Solo mining is a process where an individual miner attempts to mine cryptocurrency on their own, without joining a mining pool or collaborating with other miners. In solo mining, the miner uses their own hardware and resources to solve cryptographic puzzles and validate transactions on the blockchain network. Successful mining yields block rewards and transaction fees, which are granted exclusively to the solo miner if they are the first to solve the puzzle and create a new block.

The primary advantage of solo mining is the potential to receive the entire block reward, which can be substantial for some cryptocurrencies. However, this comes with a significant downside: the probability of successfully mining a block is considerably lower compared to mining within a pool. This is due to the high level of competition and computational power required, especially for established cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Solo mining can be more feasible for newer or less competitive cryptocurrencies with lower network difficulty. It requires substantial investment in mining equipment and electricity costs, and the variance in income can be high, with long periods of inactivity between successful block discoveries. Overall, while solo mining offers potential rewards, it also involves considerable risk and expense.