# Miners and Sharders **Miners** Miners build, verify, notarize, and finalize blocks based on consensus. Miners need to store wallet and smart contract states on their ledger to ensure submitted transactions are executed correctly. **Sharders** Sharders store blocks, keep records of View Changes through magic blocks, and respond to queries from users. Anyone joining the network queries the Sharders to determine the active members of the blockchain. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs-old.zus.network/api-reference/endpoints/miners-and-sharders.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.