What is mining in cryptocurrency?

[magnus2022]

It seems that mining is a very versatile word in cryptocurrency now. I see in some post where people are referring airdrop as mining while others see staking as mining in place of real mining. Over time, cryptocurrency mining meaning is changing and getting a lot of newbies confused.
In you own understanding, what do you think mining means?

 

[kerryjoy]

This airdrop is mostly a test of the product to a people before launching it so that they can get a community to start with.

 

[Suba]

Mining regarding the process of verification of crypto transactions in the blockchain that applies a PoW consensus mechanism, so it must use devices or hardware such as rigs, GPUs, ASIC etc. Mining Crypto also uses software like BFGMiner. CGMINER, EASYMINER etc. While Airdrop is a free crypto distribution to the community or users usually as a means of marketing. While staking is a process of validation of crypto transactions in the blockchain that applies the PoS consensus, by storing and locking a number of crypto.

 

[Sanjeev]

In cryptocurrency, mining refers to the process of verifying transactions and adding them to a public ledger called a blockchain.