I am very new to the world of cryptocurrencies (I first read deeply about them today) and I've just discovered the concept of mining. Everything that I've read so far applies to Bitcoin but I know that there are a lot of different cryptocurrencies. So I was wondering if mining also exists for other currencies.
Is mining something specific of bitcoin or is it possible to mine different cryptocurrencies? If so, is the process different than the one used to mine bitcoins?