From 2612342b9e04837bdd787bac9899533838ee6fe2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "David A. Harding" Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2023 17:18:49 -1000 Subject: [PATCH] CH02::mining: clarify what security miners provide re: valid txes --- ch02.asciidoc | 14 ++++++++------ 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) diff --git a/ch02.asciidoc b/ch02.asciidoc index d4f91e56..876d6e1a 100644 --- a/ch02.asciidoc +++ b/ch02.asciidoc @@ -529,12 +529,14 @@ computation to verify as correct. The mining process serves two purposes in bitcoin: * ((("mining and consensus", "consensus rules", "security provided -by")))((("consensus", see="mining and consensus")))Mining nodes validate -all transactions by reference to bitcoin's _consensus rules_. Therefore, -mining provides security for bitcoin transactions by rejecting invalid -or malformed transactions. - -* Mining creates new bitcoin in each block, almost like a central bank +by")))((("consensus", see="mining and consensus")))Miners can only +receive honest income from creating blocks that follow all of Bitcoin's +_consensus rules_. Therefore, miners are normally incentivized to +only include valid transactions in their blocks and the blocks they +build upon. This allows users to optionally trust that any transaction +in a block is a valid transaction. + +* Mining currently creates new bitcoin in each block, almost like a central bank printing new money. The amount of bitcoin created per block is limited and diminishes with time, following a fixed issuance schedule.