Glossary
Hashrate
The total computational power a proof-of-work network devotes to mining, measured in hashes per second, and the main gauge of how costly it is to attack the chain.
Hashrate is the aggregate speed at which miners across a proof-of-work network compute candidate block hashes, expressed in hashes per second — today measured in exahashes per second (EH/s) for Bitcoin. It is the clearest proxy for network security: the more honest hashrate is online, the more expensive it becomes for an attacker to marshal the majority needed for a 51% attack.
Because miners switch on and off as profitability shifts, hashrate rises and falls with the coin price and energy costs, and the difficulty adjustment continually retargets so that blocks keep arriving at their intended rate.