of solo hashrate.
Every Proof of Work coin that uses the SHA-256 algorithm, in one place. Because they share an algorithm, the same SHA-256-capable hardware can mine any of them — pick a coin to calculate your solo mining block probability, expected time-to-block and revenue with your own hashrate.
About the SHA-256 algorithm
SHA-256 is the original Bitcoin proof-of-work: a fast, double-SHA-256 hash that is not memory-hard, so raw hashing throughput is everything. It has been ASIC-only for over a decade — modern SHA-256 miners reach hundreds of terahashes per second, and no CPU or GPU is remotely competitive.
Hardware class: ASIC-dominated · Memory-hard: No
SHA-256 is the canonical home of merged mining (AuxPoW), with Bitcoin as the parent chain. Among the coins tracked here, Fractal Bitcoin (FB) merge-mines roughly a third of its blocks against Bitcoin, and outside this list chains like Namecoin, Elastos, Syscoin and Rootstock all secure themselves with Bitcoin's hashpower. A single SHA-256 ASIC pointed at a merged-mining pool does the work once but is eligible for the parent block reward plus every child chain it merge-mines, at no extra hashrate or power cost. For a solo miner this stacks your block chances: the same terahashes can find a Bitcoin block and a merged-chain block in the same instant, so weigh a coin's standalone odds against what it lets you win for free on top.
SHA-256 coins ranked by solo block chance
| Coin | Network hashrate | Block time | Block reward | Time to block (Bitmain Antminer S23 XP Hyd) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quai-SHA (QUAI) | 122.27 PH/s | 1.27s | 7.84 QUAI | 4 min |
| Unobtanium (UNO) | 7.69 PH/s | 3.0 min | — UNO | 39 min |
| DGB-SHA (DGB) | 34.31 PH/s | 1.2 min | 247.93 DGB | 71 min |
| Fractal (FB) | 129.71 PH/s | 45s | 6.25 FB | 2.7 h |
| BitcoinII (BTCII) | 16.37 PH/s | 15.9 min | 50 BTCII | 7.2 h |
| Peercoin (PPC) | 8.64 PH/s | 45.0 min | 37.61 PPC | 10.8 h |
| eCash (XEC) | 41.89 PH/s | 10.3 min | 1.8125e+06 XEC | 12.0 h |
| BitcoinCash (BCH) | 3.22 EH/s | 10.1 min | 3.13 BCH | 37.8 days |
| Bitcoin (BTC) | 1046.66 EH/s | 9.2 min | 3.14 BTC | 30.7 years |
Best SHA-256 mining hardware
The top SHA-256-capable devices ranked by energy efficiency (hashrate per watt), from the BackPoW hardware database:
The most efficient SHA-256 miner in the database is the Bitmain Antminer S23 XP Hyd — most efficient SHA-256 ASIC.
| Device | Hashrate | Power | Efficiency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitmain Antminer S23 XP Hyd (ASIC) | 600.30 TH/s | 5340 W | 112.42 GH/s per W |
| Bitdeer Sealminer A4 Ultra Hydro (ASIC) | 885.91 TH/s | 8373 W | 105.81 GH/s per W |
| Bitmain Antminer S23 Hyd (ASIC) | 578.84 TH/s | 5510 W | 105.05 GH/s per W |
| Bitmain Antminer U3S23H (ASIC) | 1.16 PH/s | 11020 W | 105.03 GH/s per W |
| Bitdeer Sealminer A4 Pro Air (ASIC) | 336.47 TH/s | 3363 W | 100.05 GH/s per W |
| Bitmain Antminer S23e Hyd 2U (ASIC) | 864.13 TH/s | 8650 W | 99.90 GH/s per W |
| Hammer Miner Thor X1 (ASIC) | 2.11 TH/s | 22 W | 95.69 GH/s per W |
| Bitdeer Sealminer A4 Pro Hydro (ASIC) | 680.61 TH/s | 7412 W | 91.83 GH/s per W |
| Bitmain Antminer S23 (ASIC) | 318.64 TH/s | 3500 W | 91.04 GH/s per W |
| Bitmain Antminer S21 XP+ Hyd (ASIC) | 499.30 TH/s | 5500 W | 90.78 GH/s per W |
SHA-256 solo mining pools
Solo pools let you keep the full block reward on SHA-256 coins, paying only a small fee. Coins with solo pools tracked on BackPoW:
- Bitcoin (BTC) solo pools — 84 pools, best fee 0%
- BitcoinCash (BCH) solo pools — 69 pools, best fee 0%
- eCash (XEC) solo pools — 29 pools, best fee 0%
- Fractal (FB) solo pools — 11 pools, best fee 0.5%
- Peercoin (PPC) solo pools — 14 pools, best fee 0.01%
- BitcoinII (BTCII) solo pools — 30 pools, best fee 0%
- Unobtanium (UNO) solo pools — 7 pools, best fee 1%
Frequently asked questions
What's the easiest SHA-256 coin to solo mine right now?
Quai-SHA (QUAI) — a block roughly every 4.9 years per GH/s of solo hashrate. This ranks SHA-256 coins by how much solo hashrate it takes to find one block, recalculated from live network difficulty on every update.
How long would a Bitmain Antminer S23 XP Hyd take to solo mine a Quai-SHA block?
About one block every 4 min on average at 600.30 TH/s, using Quai-SHA's live network hashrate. Real results are random (Poisson) around this mean.
Can I merge-mine SHA-256 coins?
SHA-256 is the canonical home of merged mining (AuxPoW), with Bitcoin as the parent chain. Among the coins tracked here, Fractal Bitcoin (FB) merge-mines roughly a third of its blocks against Bitcoin, and outside this list chains like Namecoin, Elastos, Syscoin and Rootstock all secure themselves with Bitcoin's hashpower. A single SHA-256 ASIC pointed at a merged-mining pool does the work once but is eligible for the parent block reward plus every child chain it merge-mines, at no extra hashrate or power cost. For a solo miner this stacks your block chances: the same terahashes can find a Bitcoin block and a merged-chain block in the same instant, so weigh a coin's standalone odds against what it lets you win for free on top.
Can I solo mine SHA-256 coins?
Yes. BackPoW computes the Poisson-based solo block-hit probability for every SHA-256 coin from live network hashrate, so you can see your realistic chance of finding a block.