Reading assignment: Hashing

What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?
SHA 256; Secure Hash Algorithm 256

Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?
The higher the type of encryption (64-bit, 128-bit or 256-bit encryption) used to encrypt, the longer it can take to break. More importantly, Bitcoin hash is only solved in a linear, unidirectional manner. Therefore it can not be reversed to calculate the initial raw data.

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  1. The hashing algorithm used in Bitcoin is Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) named SHA-256.
  2. SHA-256 generates an almost-unique 256-bit (32-byte) signature for a text. It’s hard to brute force because each input has it’s own unique hash.
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  1. Bitcoin uses the SHA256 hash algorithm.

  2. There is no possible way to compute the input data from the output data. Almost everything can be hashed for example a whole book can be put through the SHA256 algorithm and the change of a single comma in the book can lead to a completely different hash value. It is therefore almost impossible to brute force a hashing algorithm.

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

  • SHA-256 (Secure Hashing Algorithm)

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

  • Because of its incredibly big amount of possible output values, that are seemingly completely random, varying wildly on the input. The only way we can generate a “small” SHA-256 hash is to try to change the input many times and hope that we will “get lucky”. There is no way of guessing the input value that would satisfy the condition.
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1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?
The hash algorithm used by BTC is SHA-256.

2. Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?
SHA-256 is “almost impossible” to brute force because it would take a massive amount of computing power and time to do so. In a Decrypt article from earlier this year that it would take a “quantum computer with at least 4,000 qubits - to crack Bitcoin’s code…In October 2019, Google announced a quantum computer with 54 qubits.” Sure, one day it might be possible to brute force SHA-256 like how google was able to do so with SHA-1. However, this is unlikely today; furthermore, much like previous hash algorithms that were replaced by SHA-256 as a standard, developers can adapt to the future of computing.

Source: https://decrypt.co/28560/quantum-computers-could-crack-bitcoins-encryption-by-2022

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  1. SHA- 256

2 The hashing algorithm is really hard ( almost impossible ) to brute force because it is irreversible. Also it uses high level of computing power.

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

The hash algorithm used by Bitcoin is a Secure Hash Algorithm called the SHA-256 created by the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA).

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

This hashing algorithm is difficult to crack because output of the algorithm results in a single 256-bit value generated based on input data of an arbitrary length. Because the 256-bit hash it generates leaves no trace of its input’s length or content there is no way to feasibly reverse the hash to determine its input. Even if the input’s length is known, brute forcing the hash to determine its content would require the computation of a hash value for every possible combination and permutation of the input’s content until a matching hash is found. This would take and enormous amount of computational capacity and time.

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  1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?
    The Bitcoin hash algorithm is called SHA256 Algorithm.

  2. Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?
    It is impossible to reverse the output to reassemble the input.

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  1. SHA-256

  2. It is almost impossible to brute force because you won’t be able to repeat a input more than once.

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  1. The hashing algorithm used in Bitcoin is the SHA-256 (Secure Hashing Algorithm).

  2. It is so hard to brute-force because of the amount of possible combinations are so vast that it would take a ridiculously long time. Once an input is computed into output (Via SHA) It is preimage resistant.

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SHA-256.

This function is considered irreversible, meaning that you can not infer the input from the output. You have to try by brute force different inputs until find the one that generates the output you are looking for. Statistically, it takes a lot of tries to find the right input but it is easy to verify its correctness. This way you can be sure that a lot of time and energy was spent trying to find the right input.

No mathematical proof exists that this function is irreversible, simply nobody has been able to reverse it.

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  1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?
    It is called SHA-256, SHA standing for Secured Hash Algorithm.

  2. Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?
    The hashing algorithm is hard to brute force because the complexity of the math problem adjusts based on miner performance. This combined with high hardware and electricity requirements as well as competition between miners makes the algorithm quite resistant.

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  1. SHA-256

  2. It is linear and unidirectional - cannot be reversed to calculate the initial raw data.

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  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? because it is a function that computes a 256-bit output…256-bit is 2^256 which is a lot of possibilities…too many to brute force a lucky guess
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  1. Bitcoin Hash, SHA-256
  2. Large amounts of computational power
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  1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?

Bitcoin uses the secure hash algorithim created by the NSA known as SHA-256.

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

This is simply due to the the fact that it is very difficult to produce the same outcome twice. It would take a lifetime to reproduce the hash function on Bitcoins blockchain due to the high computational nature of the hash.

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It is called the secure hash algorithm (SHA).

It is impossible to “brute force “a number that will be less than the target because a computer has to do it and must try to come up with a number randomly and the random number has to be between zero and a certain high number and if this target number is low it is going to be very difficult so the mining computer or network of computers has to keep going until it finds a number less than the target before any other miners accomplish the same thing.

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  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?
    one way mathematical digest.
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SHA256 doesn’t have anything to do with mining. The difficulty of the algorithm doesn’t change. The only reason why its hard to brute force is because of the sheer number of possibilities the function can output.

Mining is a process that utilizes hash functions, but the difficulty is not regulated by changing the hash function but the target under which the output of said hash function has to be for the result to be accepted as valid (a new block is found). :slight_smile:

  1. SHA-256
  2. Impossible to brute force because to would take an impossible amount of time to reach the same output.
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