Yes, miners and nodes secure the network in a symbiotic insentive based system.

Miners, typically in pools, expend energy to brute force guess a large random number roughly every 10 minutes.

The first miner to find this number gets to write the next block in the blockchain.

The voluntary nodes then verify that the miner has followed the rules set forth in the genesis block by auditing every single transaction since bitcoin’s inception and then rewards the miner with 6.25 ₿tc.

If the miner cheats, by say trying to double spend or increase the 21 million cap, the nodes reject the block and the miner has wasted energy/capital, which is costly. This is why Proof of Work is the very soul of ₿itcoin and without it, ₿itcoin would be worthless, like Ethereum. Lol.

By pegging ₿itcoin’s issuance to the one thing in the universe that can not be created nor destroyed, energy; Satoshi Nakamoto created the hardest money the world has ever known and simultaneously discovered absolute digital scarcity.

Money 1.0.