Blockchain Mining Benefits Beyond the Cryptocurrency Spectrum

Mining is an integral part of the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology narrative. However, the process of discovering, validating, and adding new blocks (mining) to the chain has the potential to do more than increasing the money supply of a particular cryptocurrency.

Moving Past Cryptocurrency Mining

Apart from being responsible for creating new tokens in a cryptocurrency blockchain that utilizes proof-of-work (PoW), mining also serves to protect the network. It is this function that is perhaps even most relevant for any examination of the positive elements of the mining process for distributed ledger technology (DLT) framework.

Essentially, miners act as gatekeepers to help keep the blockchain running smoothly. On the blockchain, all transactions are linked to one another through blocks. As another transaction, or block, is added, the chain lengthens.

To mine on the blockchain, users who lend their computing power (called miners) are presented with a puzzle to solve. Once…