Can a Mining Pool Itself Rent Hashrate to Increase Its Share?

Yes, a mining pool can rent hashrate, but typically not to increase its share of the existing pool. A pool operator could rent external hashrate to increase the pool's overall size and therefore its probability of finding a block.

However, this is more common in the context of a pool temporarily directing its own combined hashrate, or renting external hashrate, toward a different, more profitable coin, often facilitated by a rental market platform.

What Is the ‘Rent-Seeking’ Behavior Often Associated with PoW Mining?
What Is the Difference between an Oracle Exploit and General Market Manipulation in DeFi?
How Does the Size of a Block Affect the Probability of It Becoming Stale?
What Is the Difference between “Virtual Size” and “Actual Size” of a Transaction?
What Is the ‘Block Size’ Debate in PoW?
What Is the Purpose of a “Kill Switch” or Circuit Breaker in an Automated Quoting System?
How Does a Mining Pool Divide the Work of Finding a Valid Nonce?
Why Is the Probability of a Single Share Being a Valid Block Extremely Low?

Glossar