What Is ‘Hash Rate’ and How Does It Affect Mining Difficulty?

Hash rate is the total combined computational power being used to mine and process transactions on a Proof-of-Work blockchain. It is measured in hashes per second.

The mining difficulty is directly proportional to the hash rate. As the hash rate increases, the network automatically increases the difficulty to maintain the target block time.

Conversely, if the hash rate drops, the difficulty decreases.