These days everyone is talking about blockchain technology but most people do not know the in-depth details of how blockchain technology works in cryptocurrencies. One of the basic concepts in blockchain technology is Hashing. Although understanding Hashing is a little bit technical we will try to explain it in an easy way.
What Is Hashing In Blockchain?
The process of having an input item of any length reflects an output item of a fixed length is called hashing in the blockchain.
This happens in the cryptocurrency blockchain as the transactions of different lengths are run through a given hashing algorithm, but all of them produce an output of a fixed length. This output is actually called a Hash. Take this for an example like Bitcoin Secure Hashing Algorithm 256 (SHA-256) always gives an output result of a fixed length which has a 256-bits length while the output is 32 bytes. This helps in tracking the transaction as we can easily trace the hash.
keeping track of a transaction becomes easier because you can easily trace the hash. Also, the size of the hash is dependent upon the hash function utilized, but the output for a particular hashing algorithm will be of a particular fix size. Hashing functions are also used in crypto mining operations and it also helps in determining the difficulty levels during mining.
Blockchain Hash Function
A hash function basically takes an input string like numbers or alphabets of any length and converts it into a fixed length. It can also take audio or video file as input. The fixed bit length can be 32 bit, 64 bit, or 256 Bit. The output which is produced of fixed length is called the hash.
SHA 256 is used in the Bitcoin network and Keccak-256 is currently used on the Ethereum network. Both of them produce an output of 256 bits. These are called the cryptographic hash function. They are deterministic in nature and have a quick computation feature.
How The Hashing Process Works
To understand the working of the hashing process, we can use Anders Brown worth Hash Program which can be accessed here (https://andersbrownworth.com/blockchain/hash)
In this program, you can input few words in the text box section and generate a hash. Now if we just change a single character from a small letter to a cap, and regenerate the hash, it will be of different value. The Hash is a one-way function therefore it is not possible to get back the entire text from the generated hash.