Mining is the process of verifying and adding transaction records to a public ledger, commonly referred to as the blockchain. Mining requires miners to solve complex mathematical puzzles in order to create a new block of data onto the ledger. When a block is successfully mined, the miner is rewarded with cryptocurrency or a fraction of the total transaction fees for that block. The complexity of the puzzles increases as more blocks are mined, which means more computing power is needed to produce new blocks. As an incentive, miners are rewarded for their efforts by receiving newly minted cryptocurrency, which also helps in compensating them for their contribution to the network’s security.