“I have been mining with one machine for about 2.5 years.”
What useful work does it do to produce value ?
It runs portions of the blockchain algorithm for bitcoin. My mining pool is a series of machines across the globe connected. Each runs the algorithms “solving” the blockchain that results in a bitcoin and I get rewarded for the small percentage my machine contributed.
I really can’t explain it well, you could probably find a three to give minute video online that explains it easily.
“ What useful work does it do to produce value ?
The calculations validate the blockchain.
The coins are simply tokens that motivate those who validate the whole blockchain.