When someone sends Bitcoin, the transaction is verified and then stored on the blockchain (the shared database). The information on the blockchain is encrypted — everyone can see it but only the owner of each Bitcoin can decrypt it. Each owner of Bitcoin is given a ‘private key’, and this private key is how they decrypt their Bitcoin. But, if the banks don’t verify/process the transactions, then who does ? Remember when I told you that blockchains are run by lots of different people and companies instead of one single company/person? Well, the people and companies that run the blockchain do it using computer power. They run special software on a computer that process transactions on the blockchain.

Quick tip: The computers used to run the software are called ‘nodes’. Running this software uses a lot of electricity, though.

So, how do the people and companies running the nodes pay for their electricity bills ? Welcome to mining…The nodes are rewarded for verifying transactions — they’re rewarded with new Bitcoin. This is how new Bitcoins are created. You can compare it to gold mining, in which the miners are rewarded with Gold. In Bitcoin mining, the nodes are the miners — they mine for new Bitcoin. When a new block of transactions is sent to the blockchain, the miners/nodes will verify the block using an algorithm called PoW (Proof of Work). In PoW, the first miner to verify the block is rewarded with new coins.