Computational power, or hash rate, is the term commonly used to describe how powerful a given computer is when mining bitcoin. It is essentially a measure of how quickly a computer can solve complex mathematical problems, which are used to validate transactions and add new blocks to the blockchain.
The more computational power a computer has, the faster it can solve these problems and generate new blocks on the blockchain. This makes the process of mining bitcoin more efficient and profitable. The computational power of a given computer is measured in hashes per second (H/s).
This simply means how many hashes the computer can solve in a given second. The total amount of hashes that can be processed by a single computer is quite limited. However, this amount can be drastically increased by employing multiple computers or specialized hardware solutions such as GPU cards or ASIC miners.
Increasing the computational power has multiple functional and economic benefits. For one, it increases the speed at which transactions are validated and new blocks are added to the blockchain, improving the overall efficiency of the system. Furthermore, the increased hashing power also reduces the chances of an attack on the network by an attacker with greater hashing power.
This is known as a 51 percent attack, where a single individual or entity controls more than 51 percent of the network’s computational power. Finally, miners who have more computational power have more chances of finding a block and receiving the associated rewards for their work.