getnetworkhashps

getnetworkhashps is a Bitcoin Core JSON-RPC method that estimates how much hashing power is securing the BTC network. Because Bitcoin's hashrate cannot be measured directly, the node derives it from the difficulty and the time elapsed across a window of recent blocks, returning the result as a number of hashes per second. You control the window with the positional nblocks argument and can target a past height, making it the precise counterpart to the single estimate in getmininginfo. Send the request to https://bitcoin.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY to read the estimated network hashes per second straight from the chain.

Use cases

• Estimate the current network hashrate over a block window you choose with nblocks (e.g. 144 blocks ≈ one day at Bitcoin's ~10-minute spacing).
• Compute the hashrate as it stood at a historical height to reconstruct past network conditions.
• Chart hashrate trends across difficulty periods by passing nblocks = -1 to average each 2016-block retarget epoch.

Parameters

Response

Example request

1curl https://bitcoin.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
4  -d '{
5  "jsonrpc": "1.0",
6  "id": "therpc",
7  "method": "getnetworkhashps",
8  "params": [
9    120,
10    0
11  ]
12}'

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• A small nblocks window produces a noisy figure: Proof-of-Work block intervals vary widely around the ~10-minute target, so a handful of fast or slow blocks can swing the estimate. Widen the window or pass nblocks = -1 to average over the last difficulty retarget period for a steadier number.
• The result is hashes per second as a raw integer; divide by 1e18 to read it in EH/s when displaying it.

Supported networks

• Mainnet
• Testnet

See also

• getmininginfo
• getdifficulty