What are Mining Pools?

A mining pool is a joint group of cryptocurrency miners who combine their computational resources over a network to strengthen the probability of finding a block or otherwise successfully mining for cryptocurrency.

Individually, participants in a mining pool contribute their processing power toward the effort of finding a block. If the pool is successful in these efforts, they receive a reward, typically in the form of the associated cryptocurrency.

Rewards are usually divided between the individuals who contributed, according to the proportion of each individual's processing power or work relative to the whole group. In some cases, individual miners must show proof of work in order to receive their rewards.

While success in individual mining grants complete ownership of the reward, the odds of achieving success is very low because of high power and resource requirements. Mining is often not a profitable venture for individuals. Many cryptocurrencies have become increasingly difficult to mine in recent years as the popularity of these digital currencies has grown and the costs associated with expensive hardware necessary to be a competitive miner as well as electricity oftentimes outweigh the potential rewards.

Mining pools require less of each individual participant in terms of hardware and electricity costs and increase the chances of profitability. Whereas an individual miner might stand little chance of successfully finding a block and receiving a mining reward, teaming up with others dramatically improves the success rate.