Mining means adding a transaction log process to the public Bitcoin ledger, which is called the Blockchain. By that, every transaction can be confirmed, and every network user can access this ledger. It is also used to distinguish legitimate Bitcoin transactions from attempts to re-spend money that has been spent elsewhere.

In actual fact, miners involved in the Bitcoin community by confirming every transaction and ensuring that every transaction is valid. Every time a new block is ‘closed’, the miner gets a reward for what they have done.

This simple concept for this is the rate at which new coins emerge at the rate at which a commodity such as gold is mined from the ground. Hence why the process is called ‘mining’.

Software for mining
Mining obviously depends on the type of tools you choose, in this case, you may need to install mining software. Uses GPUs and FPGAs which require that you have a host computer capable of running standard Bitcoin clients and mining software. Bitcoin is required to convey information between your miners and the Bitcoin network, whereas mining software is a device that instructs hardware devices to do its job, via transaction blocks for the manager.

Some modern ASIC miners ship with everything previously deleted, including BTC addresses. So, in most cases, you just need to plug it into a wall outlet. However, some old ASIC miners still require you to run mining software.

Source: cointelegraph