What is Smeshing?

In short, smeshing is mining. Similar to Bitcoin and other public blockchains, smeshing is the process of dedicating scarce resources to the Spacemesh network in exchange for eligibility to produce proposals and earn rewards. At a high level, mining in Spacemesh works like it does in other blockchains: smeshers provably spend scarce resources in order to obtain eligibilities to participate in block production at certain points in time, are rewarded with coins for following the rules of the protocol and contributing to block production, and are punished for violating these rules.

However, unlike in other blockchains, the scarce resource committed to the protocol is spacetime (as opposed to hashing power in proof of work, or staked capital and time value of money in proof of stake), and multiple miners participate in the creation of each block.