Mining is one way to acquire Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency. To avoid inflation caused by a rapid increase in circulation
, the total supply of Bitcoin is predetermined. Miners must contribute to the network—such as by verifying transaction records using their own computers—to obtain a limited amount of Bitcoin, and they receive Bitcoin as a reward for this contribution.
While anyone can perform this mining work using a personal computer, the amount of work that can be done alone is limited, resulting in very few Bitcoins being obtained.
Therefore, groups called mining pools are organized to mine more efficiently.
By organizing into a group, members can utilize many high-performance computers, which results in a greater quantity of Bitcoin being obtained. While
some mining pools are organized by friends or acquaintances working together, most are led by companies.
Miners register with a company, receive specialized software, and run that software on their own PCs to perform mining.
Rewards from mining are sometimes split among participants, or paid out based on the amount of work contributed.
