> To update the state of Bitcoin, miners must first compete via Proof-of-Work to find the solution to a cryptographic puzzle that abides by the rules of the system, with the winner of this race becoming the newly appointed leader.<p>> Once found, the leader must then update the state in a way that conforms to all of the consensus rules of the system, or else it will merely be rejected by all other participants.<p>The causality suggested here is incorrect though. The puzzle that the miner tries to solve already commits to the state update. So once the solution is found, the leader has no choice left in how to update the state.<p>The state update defines the puzzle.