Bitcoin Mining is a necessary process that drives the Bitcoin Network. It was previously possible to mine bitcoins using a high end GPU or CPU, but with the creation of SHA-256 ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) this has changed. At this point, only state-of-the-art ASICs are capable of mining bitcoins efficiently.

Mining itself is a complicated process Can holding companies Invest In Bitcoin which these machines attempt to provide the solution to a constantly changing cryptographic problem. The answer to this problem is changed by every transaction that is made on the Bitcoin network. It is nearly impossible to truly "solve" the problem efficiently, thus the machines attempt billions, or trillions, of solutions each second until a correct solution is found. Once this solution is found, it is easy to prove that it is correct, even if finding the solution itself was difficult.

The point of this is to provide security for the Bitcoin Network, while also processing transactions, and recording them on the blockchain. The blockchain is a public ledger which contains the origin of every bitcoin that has ever been created, as well as every transaction that has ever happened.

The creation of the blockchain, and the Bitcoin mining process, solved a decades old networking problem known as "the Byzantine General's Problem"