Bitcoin - Mining

Mining The process of performing mathematical calculations to confirm transactions on the Bitcoin network. Through mining, new bitcoins can be created at the same time as transactions are confirmed. In the traditional economic system, states and governments can print bitcoins at will. This does not happen in Bitcoin for two reasons: There is a limit of 21 million coins and this amount cannot be changed. The number of coins released as a reward for work done is limited in the software and decreases by half every 210,000 blocks by a process called halving. Until the 21 million bitcoins are completely issued (around the year 2140) new coins are put into circulation every 10 minutes. These coins are obtained by the miners as compensation for their work. The miners in turn generate and validate the blocks that make up the large ledger that is the blockchain network. If we think of gold mining, this consists of removing earth with heavy machines to obtain gold in sufficient quantity to pay the exploitation costs and obtain profit. The same thing happens in bitcoin mining, except that the machinery is complex computer equipment that performs computational calculations and as compensation they get two incentives:

1. New bitcoins that are put into circulation.
2. Transaction fees

The bitcoin mining process is always the same, the miners receive a new mathematical problem every ten minutes and the fastest to solve it gets the new coins that are put into circulation. This mathematical problem is based on random calculations that aim to find the solution and thus obtain the validation of the block. Whoever deciphers this will get the reward, as long as the rest of the members of the network confirm that the answer is correct.

Because cryptocurrencies are a decentralized system, we need a system that allows us to check all the operations performed. This is important to prevent someone from being able to use the same amount of bitcoins more than once or being able to introduce counterfeit coins into the market. The mission of mining is basically to certify that no one uses the coins twice and that no one can introduce fake bitcoins into the market.

Thus, the miners review the transactions and gather the last transactions created in a group called a block. The set of blocks could be compared to the set of pages of a ledger, which certifies all the movements and the balance of the users.