How do thousands of untrusted computers reach agreement on who gets to write the next page of transactions?
The answer is Proof of Work (PoW).
🎲 The Guessing Game
Miners compete to solve a computational puzzle. They take transaction data, add a random number called a Nonce, and hash it. They must find a hash result that starts with a specified number of leading zeros (below a target value).
Finding the answer requires trillions of random guesses per second. But once found, anyone can instantly verify it!
🧠 Today's Key Takeaway
- Proof of Work requires energy and computational effort to secure the network.
- It is hard to solve, but trivial for anyone to verify instantly.
