What is crypto mining?
What is crypto mining?
Cryptocurrency mining describes the process whereby Bitcoin, or similar coins like Ethereum, Tether, or Dogecoin, are given to users as a reward for solving computational puzzles to verify and validate ‘blocks’ of transactions.
These are then added to a blockchain, helping to increase its value through clean, valid transactions, with miners rewarded for doing so with cryptocurrency.
As a decentralized network and form of currency, the lack of banks and infrastructure to authenticate transactions and exchanges means that mining is essential to the functioning and value of any cryptocurrency.
So clampdowns by state authorities on the activity – especially in countries where lots of mining takes place – will cause drops in the price and value of Bitcoin.
Additional reporting by Reuters journalists Tom Wilson, Kevin Buckland, and Julien Ponthus