Introduction
Bitcoin Hash rate is a key metric of the blockchain and shows the overall health of the network. Hash Rate is the speed at which a miner can successfully compute hashes per second. The amount of hashes that are computed by a miner, per second, is called the hash rate. The hash rate is measured in hashes per second (H/s) and is usually expressed in terahashes per second (TH/s).
The hash rate is a key metric for determining the health of the Bitcoin network. In blockchain, the hash rate is used to determine how many transactions per second the network can process, and how much energy the network is using to perform them.
Hash function
To get a clear picture of hash rate and how it works, it is essential to under the underlying Hash Function. A hash function is a mathematical function that takes an input and produces an output. The output is a fixed length, which is called the hash. A hash function is also known as a cryptographic hash function.
A hash function is a way to quickly check if two inputs are equal. In other words, if two inputs are the same, they will produce the same output.
For example, if 1,000 miners were to join the network, it would take an average of 2,500,000 years to generate a single Bitcoin.
Why the hash rate is important?
Bitcoin has had its share of problems. But one of the biggest, and least talked about problems it faces is a lack of hash rate. That is the number of miners in the network. The reason for this is that Bitcoin’s proof of work is based on the SHA-256 algorithm.
Hash rate further donates the current network health. It shows the total activity and computational power requirement. An increase in hash power is directly correlated with the overall network health. If there are more miners active in the network, it indicates that the network is enough strong to avert any malicious attack.
SHA-256 algorithm
The SHA-256 algorithm is a cryptographic hash function that was published by the National Security Agency (NSA) and is defined in the United States as the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-2). The SHA-2 family of algorithms is designed to be fast, collision-resistant, and resistant to various types of attacks. It is supported by most modern web browsers and is used in the digital signatures in e-mail, file transfer protocol (FTP), and other Internet protocols.
Proof of Work algorithm requires an enormous amount of computational power to maintain and keep the network active. And as more miners join the network, it becomes harder to mine Bitcoins.
How to calculate hash rate?
The calculation of the hash rate is pretty simple.
There are two ways to calculate the hash rate of Bitcoin. The first is by calculating the hash rate of a single miner, and the second is by calculating the hash rate of all the miners in the network.
A single miner is a miner that is using only one CPU. If you have a single CPU miner, you can calculate the hash rate by the following formula:
(the number of hashes per second) = (the number of hashes that the miner has successfully produced) * (the number of seconds the miner has been running)
For example, let’s say there are 10,000 miners in the network, and each of them is hashing for 30 seconds. That means that each miner is performing 10,000 hashes per second.
Bitcoin Hash Rate Calculator
Bitcoin hash rate calculator is an easy interface to get the estimated Hash rate according to the network difficulty. Miners usually draw the historical data and use their currently hash power to estimate the profit and loss in Bitcoin mining. They use a bitcoin mining calculator to forecast their earnings and return on current investment. Bitcoin hash rate calculator uses Hashing Power, Power consumption, cost per KWH to estimate the profitability.
Historical Bitcoin Hash Rate
Bitcoin hash rate is increasing gradually since its inception. As shown in the below graph, the Hash rate has been spiked recently and touched an all-time high. Bitcoin touched its all-time high hash rate is 214.51 TH/s on February 17th, 2022. The skyrocketing Hash rate shows that many new mining companies are entering in Bitcoin mining industry. The total increase of power shows there are more people are racing to solve the next block.
Bitcoin Hash rate vs Price
Bitcoin price usually follows the Hash rate closely. The historical chart shows a near co-relation between the Bitcoin Hash rate and its price. With the increase in the price of Bitcoin, the total hash rate has also spiked and increased gradually. If analysts are believed, Bitcoin miners normally get active when the Bitcoin price spike accumulates and sells BTC at a higher price, which leads to an increase in computing power. The opposite relation has not been established accurately yet. As Bitcoin’s total Hash rate has touched its All-time high, however, BTC price is rolling down and breaking all its major supports.