Reading assignment: Hashing

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#2351
  • What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?

sha256

  • Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?
    The number of possibilities is enormous. Its very unlikely that 2 people get the same result. Already with a deck of 52 cards its very difficult but with SHA-256 it’s impossible.
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#2352
  1. SHA-256
  2. The entire process is completely random, there is no thought process behind the selection of the nonces, therefore it is only brute-force where the software keeps on randomly generating strings till they reach their goal. The entire process follows the Proof Of Work protocol, also the the mathematical computational possiblities are so high with the 256 hash that only brute force through consitent mining will solve the problem.
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#2353

Mining is not the same as brute force. Mining is searching for a new hash that is below a certain target and brute forcing is searching for a specific hash by trying different inputs. :slight_smile:

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#2354

SHA256
The Hashing algorithm is hard to brute force due to the sheer size of the numbers and possibilities. It’d take lifetimes of constant trying therefore infeasible.

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#2355

1: Its called SHA-256

2: The brute force method means that the hashes are guessed by a program. Due to the possibilities you would have to wait a few lifetimes and longer until you would get the result.

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#2356
  1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?

SHA-256 (secure hashing algorithm 256)

  1. Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute force?

To brute force the SHA-256 on average it would take 1.7 X 10^38 attempts. Therefore it is possible to break but it would take such a long time to compute that it does not matter.

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#2357

  1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?
    SHA 256: Produces a 256-bit hash.

  2. Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?
    Due to the huge number of possible hash results, a brute-force attack would take so long that it wouldn’t matter.

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#2358

> 1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?

SHA-256.

>2. Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?

It is due to pre-image resistance. While it’s not impossible to find A for random hash H(A), it’s infeasible when you’ve reached 256 bits of data. It would simply take too long to attempt a brute force crack.

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#2359
  1. Bitcoin uses SHA256 for its hashing algorithm
  2. to brut-force this algorithm it could take as many as 2^256 attempts to make a match which could take awhile
    2^256 is about 115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,853,269,984,665,640,564,039,457,584,007,913,129,639,936 in decimal – That’s a lot of possibilities. Of course you could get lucky and hit it on the first try, but chances are that probably won’t happen.
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#2360
  1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?
    A: SHA-256
  2. Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?
    A:Because the probability of the accurately guessing the input exactly would take forever.
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#2361
  1. Sha 256
  2. It is a deterministic function with min high entropy which results in very different outputs even for similar inputs, therefore, the only way to determine the input given the output, is to try to guess it via brute force approach.
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#2362
  1. The algorithm( Hashing ) used in Bitcoin is Sha 256.
  2. The number of computational possibilties is so high that it will make brute forcing it not visible.
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#2363

What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?

The SHA 256 hashing algorithm is used for Bitcoin

Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?

This algorithm is almost impossible to brute force because it is very difficult
to find two random inputs to generate the same output in a hash function.

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#2364

  1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?
    • SHA 256

  2. Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?
    The number of possibilities is so high that is would take too long

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#2365

Hashing Homework

  1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin? SHA-256
  2. Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?
    This controls the pace of hashing in order to avoid collision.
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#2366

GREAT job!! :slight_smile: Your answer was short and to the point!

#2367
  1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?
    SHA-256.
  2. Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?
    Due to the infeasibility of finding the right input, it would take so long to use brute force, it doesn’t really matter.
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#2368

1.) SHA_256
2.) Because SHA-256 has a 2^256 different possibilities
No Hashfunction is collision free but it takes soooo a long time to find a collision!

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#2369

Lol did you wrote some program to calculate this number or found this on Google (or :duck:duck duck go)?

If I do 2^256 on my calculator I get:
1.1579208923731619542e+77

Wich should be:
1.1579208923731619542 *10^77 :upside_down_face:

When I search on Duck Duck Go, I also find:

115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,853,269,984,665,640,564,039,457,584,007,913,129,639,936

https://privacycanada.net/cryptanalysis/why-is-2-256-secure/

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#2370

She got a lot of likes on that post, but she basically didn’t answered the question correctly.
She was describing a collision, wich means that 2 different inputs can produce the same output. The larger the output size of a hashing algorithm the less likely you can have a collision. Sha256 has such a big range of possible numbers that is relatively collision resistant and infeasible to brute force.

To answer the question,
It’s hard to Brute force Sha256 because brute forcing means that you need to guess the input.
So if you want to brute force a particular hash, you need to guess a random input, hash it, and then compare if the hash is the same or not. So you need to write a program that keeps guessing random inputs wich will take so much time and computation (electricity) that it isn’t worth the time and costs.

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