Bitcoin mining is how miners add each new block of transactions to the blockchain. The reward is newly minted bitcoin plus transaction fees, and it goes to the solo miner who finds the block or to the pool that finds it. A pool then pays its members according to the shares each one generated. Simple Mining, in a page dated Nov. 26, 2025, gives the current block reward as 3.125 bitcoin (BTC).
Kaspersky's explainer describes crypto mining as the way transactions are validated and recorded on a blockchain network. In exchange for that work, it says, miners are rewarded with brand-new coins and transaction fees.
How a miner finds a hash below the target
The nonce is the block header value the hardware iterates through. Bitcoin's developer documentation says the hardware generates a hash for every possible nonce value. Simple Mining says each hash is a 64-character output of SHA-256 (Secure Hash Algorithm 256), whatever the size of the input. The target threshold is the value that a winning hash must be below. If a hash is below the target threshold, the hardware returns the block header with the successful nonce to the mining software.
From a winning hash to the network
The developer documentation describes what happens next. The mining software combines the header with the block and sends the completed block to bitcoind, which broadcasts it to the network for addition to the block chain.
Why the transaction history is hard to change
Bitcoin's developer documentation says that mining adds new blocks to the block chain, making transaction history hard to modify. A separate explainer covers how cryptocurrency transactions work, using Bitcoin.
Mining adds new blocks to the block chain, making transaction history hard to modify.
What the reward is made of
Simple Mining describes the reward as newly minted bitcoin plus transaction fees. The reward goes to whichever miner or pool solves the puzzle first.
Why the reward shrinks
Simple Mining says the halving, a programmed event, cuts block rewards in half approximately every four years, or every 210,000 blocks. The most recent halving came in April 2024. The next one, expected in 2028, is Simple Mining's expectation, not a protocol fact.
Analysis: what sets the timing of the halving
A halving comes after a set number of blocks, not on a set calendar date. Difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks to keep the average block time at 10 minutes, so the calendar timing of a halving depends on how that average holds over time. Simple Mining's 2028 date is its own expectation.
Solo mining
The developer documentation says that in solo mining, the block reward and transaction fees go entirely to the miner. That miner receives large payments with a higher variance, meaning longer time between payments.
Pool mining
The developer documentation says the pool sets its target threshold a few orders of magnitude higher, meaning less difficult, than the network difficulty. The information a miner sends the pool is called a share, because it proves the miner did a share of the work. The pool pays out a portion of the proceeds to individual miners based on how many shares they generated.
Solo or pool: what each route submits, keeps and pays
Compare the two routes on what the miner submits, who keeps the reward and how payments arrive.
| Point | Solo mining | Pool mining | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the miner submits | The completed block, sent to bitcoind | Shares that prove part of the work | Source: Mining — Bitcoin (developer.bitcoin.org), accessed Oct 19, 2026 |
| Who keeps the reward | The miner keeps the whole block reward and fees | A portion of the proceeds | Source: Mining — Bitcoin (developer.bitcoin.org), accessed Oct 19, 2026 |
| How payments arrive | Large payments with higher variance and longer gaps | Based on how many shares each miner generated | Source: Mining — Bitcoin (developer.bitcoin.org), accessed Oct 19, 2026 |
Shows only what the sources describe; it does not compare profits or pool fees.
Analysis: payment timing is the core trade-off
Solo and pool miners draw on the same block reward, but it reaches them differently. A solo miner who finds a block keeps the full reward and receives large, uneven payments. A pool miner receives a share of the proceeds from each block the pool finds. Those payments are smaller and more regular than a solo miner's.
Difficulty and hardware
Simple Mining says the network adjusts mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks, to keep the average block time at 10 minutes. It also says application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) dominate because they are orders of magnitude more efficient than earlier hardware.
What the sources leave out
The sources here give no dated current figure for network difficulty or hashrate. None gives a current figure for transaction fees or profitability, so this article gives none. One vendor page, dated Nov. 26, 2025, also covers pool fees and electricity costs, and this article does not use those figures. The developer documentation is undated. A separate explainer on mining pool payouts covers how to withdraw bitcoin to a wallet. For the full pool mechanics, read Bitcoin's developer documentation on mining.
Sources: Mining — Bitcoin (developer.bitcoin.org), accessed Oct 19, 2026 · What Is Bitcoin Mining? How It Works and How to Start in 2026 (simplemining.io), accessed Oct 19, 2026 · What is Crypto Mining & How Does it Work? (kaspersky.com), accessed Oct 19, 2026
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