What is Hash Power (Hashrate)?

Hash power, or hashrate, is a unit of measurement used to determine how much power a network consumes to perpetually operate. It is used when discussing the power requirements of cryptocurrency networks or individual mining rigs on said networks.

Mineable cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin (BTC), are managed by networks of miners. The miner community can consist of individuals and organizational entities that provide computational power from their crypto mining devices to process and verify transaction information, as well as create new blocks and new coins.

The mining process is conducted by calculating cryptographic hashes, which are strings of pseudorandom data. Hashes help to avoid double-spending. The calculation process ensures that all crypto coins are verified and cannot be produced out of nowhere. This process employs a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism.

The hash power of a mining rig is determined by the number of hashes calculated per second. The hashrate of a cryptocurrency network is calculated by adding up the hashrates of all mining rigs in operation at the given time.

The hashrates of individual mining devices are used to determine their profitability. A good hashrate produced by a well-optimized mining rig improves the chances of finding the correct hash computation, thus producing a mining reward.

The overall hash power of a network helps determine how secure the asset in question is. This information is relevant to parties that aim to breach the network. Hackers must overcome the total hash power of the network which is nearly impossible in networks that have significantly high hash rates.

The hash power may vary between different devices. CPUs, GPUs, and ASICs all provide different computational power and are not equally optimized for their network tasks.