What is Bitcoin Mining?

Title: What is Bitcoin Mining?

Description: Millions of computers run around the clock to keep Bitcoin alive — and nobody’s sending them a paycheck. So what’s actually going on?

Turns out there’s a puzzle, a lottery, and a jackpot that pays out every ten minutes, somewhere in the world. Miners compete to solve a cryptographic challenge, and the winner gets to add the next block to the blockchain and collect the reward. It’s called proof of work — and it’s the engine that keeps the whole network honest and decentralized.

I broke it all down in plain English — including how mining difficulty adjusts, what the halving means, and what happens when the rewards finally run out in 2140. No jargon. No hype. No financial advice.