When you buy the ability to mine cryptocurrency online, you are often signing up for a cloud mining service where you rent computing power from a company. This is different from a mining pool, which brings together multiple miners using their own hardware and collaborate to earn a mining reward. While both charge a fee, cloud mining* involves purchasing hash rate directly, while mining pools only charge a management fee. Some popular mining pools include Antpool, F2Pool, ViaBTC, and Braiins Pool. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages depending on the user’s budget and goals.