<p>A hash is a function that takes a string as an input, does a transformation of it, and returns a second string that's considerably shorter than the original and that could be considered is the &quot;resume&quot; of the original. You can check <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_function" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia's Hash definition</a></p>
<p>Hashes are required for &quot;mining&quot;. I'm new to Bitcoin so I may describe this wrongly: As part of mining, miners compete to discover a short number that, when added to the end of a string (which contains all recent transactions since 10 minutes ago) produces a hash with a specific number of zeros at the beginning. The correctness of such a discovery can be easily verified by anyone but finding that small apendix is computationally very, very hard. The first miner to discover such a key to &quot;lock&quot; a block is awarded the reward - 25 BTCs as of now.</p>
<p>Here in comes the &quot;mega-hash&quot; term: CPUs, arrays of GPUs and ASICs are rated according to how many different hashes they can compute per second. Analyzing a million different hashes per second is what's called a &quot;mega-hash&quot;. Obviously, the higher this number the more different combinatinos you can try, so it becomes more probable that you will find an answer. However, this is only a relative advantage that may be completely nullified if the other miners have a similar or even higher computing power than yours.</p>
<p>This graph explains it all beautifully, hope it's clearer than my bad prose <a href="https://i.sstatic.net/8kHQf.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/8kHQf.jpg" alt="How bitcoins work" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2013-06-04T22:57:53.570Z
2021-08-13T13:44:46.597Z
2021-08-13T13:44:46.597Z
Joe Pineda
<p>What part of the bitcoin network requires hashes and why? What is the relation between money and the megahashes a card can do?</p>

<hash><mining-theory><hashpower><investing>
What is a megahash and how is it used to estimate the rate at which bitcoins are mined?
Celeritas
# What is a megahash and how is it used to estimate the rate at which bitcoins are mined?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-06-04)

What part of the bitcoin network requires hashes and why? What is the relation between money and the megahashes a card can do?

**Tags:** hash, mining-theory, hashpower, investing


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2013-06-04. Score: 6

A hash is a function that takes a string as an input, does a transformation of it, and returns a second string that's considerably shorter than the original and that could be considered is the "resume" of the original. You can check [Wikipedia's Hash definition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_function)

Hashes are required for "mining". I'm new to Bitcoin so I may describe this wrongly: As part of mining, miners compete to discover a short number that, when added to the end of a string (which contains all recent transactions since 10 minutes ago) produces a hash with a specific number of zeros at the beginning. The correctness of such a discovery can be easily verified by anyone but finding that small apendix is computationally very, very hard. The first miner to discover such a key to "lock" a block is awarded the reward - 25 BTCs as of now.

Here in comes the "mega-hash" term: CPUs, arrays of GPUs and ASICs are rated according to how many different hashes they can compute per second. Analyzing a million different hashes per second is what's called a "mega-hash". Obviously, the higher this number the more different combinatinos you can try, so it becomes more probable that you will find an answer. However, this is only a relative advantage that may be completely nullified if the other miners have a similar or even higher computing power than yours.

This graph explains it all beautifully, hope it's clearer than my bad prose [![How bitcoins work](https://i.sstatic.net/8kHQf.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/8kHQf.jpg)


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