Behind The ‘bitcoin Lottery’ Myth: Nicehash Clarifies Untagged Btc
Untagged Bitcoin blocks sparked solo-miner speculation before NiceHash confirmed they were mined during internal testing, highlighting limits of onchain attribution.
Social media buzzed this week after Bitcoin blocks 932129 and 932167 were mined without an immediately visible pool tag, prompting speculation that a solo miner had struck it rich, a familiar “Bitcoin lottery” narrative that briefly captured the market’s attention.
The excitement, however, had less to do with the blocks themselves than with what their apparent mislabeling revealed about how Bitcoin mining attribution works. It also revealed how quickly assumptions can take hold.
Amid the speculation, NiceHash emerged as the miner behind both blocks. NiceHash operates a hashrate marketplace that connects miners with buyers of computing power, rather than running a traditional mining pool.
Because the blocks initially appeared untagged on mempool explorers, many observers assumed they had been mined independently by a solo miner. In reality, both blocks were mined by NiceHash as part of internal testing for a forthcoming product, the company confirmed.
In exclusive comments to Cointelegraph, Sasa Coh, CEO of NiceHash AG, said the misunderstanding stemmed from how block metadata was displayed rather than from any attempt to obscure attribution.
“The misconception here is only that the blocks were not labeled by mempool, though they were tagged with NiceHashMining,” Coh said. “We did not want to stir up any speculation.”
Coh confirmed that the blocks were mined during internal testing tied to a new product, though he declined to share technical details ahead of its launch.
“We cannot disclose any details yet, but we are working on a new set of products that are going to provide a full suite of functionalities on top of the existing marketplace,” he said.
Block tags are metadata, not protocol guarantees. When a familiar tag doesn’t appear, the market can quickly jump to incorrect conclusions. This episode underscores how much Bitcoin narrative formation still depends on assumptions rather than verifiable onchain signals.
Source: CoinTelegraph
