# 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. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://alpha-miner.gitbook.io/alpha-miner-or-or-product-docs/introduction/introduction.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.