Like the prospectors during the California gold rush of 1849, today s cryptocurrency miners seek gold from them thar hills, and this time those hills just happen to be in Wyoming.
Mining for cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin, doesn t require a pickax and a gold pan. Instead, cryptocurrency miners earn Bitcoin by verifying Bitcoin transactions, such as buying and selling.
How is Bitcoin mined?
In a process conceived by Bitcoin s anonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, miners complete blocks of transactions on the
blockchain, which is an electronic ledger.
Bitcoin miners verify transactions, making sure that the same coin has not been bought or sold twice. The transactions are in 1 MB (megabyte)