Mining is the process by which new blocks of transactions get added to the ledger. There are no transactions if nobody is mining. When a miner mines a block, t

Mining is the process by which new blocks of transactions get added to the ledger. There are no transactions if nobody is mining. When a miner mines a block, they are rewarded with the sum of all fees paid by transactions in the block, plus a subsidy, which is 50 >> height/210000. The subsidy is the process by which the available bitcoin supply is released into the market - a predictable rate which cannot be accelerated. Miners can chose to NOT claim the subsidy if they want, but would be doing so at their own loss.