Mining refers to the process of creating blocks of transactions that are added to the Ethereum blockchain.
This process uses PoW Proof of work which is also used by Bitcoin. This is an consensus mechanism also known as consensus protocols or consensus algorithms which allows distributed systems to work together and stay secure.
Mining is the “lifeblood” of proof of work.
Miners uses running softwares. They use their time and power to compute and process the transactions and also to produce blocks.
Miners are decentralized systems. All of them needs to agree on the order of transactions. This happens by solving hard puzzles in order to produce blocks , securing the network from attackers.
Do you wonder if you can become a miner ? Well technically anyone be a miner as long as you have a computer . hence not all miners can mine profitably. Because they have to purchase first a dedicated computer hardware in order to do so.
How to mine the Ethereum?
First , a user has to write and sign a transaction request with private key
Second, The user has to broadcast the transaction request to the whole network from some node ( is a computer connected to a cryptocurrency network and can execute certain functions like creating, receiving or sending information.
Third, after seeing the new transaction, each node adds the request to their respective pool.
Fourth , according to Ethereum .org , “ a mining node aggregates several dozen or hundred transaction requests into a potential block , in a way that maximizes the fees they earn while still staying under the block gas limit. The mining node then:
- Verifies the validity of each transaction request (i.e. no one is trying to transfer ether out of an account they haven’t produced a signature for, the request is not malformed, etc.), and then executes the code of the request, altering the state of their local copy of the EVM. The miner awards the transaction fee for each such transaction request to their own account.
- If all transactions requests are verified , Proof of work “certificate of legitimacy” starts for the potential block.
Fifth, after finishing the certificate for block, the miner will broadcast that it is already completed and this then will include the certificate and a checksum of the claimed new EVM state.
Sixth, Node will remove all transactions in a new block that has unfulfilled transaction requests.
Note: Verifying and trusting is two different things, choose the former.
