Crypto Tip: Is joining a Mining Pool Worth it?

The short answer to this is: Yes.

Here's why.

Cryptocurrency mining is competitive. There are thousands of miners contributing to various high-value networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Their bottom lines are simple: earn coin rewards.

Therefore, as the law of supply and demand dictates, the more valuable a currency is, the more attractive it is to investors, traders, and miners.

Because of this, it is not practical to mine solo. Fact is, you won't even come close to mining a single block, say in Bitcoin.

As such, miners are first advised to pre-order their mining gear—they are very scarce and expensive—set up, and after that, join a mining pool. Miners "pool" their computing power through a mining pool, channeling them to the network, bringing down production costs. In addition, when miners pool their resources, they increase the odds of mining a block and getting rewarded with the network's currency.

This way, although profits are distributed to pool participants, the cost of mining an individual block is much lower—as aforementioned, making mining through a pool reasonable.

Still, a miner would consider several factors when selecting a mining pool. One of them has to be applicable fees, rewards distribution styles, and the pool's hash rate share.