In Crypto
Mining is the process to determine the validity of the block, while creating new blocks, transactions are verified, then added to the blockchain and to the Full Node and Super Node (Same thing basically)
It is done by miners, they get incentives such as a portion like e.g. 100 Tesco coins. Problem is, many miners compete for the same reward, it creates a race to solve complex problems.
To prevent inflation and maintain value, crypto like BTC have built-in difficulty adjustment. BTC are mined every 10 minutes or so, if blocks were added too quickly, the supply would flood the market and the demand would be lowered, reducing the value.
Miners compete to solve very difficult mathematical puzzles, the first to solve can commit their block and claim the reward, but these puzzles require extreme computing power and consume tons of electricity, making mining highly resource-intensive. It is extremely difficult for an ordinary person.
That’s why this process cannot be done by every user unless you’ve got that infrastructure and specialised hardware..
BTC electricity requirement and infrastructure requires around 160 terawatt-hours annually far too much.
There are many countries like Argentina that consume less power as a country than this!
Only one lucky miner will get to push the block and get the reward, the others can check if they’ve done the correct thing or not
V Cheeky lecturer sketch of how it goes
Simple: each miner is given a puzzle, they have to solve it, first to do it gets the reward!