Question 1

What is hash rate in mining?

Accepted Answer

Hash rate measures how many hash computations a miner can perform per second. It is expressed in hashes per second (H/s), with modern mining hardware operating in terahashes (TH/s) or exahashes (EH/s). A higher hash rate means more chances of finding a valid block hash, but as total network hash rate increases, difficulty adjusts upward to maintain the target block time.

Question 2

What is the block reward?

Accepted Answer

The block reward is the amount of new cryptocurrency given to the miner who successfully mines a block. Bitcoin's block reward started at 50 BTC and halves approximately every 4 years (every 210,000 blocks). As of 2024, the reward is 3.125 BTC per block. This halving schedule creates a fixed supply cap of 21 million BTC and is a key part of Bitcoin's monetary policy.

Question 3

Why does mining difficulty change?

Accepted Answer

Mining difficulty adjusts to maintain a consistent block time as hash power enters or leaves the network. If more miners join and blocks are found too quickly, difficulty increases. If miners leave and blocks slow down, difficulty decreases. Bitcoin adjusts difficulty every 2,016 blocks (roughly two weeks), while other chains may adjust more frequently.

Transaction Mempool