Mining - what does a miner actually do?

First, the miner needs a block to propose

Transactions sent by users are waiting on the network.

The miner selects transactions, places them in a block, and connects that block to the history it knows about.

Now it has a candidate block.

The block is not yet part of accepted history.

The miner first has to find a result that satisfies the Proof-of-Work requirement.

Mining hardware tries again and again

The hardware takes information from the block and calculates a Hash.

No success?

Change a small value and try again.

And again.

And again.

Mining hardware can make an enormous number of attempts every second.

The more attempts the hardware can make, the greater its chance of finding a valid result.

That rate is the miner’s Hashrate.

When a miner succeeds, it publishes the block

If one attempt meets the network’s required Target, the miner has found a block.

It sends that block to other computers on the network.

Nodes check for themselves:

Is the Proof of Work valid?

Is the block structure valid?

Do the transactions follow the rules?

If something is wrong, they can reject it.

So:

The miner finds and proposes.

Nodes verify.

Why do people mine?

Producing Proof of Work costs money.

It requires hardware.

It requires electricity.

It also requires cooling, connectivity, and maintenance.

To give participants a reason to perform that work, a block that satisfies the rules can earn a reward.

That reward can include:

New coins created according to the protocol rules

and

Fees from transactions included in the block.

A miner is not rewarded simply for consuming electricity.

Its block has to satisfy the relevant rules.

An ordinary computer is not the same thing as competitive mining hardware

A Node can be run on relatively ordinary computer hardware to verify the network.

Mining is a different job.

Today, networks such as Bitcoin and Kaspa are mainly mined using specialized hardware designed to perform the mining calculations very efficiently.

That hardware is called an ASIC.

So it is important to separate the roles:

Node - verifies the network.

Miner - performs the computational search.

A mining setup may also run a Node, but the two roles are not the same.

A miner can mine alone

In Solo Mining, the miner works for itself.

If its hardware finds a result that meets the network requirement and the block is accepted under the rules, the reward belongs to that miner.

But a miner with a very small share of the network’s total computing power may wait a long time between successes.

Every attempt still has a chance.

The miner simply has fewer attempts compared with all the attempts happening across the network.

That makes short-term results unpredictable.

Or miners can work together in a Mining Pool

In a Mining Pool, many miners combine their work.

The pool measures how much work each miner contributes, and when the group finds blocks, rewards are distributed according to the pool’s payment rules.

That means a small miner does not have to wait until its own machine personally finds an entire block before receiving anything.

Instead of rare large wins, the miner can receive smaller, more frequent payments.

A pool does not make the mining machine more powerful.

It mainly spreads uncertainty across many miners.

In return, the pool may charge a fee and introduces some dependence on the pool operator.

How does the pool know how much work each miner contributed?

The pool cannot wait for every miner to find a real network block. For a small miner that could take a very long time.

So the pool gives miners an easier target than the real network target.

Whenever a miner finds a result that satisfies this easier target, it sends the result to the pool.

That result is called a Share.

A simple way to think about it:

“A small proof that the miner really did work.”

A Share is not added to the Blockchain or BlockDAG, and it is not a new network block.

Occasionally, one miner’s attempt will be good enough to satisfy the much harder network requirement too.

Then the pool has actually found a real block.

Why does block rate change the experience of Solo Mining?

A small miner can use Solo Mining on both Bitcoin and Kaspa.

It does not have to join a pool.

The difference is how many block-finding events happen over time.

Bitcoin creates roughly 144 blocks per day.

Kaspa, at 10 BPS, creates roughly 864,000 blocks per day.

For illustration only, imagine a miner has one millionth of the network’s total effective mining power.

In a simple model:

On Bitcoin, that share corresponds to roughly 0.000144 finds per day - about one block every 19 years on average.

On Kaspa, the same relative share corresponds to roughly 0.864 finds per day - about one block every 1.2 days on average.

A real miner will not receive rewards on an exact schedule like this.

It may get lucky much earlier or wait much longer.

And the comparison does not mean the same hardware or the same budget buys the same share of Bitcoin and Kaspa mining power.

It only illustrates the difference in the frequency of block-finding events.

More block events do not automatically mean more profit

If a miner owns a certain share of the network’s total computing power, a higher block rate does not make that share larger.

Instead of thinking “a larger pie”, think more, smaller reward events over time.

Real profitability still depends on things such as:

Electricity price, hardware efficiency, relative Hashrate, block rewards, fees, and operating costs.

So:

More chances to find a block ≠ automatically more money.

But for a small Solo miner, more block events can make the waiting time between successes less extreme.

What should you take from this page?

Proof of Work is the competition.

Mining is the practical act of taking part in that competition.

A miner prepares a candidate block, runs hardware that repeatedly tries Hashes, and publishes a block when it finds a valid result.

Nodes still verify it.

A miner can work alone or through a Pool.

A Pool mainly spreads uncertainty across many miners.

And Kaspa’s high block rate can make Solo Mining less extreme in terms of waiting time between successes - without guaranteeing greater profitability.