The way Bitcoin (and others) mining works is this: Nobody mines on their own, unless they are running a server farm of mining gear. It would take too long to m

The way Bitcoin (and others) mining works is this: Nobody mines on their own, unless they are running a server farm of mining gear. It would take too long to make a profit, and you might not ever find a block by yourself, depending on your hashing power and luck. Finding blocks are what generate coins. People combine their hashing power and mine in pools, that's what Ghash.io and BTCGuild are. These pools take all the profits and divide it up to all its members based on how many shares they submitted to find that block (basically, their mining power). Pools allow a more or less consistent payout for their miners instead of mining forever and getting nothing then once in a while getting a big windfall. These pools are run by an operator usually anonymous. These pools sometimes (usually) take a small fee, and some people donate as well to keep the pool running. Pools are subject to DDoS and other attacks as well often.