With Bitcoins, the process of creating the currency is called mining. Bitcoin miners use specialized software and hardware to verify bitcoin transactions and to solve complex math problems and are compensated by a certain number of bitcoins in exchange. This is how bitcoin currency is issued and anyone can mine bitcoins. We can use mining to create or earn our own bitcoins. Presently, a successful miner is rewarded with 25 bitcoins for every new block that is created roughly for every 10 minutes. This mutually agreed value will halve after every 210,000 blocks are added to the chain.
Bitcoin mining involves verifying and adding transaction records to Bitcoin’s public ledger of past transactions or blockchain. The blockchain is used to confirm transactions as having taken place to the rest of the network.
Bitcoin nodes use the blockchain to legitimate or validate genuine Bitcoin transactions and prevent double spending of bitcoins, that is, stop re-spend of coins that have already been spent elsewhere.
Bitcoin mining is willfully designed to be resource-intensive and difficult so that the number of blocks mined each day by miners remains moderate and steady. Individual blocks are also required to contain a proof of work to be considered valid. This proof of work is verified by other Bitcoin nodes every time they receive a block. Bitcoin employs the hashcash proof-of-work function for its working.
The primary goal of mining is to facilitate Bitcoin nodes to reach a secure, tamper-proof consensus. Mining is also the mechanism used to introduce Bitcoins into the bitcoin eco system: Miners earn (if any) transaction fees as well as a “reward or bounty” of newly created bitcoins.
This both serves the purpose of distributing new coins as well as motivating people to secure the system.