As more people – miners – join the search, their collective efforts enable them to swift through the haystack faster, finding the needle – the number – quicker than the intended time interval set by the blockchain. To maintain the fixed speed of finding the needle, the blockchain decreases the size of the needle, making the hunt more challenging. In Bitcoin, this is known as the “difficulty adjustment.”
Ultimately, just as the individual that can search faster has a better chance of finding the hidden needle first, a miner with more advanced computers has a better chance of finding the winning number. And the reward for being first is the right to add a new block of transactions to the blockchain and earn newly minted tokens (i.e., bitcoin) and transaction fees.
Do not forget about the nodes, who are the referees of the Bitcoin network. Nodes verify the solution proposed by miners and ensure that the rules of the search are followed. Once the nodes agree, a new block is added to the blockchain.
In this digital search, miners and nodes work together to maintain the decentralized, secure, and fair nature of the Bitcoin network. The collective efforts of these participants keep the Bitcoin network running.
Nodes are individual computers connected to the Bitcoin network. They hold a complete copy of the Bitcoin blockchain and ensure that the blocks propagated by miners adhere to the network's rules. While running a node might not offer a direct financial incentive, it enhances user privacy, supports overall network decentralization, and provides a system of checks and balances.
Thanks to its innovative solution to the Byzantine Generals Problem, Bitcoin experienced a meteoric rise to success. This innovation sparked a wave of developers to propose alternative consensus mechanisms with the promise of being better. One such contender that emerged was PoS. This new entrant claims to offer a more efficient, secure, and sustainable solution, sparking an intense debate between PoW and PoS supporters.