To understand hash rate is to understand Bitcoin.
Well maybe not quite, but it will provide a better understanding of mining Bitcoin price is affected. Hash rate is the speed at which a computer can process data. Specifically in Bitcoin, the rate at which a miner can record and verify information on a digital record. The fastest computer is rewarded for solving a complex math problem in the cryptocurrency that is being mined. See my article on Mining for more information.
Hashrate is measured similar to hard drive storage capacity and memory size however instead of bits and bytes is Hashes per second.
kilohash = 1,000 H/s or 1 kH/s megahash = 1,000,000 H/s or 1 MH/s gigahash = 1,000,000,000 H/s or 1 GH/s terahash = 1,000,000,000,000 H/s or 1 TH/s petahash = 1,000,000,000,000,000 H/s or 1 PH/s exahash = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 H/s
Okay, so why is this important? Hash rate is a good indicator of the cryptocoin network's health. The higher the hash power, the healthier the network. Concerns over ownership of hash power have been raised. A blockchain could be jeopordized by a 51% Attack if a group of miners controls more than 51% of a networks hashrate. See Investopedia's article for more information on the 51% Attack.
Managing Speed
Bitcoin is designed to mine a single block approximately every 10 minutes. The ratio of the networks hash rate is linear to the difficulty of mining. This means that as the miners continue to get faster, the mathematical complexity continues to increase. Always remember to consider efficiency when mining in addition to hash rate.
Be sure to checkout Blockchain.com's all time hash rate graph of Bitcoin and you can clearly see the correspondence to the value of Bitcoin.
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