Photo by Icons8 Team on UnsplashJack gives Mike a 20 dollar note — it can be a duplicate or counterfeit — not a possibility in Bitcoin transaction; first, because it is totally online; second, the transaction history is shared in the form of “blocks” with a lot of ledgers (in plain words: account books) distributed across the internet as chains, hence termed as blockchain. Someone breaking into a single ledger and counterfeiting Bitcoin is out of the question — all ledgers are redundant and will be automatically updated with all transaction records — it’s like syncing your phone contacts to the cloud, except that you cannot delete any number.Why I’m talking about Bitcoin transaction? Well, Bitcoin miners are the one who provides redundancy and security to those transactions in the blockchain, and in the process gets rewarded with new Bitcoins. I’ll tell you how.All transaction records are stacked as blocks to be kept secured and redundant. The process of stacking blocks requires solving a complex mathematical problem as programmed by the inventor. A miner takes the job of solving that math problem using powerful computers, which makes the transactions secured, and in the process, new Bitcoins are generated as winnings.Random Hashes (Image by Sabrina Jiang © Investopedia 2021)Miners generate “hash” — a 64-digit hexadecimal number — as a key to make a block. By “generate,” I actually mean: “guess.” It’s a guessing game for miners. Who will solve the math problem first depends on how fast they can generate hash; thus, increasing their probability of guessing the correct numbers. Therefore, the miner with the highest “hash rate” is higher up in the game.Higher hash rate doesn’t come cheap. It requires a lot of computing power. In the early days, it was possible to generate Bitcoins with personal computers. Then, miners…