Glossary

Hash rate

Hash rate is the total computing power that miners use to secure a proof-of-work network, measured in hashes per second.

Hash rate is the number of hash calculations that all miners on a proof-of-work network perform each second. The unit is hashes per second. Large networks use prefixes, such as terahashes, petahashes or exahashes per second. The network cannot count hashes directly, so it estimates them.

The estimate comes from the mining difficulty and the speed at which miners find blocks. A higher difficulty with the same block speed means a higher hash rate. Most data providers show a moving average, because the raw estimate is noisy over short periods.

A higher hash rate means more energy and hardware protect the network, so an attack costs more. It does not mean the price will rise. Hash rate can fall when miners switch off machines, when energy costs change or when regulation moves miners to other regions. Read it with miner revenue data.