Cryptography Hashing
The cryptography that underpins Blockchain technology is being hashed. So, Blockchain
technology is based on two key cryptography concepts. Hashing is the first, while digital
signatures are the second. What exactly is hashing? Hashing is the process of taking an
arbitrary quantity of input data, running it through an algorithm, and producing a fixed-size
output data called the hash. Any number of bits can be used as the input, which could be a
single character, an mp3 file, a whole novel, a spreadsheet with your banking history, or even
the entire internet.
The key is that the input can be as large as you want it to be.
You can choose a hashing method based on your requirements, and there are numerous
publicly available hashing algorithms.
The concept is that the method accepts an unlimited number of bits as input, does some
calculations on them, and then produces a finite number of bits, such as 256 bits.
So, what can this hash be used for?
Today, hashes are often used to fingerprint files, also known as checksums. A hash is used to
verify that a file has still not been tampered with or modified in any way that the creator did not
intend. So, if wikileaks publishes a set of files together with their MD5 hashes, anyone
downloads those files can verify that they are indeed from wikileaks by computing the MD5 hash
of the downloaded files. If the hash does not match what wikileaks published, you can assume
the file has been altered in some way.
how does the Blockchain make use of hashes?
Blockchains use hashes to reflect the current state of the world. As a result, the input is the full
state of the Blockchain, which contains all of the transactions that have occurred thus far. The
resulting output hash represents the Blockchain's current state. The hash is used to agree that
the global state is the same for all parties.
But how are these hashes calculated in the first place? The initial hash for the first Block, also
known as the Genesis Block, is calculated using the transactions included within that Block. The
Genesis Block's Block hash is calculated using the sequence of initial transactions. The
preceding Block's hash, as well as its own transactions, are utilised as input to determine the
Block hash for each new Block that is formed after that. This is how a Block chain is created.
Each new Block hash contains a reference to the previous Block hash. This hashing mechanism
ensures that no transactions in the past can be tampered with. Because if any single portion of
the transaction changes, the hash of the Block to which it belongs, as well as the hashes of all
subsequent Blocks, changes as well. So As a result, any altering will be quite easy to detect.
Because the hashes might be verified. This is helpful since everyone on the Blockchain only
needs to agree on 256 bits in order to represent the Blockchain's potentially endless state.
The Ethereum Blockchain is currently 10s of gigabytes.But, the current state of the Blockchain,
is this hexadecimal representing 256 bits.
Digital Signatures
Digital signatures, like real signatures, are used to verify that someone is who they
claim to be. Except that we use cryptography or math, which is more secure than easily
manipulated handwritten signatures. A digital signature is a method of confirming that a
message comes from a certain individual and not from someone else, such as a hacker.
Today, digital signatures are widely used on the internet.
SSL, which employs digital signatures to create confidence between you and the server,
is used whenever you visit a website over https.
This means that when you visit Facebook.com, your browser can verify that the
webpage came from Facebook and not a hacker by verifying the digital signature that
came with it. A key pair, which consists of a public key and a private key, is generated in
asymmetric encryption systems using a defined algorithm. The public key and private
key have a mathematical relationship that links them together. The public key, like an IP
address or a home address, is intended to be distributed publicly to act as an address
for receiving a message from other users. The private key is used to digitally sign
messages sent to other users and is meant to be kept private. The recipient can verify
the signature using the sender's public key, which is given with the message. Only the
sender could have sent this message, thus the recipient can be confident. Generating a
key pair is similar to creating a Blockchain account, but without the need to register
anywhere. Moreover, the sender uses their private key to digitally sign every transaction
on the Blockchain.
