Bitcoin mining is the process of verifying and adding new transactions to the Bitcoin blockchain, which is the decentralized ledger that records all Bitcoin transactions. Miners are responsible for verifying these transactions by solving complex mathematical problems, which requires a significant amount of computational power.
The first miner to solve the problem and verify the transaction is rewarded with newly-created bitcoins as well as transaction fees. The difficulty of the mathematical problems is adjusted automatically by the network every 2016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks, to ensure that the average time to mine a block remains around 10 minutes.
Bitcoin mining requires specialized hardware called ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) that are designed to solve the specific mathematical problems required for mining. These machines are highly energy-intensive and require a significant amount of electricity to operate.
Mining can be done either solo or in pools, where multiple miners combine their computing power to increase their chances of finding a block and receiving the associated rewards. As more miners join the network, the difficulty of the problems increases, making it more difficult and expensive to mine Bitcoin.