Reading assignment: Hashing

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#1367

The question why is it hard to brute-force or hack :slight_smile: you kind of made the opposite answer :stuck_out_tongue:

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#1368

It would be harder to guess the input from the output. To get the output you just hash the data :slight_smile:

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#1369

Hi Ales,
Now that I read my answer again, I see you are correct. What a knucklehead :hugs: Thanks.
Stay strong,
Robert

Get a sport.
www.nowimps.com

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#1370
  1. The hashing algorithm for Bitcoin is called SHA256 (Secure Hash Algorithm).
  2. This algorithm is difficult to break because the only way to determine what was the input data is to try every possible combination of inputs’s hash and compared them to the hash you are trying to break for a perfect match. Doing this is very impractical time-wise as it requires hundreds of years for a computer to process depending on how lucky you are with the guesses.
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#1371
  1. SHA-256
  2. Pre image resistance makes it that it would take a lifetime to crack it
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#1372
  1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?

SHA-256

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

Cause you would have to guess a 78 digit number and you wouldn’t be able to guess it in a lifetime.

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#1373

  1. The hashing algorithm used in bitcoin is SHA-256.

  2. Its hard to brute force, because any input, no matter how long or short, will only result in one hash. Plus it has a high min-entropy distribution.

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#1374

  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 you would have to go through each possible input find the one you are working for. this can be very time consumming and very ineffective. y

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#1375

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 this ensures top-notch security.

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#1376
  1. Secured Hashing Algorithm-256
  2. Simply put, there is so many possibilities (2^128) that it’s made nearly impossible for a human being to find the result
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#1377
  1. What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?

SHA 256

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

Because of the huge number of hash values there is very little chance that two blocks of data can produce the same hash value which means that the blockchain cannot be tampered with.

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#1378
  • What is the hashing algorithm called used in Bitcoin?
    SHA 256
  • Why is this hashing algorithm really hard (almost impossible) to brute-force?
    Because there are an incredibly high number of input variables that have to be matched using only random methods.
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#1379
  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?

Because it would take so long to find the match it would no longer matter. For example if it took you 1000 years to brute-force guess my current SHA 256 email password would it really matter by then? There is a very good chance I have already changed my password by then and an even better chance that I have died and it no longer matters anyway. :smile:

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#1380

  1. SHA-256

  2. Because there are too many possibilities.

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#1381

  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 of the gargantuan number of possibilities that make brute-forcing in a decent amount of time, a lost battle

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#1382
  1. SHA 256
  2. Because it has the 1 / (square root of 2^256) chance per attempt on success
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#1383
  1. The hashing algorithm used in Bitcoin is called “sha256”
  2. The hashing algorithm is challenging to brute-force because there’s 1e+77 different 32 byte results for any given text input. Attempting to even count that high is difficult enough. Imagine trying to guess a 32 byte string for each of those results.

A question I have is, what “string of text” is the computer hashing, and how do you know what the difficulty is?

For example, the reading assignment says, “The hash of the contents of the new block is taken.” What is contained within the contents?

What’s an example of a “difficulty” that the hashing is attempting to achieve? Is it a number or a hash? The resulting hash has to be “lower” than the difficulty level? This part is unclear to me. A lower difficulty level is actually more difficult to achieve?

#1384

Also, what does “WRT” stand for? I could not find an acronym or definition for it.

#1385

How does it ensure it? :slight_smile:

Its 2^256, thus the name :slight_smile:

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#1386

This can be any value, not just the stream of text, under the hood this is a buffer that contains any kind of data you want. In case of blockchain this is a block that has been constructed by the miner :slight_smile:

In case of a block this is the merkle tree root, previous block hash, a nonce (which is a random number) and a timestamp :slight_smile:

Yes, because a lower target means the number we want to get after we hash the data must be below the target. Due to the randomness of the hashing algorithm this is harder to achieve.
For example if you are throwing a dice, the highest value you can throw is 6 but you only accept the throws that have the value lower than 5 (low difficulty), this is not hard and will you will probably succeed in the first try.
However if you lower the target to 2 (increasing the difficulty), than you will have to throw the dice a few times before you reach the target that you accept :slight_smile:

Not sure, are you talking about Web Request Trees?

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