Miner

A miner is a participant in a proof-of-work network who uses computing power to search for a valid block, competing to add the next block and earn newly issued coins plus transaction fees. The work involves repeatedly hashing block data until a result meets the networks difficulty target, which secures the chain by making it costly to rewrite history.

A common misconception is that mining “creates coins from nothing”; it follows fixed issuance rules and consumes real energy. Proof-of-stake networks use validators instead. See what miners and validators do.