How Does the Concept of “Mining Pools” Affect the Distribution of the Total Hash Rate?

Mining pools allow individual miners to combine their hash power to increase the probability of finding a block and receiving a reward. This centralization of hash power means that a few large pools often control a significant portion of the total network hash rate.

While this smooths out income for individual miners, it creates a potential centralization risk if a few pools collectively approach the 51% threshold.