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. 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.

Anyone who wants to make a profit through cryptocurrency mining has the choice to either go solo with their own dedicated devices or to join a mining pool where multiple miners and their devices combine to enhance their hashing output. For example, attaching six mining devices that each offers 335 megahashes per second (MH/s) can generate a cumulative 2 gigahashes of mining power, thereby leading to faster processing of the hash function.