Our discussion of how blockchain processes new transaction data and how the system’s nodes reach agreement on the true history of transactions highlighted the importance of the hash puzzle. Solving the hash puzzle plays an important role in achieving and maintaining the integrity of the system. But solving the hash puzzle costs computational resources, and as a consequence, it costs money. For that reason, it is necessary to compensate the nodes that contribute to the integrity of the system for doing so. However, throughout our discussion, we assumed that the nodes are compensated in some way, without asking which instrument of payment is used to do so. Hence, this step focuses solely on how nodes are compensated for their contributions to the system’s integrity.