Hash Rate and Zeros

[Pablo-wood]

Introduction
Hash Rate can be said to be the speed at which a computer is able to perform hashing computations. Hashing is simply the process where by a numeric or alphanumeric string is assigned to a piece of data through a functional method that ensures the output values maintains the same number of bits in length. In the context of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, the hash rate is what determines the efficiency and performance of a mining machine. It is the determinant of  how fast a mining hardware operates when trying to compute a valid block hash.

It can be said that mining has to do with a countless hashing attempts, until a valid hash is produced. Which means, a Bitcoin miner needs to keep making attempts on a bunch of data to produce a hash through hash functions which is realised only when a specific hash value is generated

I need clarity here

• Must this hash value start with a specific number of zeros
• With this can I say that hash rate is directly proportional to a specific miner or pools profitablilty

Since hash rates are measured in hashes per second (h/s) which might include SI prefixes like mega, giga, or tera. For instance, a blockchain network that computes one trillion hashes per second would have a hash rate of 1 Th/s. With the hash rate of Bitcoin hitting 1,000 Th/s in 2013 can miners use mining hardwares other than ASIC miners?

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With the hash rate of Bitcoin hitting 1,000 Th/s in 2013 can miners use mining hardwares other than ASIC miners?

Just computer CPU was used before. As the mining difficulty increased, CPU could no longer mine bitcoin profitable as more people started to mine bitcoin. GPU produces more hash rates and miners turned to GPU. Mining difficulty increases and the start of ASICs to mine bitcoin. Now are well built ASICs that produces more hash rates.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Must this hash value start with a specific number of zeros

In a sense, but that is not entirely accurate. The hash must be smaller than the current target. This is not the same as having a specific number of leading zeroes. For example, 0x00001FFF and 0x0000FFFF both have the same number of leading zeroes, but there is a huge difference between those two values. (The first number is 8,191 while the second is 65,535.) If the target was 0x0000CFFF, then one of those numbers would pass and the other would fail. (The real target is a 32 byte number, not a 4 byte number as I have used here.)

With this can I say that hash rate is directly proportional to a specific miner or pools profitablilty

Essentially, yes. The higher proportion of the hashrate that a specific miner has, then they will find a higher proportion of all blocks, and therefore earn a higher proportion of all block rewards.

With the hash rate of Bitcoin hitting 1,000 Th/s in 2013 can miners use mining hardwares other than ASIC miners?

They can, but they will be incredibly unlikely to ever mine a block successfully, or if they contribute to a pool, they will earn a tiny fraction of the total rewards.

[pooya87]

Hashing is simply the process where by a numeric or alphanumeric string is assigned to a piece of data through a functional method that ensures the output values maintains the same number of bits in length.

Hash is computed from the data (not exactly assigned to it) and one of the usage of computing a hash is ensuring integrity of the data which means not a single bit inside the data can change without the resulting hash also changing. In other words even if the bit length remains the same but the bits change, the hash changes too.

Must this hash value start with a specific number of zeros

A block header hash must be smaller than or equal to a globally enforced target (hash <= target).

miners use mining hardwares other than ASIC miners?

Mining is similar to a competition where each miner tries to find the hash faster than others, so they need the most efficient hardware to perform the most number of computations in the shortest time possible.
Otherwise the hash itself (and the whole process of mining) can be performed on any device, even the least efficient or ancient computer you can find that performs something like 1 hash per hour using one of those computers that were as big as a room!

[lassdas]

Otherwise the hash itself (and the whole process of mining) can be performed on any device, even the least efficient or ancient computer you can find that performs something like 1 hash per hour using one of those computers that were as big as a room!

Reminds me of that guy who turned an Apollo Guidance Computer into bitcoin mining at a whopping 10.3 sec/hash (yes, that's seconds per hash, not hashes per second).

Trying to mine Bitcoin on this 1960s computer seemed both pointless and anachronistic, so I had to give it a shot.