⛏️Introduction

The concept of 'mining' has been a hot topic ever since the original cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, launched. Put simply, the concept of mining entails utilizing computing resources to add blocks to a 'proof-of-work' Blockchain. As 'miners' are rewarded in the respective cryptocurrency itself, mining can be a highly profitable gig, with entire companies focussed on this niche. Attracted to the profitability of mining, many companies and developers in recent years have build enterprises around the concept, greatly increasing the competition in the field and making it hard for individuals to engage in profitable mining. I.e., the resources needed are now too great for individuals to make it economically viable to mine cryptocurrency. To mitigate these problems, 'mining pools' came to existence, which essentially are groups of individuals or professional miners who combine their resources (i.e. GPU power) to make it economically viable to mine. In other words, a specialized mechanism collects and combines the computing power of a group of independent 'miners' and uses that to engage in cryptocurrency mining. This makes it possible for individuals to contribute to the blockchain and earn rewards, in proportion to the amount of computing power he or she contributes. Even though mining pools make mining a little more accessible for the common investors, most users are unable to engage in mining in an economically profitable way. As such, the need for platforms who offer these services to the regular investors has grown.