Mining and Miner

Mining is the process of validating transactions and adding new blocks to a blockchain by solving computational puzzles, and a miner is who performs this task to earn rewards.

What is Mining and Miner?

In blockchain networks, particularly those using Proof of Work (PoW) like Bitcoin, mining is the process by which nodes validate transactions and secure the network by solving complex cryptographic puzzles. Miners compete to find a nonce that, when hashed with a block’s data, produces a hash meeting specific criteria (e.g., a target number of leading zeros in Bitcoin).

Successful miners add a new block to the blockchain, including a coinbase transaction that rewards them with newly minted digital assets and transaction fees. Bitcoin mining, for instance, occurs approximately every 10 minutes, with the network’s hash rate at around 1000 EH/s (exahashes per second) as of 2025, consuming roughly 140 TWh annually, comparable to a mid-sized country’s energy use. Mining ensures network security and decentralization but is criticized for its high energy consumption and environmental impact.

A miner is an individual, group, or entity operating specialized hardware (e.g., ASICs for Bitcoin) or software to perform mining. Miners contribute computational power to validate transactions and maintain the blockchain’s integrity. In Bitcoin, miners receive a block reward, currently 3.125 BTC per block (post-2024 halving) plus variable transaction fees (e.g., ~0.244 BTC in recent blocks). Miners often join mining pools, like Foundry USA or AntPool, which control 27% and 18% of Bitcoin’s hash rate respectively in 2025, to share resources and stabilize earnings. Miners are crucial to PoW blockchains but face challenges from declining block subsidies and regulatory pressures on energy use.