All You Need to Know About Hashing on Blockchain

If you are interested in blockchain, then knowing about the hashing method becomes an essential part of your learning process. If you are yet unclear about the subject then, this blog will be a guide to you.

What is hashing in blockchain?

Hashing is the procedure of producing values from a series of texts by using a mathematical equation. It is a great way to ensure security to a message when it is being transmitted to a specific individual. The mathematical equation is used to generate the hash, which enables security during the procedure.

Cryptography in Hashing

The use of cryptography in hashing is also quite common. It has a unique type of hash functions that has certain qualities making it perfect for cryptography. Not only that, it needs to have a few specific properties to enable security in the process.

• It has to be deterministic, meaning that the result should be the same regardless of the number of times the hash function is used through the input. It is important because getting different hash figures can become a problem when tracking the input.
• Cryptography in hashing demands faster computation. A slow process derails the efficiency of the system.
• It is not possible to understand the input value from the hashing. As the hash functions can be determined, the hash of the input value remains the same. That’s why it is easy to find the original input value by comparing the hashes. However, this process will give you positive results only if the data amount is less. In cases involving massive amounts of data, what you can do is chose a random input value, hash the value, and after that, you need to compare the value with the targeted hash and repeat the procedure till the right value is found.
• Even a minute change in the input value can change the hashing. That’s another one of the integral properties of hashing. This contributes to the essential defining characteristic of blockchain, which is immutability.

Learn More: What is Blockchain?

Go through the video given below to get a clear idea of hashing in the blockchain.

Data Structures and Hashing

The data structure is a specific way or process of storing data. To understand how the blockchain works, it is important to get the hang of understanding the 2 data structures of hashing.

The first data structure that we are going to discuss is known as pointers. These are the variables in the programming that stores the address of another variable. Instead of storing the values, pointers store the address of other variables. Since they point towards the location of the variable, that’s why it is called pointers.

The second type of data structure is a linked list. It is one of the most important in the group of data structures. It comprises a series of blocks that each contain data linking to the next block in line. It generally comprises the address of the next node, and that is how the connection with the next block is made.