Wait a minute. How do you mine for literally imaginary gold? What the f*** is happening right now?
It's not mining for Bitcoin. It's mining for unique descriptive (and non-invertible) algorithms
Crypto mining is basically organizing a bunch of unique legitimate transactions into unique groups. No specific transaction is allowed to be included in more than 1 group. Once you make your unique group, you have to give it a unique name. The name is literally just an algorithm (aka a mathematical equation) that describes all the transactions in the group.
Miners have to
1. Check the transactions are unique
2. Check the transactions are legitimate
3. Check the transactions haven't been grouped yet
4. Organize those transactions into a group
5. Brute force an algorithm that describes the group
6. Check the algorithm is unique
If all of this is successful, you are rewarded some amount (or some fraction of) a Bitcoin. It takes a lot of calculations and is confusing not only to man but also machine. Naturally miners maximize their efforts by using multiple machines. So lots of mining = lots of computers = lots of (nonrenewable) energy consumption