Popular Science: The Difference Between Miners and Full Nodes

In the cryptocurrency world, miners and full nodes are two crucial entities that play an important role in maintaining the integrity, security, and functionality of the blockchain network. Although many people often confuse the two, there are significant differences in their functions, and understanding these differences is essential for those who have a deep understanding of the world of cryptocurrency.

What is a miner?

In the cryptocurrency world, miners are analogous to real-world gold diggers. They sift through vast expanses of land in search of extremely rare, valuable nuggets of gold—similarly, miners earn the right to add new blocks to the blockchain through proof of work, while also receiving a sizable reward. Miners play a key role in blockchain networks, as they are responsible for validating new transactions and recording them on a global distributed ledger, the blockchain. It is important to emphasize that miners are a type of full node, meaning they verify all of the blockchain's rules and only accept blocks that comply with those rules.

The mining process involves validating transactions, creating blocks, and generating proof of work. Generating proof of work effectively means finding a hash output (also called a hash output) that meets certain conditions specified by the protocol.

Here are the simplified steps a miner takes to generate a proof of work:

1. Transaction verification: Miners select transactions from the memory pool (a collection of unconfirmed transactions) and verify their validity.

2. Block creation: The verified transactions are combined with the hash value of the previous block and a new random number to construct a candidate block.

3. Hash processing: Use SHA-256 or other commonly used hash algorithms to hash the candidate blocks and generate a hash value in the form of a fixed-length string.

4. Difficulty check: The generated hash value is compared with the current mining difficulty target of the protocol. If it is less than the target value, the new block is successfully mined. If it is not less than the target value, the miner will change the random number and repeat the hashing process until a hash value that meets the target is found. To do this, miners use mining hardware that can process trillions of hash calculations per second or specialized ASIC miners to try to find a hash value that meets the target as quickly as possible.

5. Block submission: Once a valid hash value is found, the miner will submit a new block to the network. Other nodes will verify the block, and after verification, it will be "added" to the blockchain. The miner who submitted the block will receive a certain amount of cryptocurrency as a reward. Finding a valid hash value requires a lot of "work" (requiring a lot of computing power and energy consumption). This work can be verified by anyone at any time, so it is called "proof of work".

One of the biggest misconceptions about mining is that it is an easy way to earn cryptocurrency. In reality, the process is resource-intensive and requires advanced hardware, technical knowledge, and large amounts of electricity. In addition, competition between miners is fierce, and profit margins are constantly squeezed.

What is a full node?

While all miners are full nodes, not all full nodes are miners. Miners are producers of blocks, while full nodes are the librarians of the blockchain network. Full nodes maintain a complete copy of the blockchain, ensuring that every transaction complies with the network's rules. They verify the legitimacy of transactions and blocks and reject transactions and blocks that violate the rules. Non-mining full nodes do not create new blocks, but play an important role in maintaining the integrity of the network by checking the work of miners and ensuring that the network consensus rules are followed.

Despite the vital role full nodes play, they are often misunderstood. Many people believe that running a full node requires a reward, similar to mining. However, unlike miners, full node operators are not directly rewarded for their work. They help maintain the decentralization and security of the network, and their contribution to the network is largely selfless.

Others argue that full nodes are powerless participants in the network. Miners produce blocks (costly), while full nodes are the army of supporters of the blockchain, with the power to enforce the network consensus rules. A coalition of miners with more than 51% of the network's hashrate can choose to produce blocks that break the network's consensus rules, but they do so at the risk that the blockchain's stakeholders will essentially reject those blocks, leaving those miners with nothing to gain.

The balance between miners and non-mining full nodes is also critical. A network dominated by miners may become centralized, undermining the decentralized nature of blockchain technology. Conversely, a network with too few miners may have reduced security because it is more vulnerable to 51% attacks, where a single entity or alliance controls most of the network's mining power and can maliciously manipulate the blockchain.

Summarize

In conclusion, understanding the difference between miners and full nodes is crucial for anyone involved in the world of cryptocurrency. Although they play different roles, both are essential to the operation, security, and integrity of the blockchain network. Miners add new transactions to the blockchain with their powerful computing power, while full nodes maintain the integrity of the network by verifying these transactions. Together, they ensure the smooth operation of the blockchain network.