Mining

Mining is the process of using computational work to validate transactions and add new blocks to a proof-of-work blockchain. Miners are rewarded with newly issued coins and transaction fees for the work they contribute.

How it works

Miners assemble pending transactions into a candidate block and repeatedly hash it, searching for a result that meets the network’s difficulty target. Because each attempt is essentially a guess, success requires large amounts of computing power and electricity. The first miner to find a valid block broadcasts it, the network verifies it, and that miner collects the block reward.

Why it matters

Mining is what secures a proof-of-work network and distributes new supply without a central issuer. Its energy use is the main point of debate, and on the largest networks the cost of equipment has pushed mining toward specialised ASIC hardware and large pools.

Example

Bitcoin miners run warehouses of ASIC machines, while networks designed to resist ASICs aim to keep mining accessible to ordinary hardware.