A miner is a person or a machine that helps a blockchain run by checking transactions and adding them to the ledger. Miners collect recent transactions into a block, check that those transactions follow the rules of the network, and then add the block to the chain when their work is accepted. This process keeps the ledger accurate and shared among everyone on the network.
Miners act as both validators and record keepers. They make sure each transaction is genuine, for example, that one wallet is not trying to spend the same funds twice. By confirming transactions and creating new blocks, miners help prevent fraud and keep the shared history of transactions in order.
Mining usually means using computing power to solve a hard puzzle set by the network. When a miner finds a valid solution, the new block is accepted and added to the blockchain. Different blockchains use different rules for this step. Many proof-of-work blockchains use these puzzles to decide who gets to add the next block. The difficulty of the puzzle changes so that blocks appear at a roughly steady rate.
People mine with a range of equipment. Some use ordinary computer processors, while others turn to graphics cards or special machines built just for mining. These special machines are faster and use less power for the same work, so they are common in large-scale operations. Running several machines together in one place or joining with other miners raises the chance of earning rewards. (Ledger)
Because the chance of winning a block can be small for a single miner, many miners join pools. In a pool, members combine their computing power and share any reward that the pool wins. This makes payouts smaller but more regular, compared with waiting to win a whole block alone. Pools use different methods to split rewards, usually based on how much work each member contributed.
Miners are compensated for their work by receiving newly created coins and sometimes transaction fees from the block they add. The total reward and the market price of the coin affect whether mining is profitable. At the same time, miners must pay for electricity, hardware, and other running costs, so income can vary a lot between operations. Tools exist that help miners estimate possible profits based on these factors.
Mining helps secure many blockchains because finding a bad block requires a lot of work, which would be costly to carry out. When many miners participate, it becomes harder for any single actor to change the transaction history. At the same time, mining can concentrate in regions or among groups that can afford powerful equipment, and that concentration changes how control is distributed across the network.
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