What is mining, and how does it relate to cryptocurrency?

Mining is the process of validating transactions and adding them to a blockchain. In a cryptocurrency network, mining is used to process transactions and add them to the public ledger (blockchain). This is done by verifying the transaction information and group these into blocks, which are then added to the chain. As a reward for their work, miners get a small portion of the transaction fees associated with the block that they successfully mined. This helps to secure the network, create new coins, and incentivize miners to remain active in the mining process.