[arnauddri]

The hash rate represents the total computational power used by the miners to secure the Bitcoin Network. The more miner, the more secure it is but the less it is profitable for them to mine.

For more information about mining, you can refer to this description: https://kaiko.com/learn/mining-blockchain

[schmichael]

> The more miner, the more secure

This isn't totally accurate. You need a lot of different miners and a high hash rate for security. The least secure place bitcoin can be is when a single miner controls most of the hash rate.

[riprowan]

This is exactly correct. All the hashpower in the world provides zero security if 51%+ of it is not "honest".

http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

[arnauddri]

You're perfectly right, thanks for clarifying!

[hasch]

good point, but a mining monopoly would destroy the value and hence it's in the self-interest of miners to be diversified. that's an economical self-correcting mechanism on top of this technical mining/reward feedback mechanism.

[schmichael]

AFAIK this is the conventional wisdom but not a proven fact. A smart 51% attacker could profit and go unnoticed:

> And contrary to commonly-repeated assertions, a monopolist can engage in subtle attacks that are hard to detect.

http://hackingdistributed.com/2014/06/16/how-a-mining-monopo...