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The purpose of bitcoin mining is not to "find coins," although the mining reward might make it seem like that. The purpose is to provide enough hashing power t
by illumin8 9y ago
The purpose of bitcoin mining is not to "find coins," although the mining reward might make it seem like that. The purpose is to provide enough hashing power to the network to cryptographically verify transactions using a consensus algorithm, which prevents any single actor from double-spending. Without enormous hashing power, the network would be vulnerable to a 51% attack by a sophisticated attacker.
This is not to say that proof of work is the best consensus algorithm, but given it's age, the fact that Bitcoin has stood up so well to the test of time is a testament to it's viability as a consensus protocol.