In blockchain, hashing is responsible for maintaining the integrity of data, making it an integral component that plays a key role in the safety and security of digital transactions. The two are incomplete without each other, which is why it’s essential to understand how they work.
In this article, we will go over hashing and its importance in blockchain. Keep reading until the end, as we will also cover the different types of hash functions. Let’s get started!
Understanding Hashing in Blockchain
While hashing is a massive topic on its own and requires a lot of time to explain its intricacies, we’re going to summarize it for you quickly.
Simply put, it transforms any data it receives into a fixed-size, random string of characters. What does this mean, and how is it related to blockchain?
Let’s look at an example. Online crypto casinos like 777bet.io leverage blockchain technology, which uses hashing to ensure the safety and integrity of their users and the transactions they make. It also prevents fraudulent access.
A hash utilizes a one-way hashing algorithm, converting data into a random character. This gets stored in a block of information, further adding to the chain. The system uses it to verify any tampering or interference with a document.
Hashing serves two primary purposes, which are as follows:
- Data integrity: In a blockchain, there are blocks of information that are added daily. Hashing ensures data integrity, informing the system of even the slightest modification. This makes it next to impossible to tamper with the data, ensuring its authenticity.
- Secure blocks: Blockchain brings another layer of security. Any new blocks of information that are created have a hash of the preceding block, resulting in a linked chain. Altering the data could cause disruption across the entire system. This ensures the safety of the users and transactions.
What Are the Benefits of Hashing in Blockchain?
While hashing primarily serves two main purposes, it offers a wide range of benefits, including the following:
- Since hashing uses an algorithm that makes the data unreadable to humans, it protects sensitive information and ensures privacy.
- The system prevents someone from modifying a block due to the linked chain. This makes it easy to detect any attempts to tamper with data.
- Due to individual blocks and easy-to-read characters, the system can quickly look up and retrieve data.
- A hash does not require much storage space, making it easy to store copious amounts of data without restrictions.
- The algorithms and function of hash are incredibly efficient, providing blockchain with a stable foundation on which to stand.
What Are the Drawbacks of Hashing in Blockchain?
Although hashing offers a lot of benefits, especially the support it provides the blockchain technology, there are certain drawbacks, some of which include the following:
- When different inputs generate the same hash, there could be a potential conflict, making it challenging for the system to retrieve the right kind of information.
- Salting defends against attacks and data theft, and due to multiple hash iterations, this process may require a lot of resources (computing power).
- Due to short keys that are synonymous with hashing, the system can become vulnerable to collisions.
How Does the Blockchain System Generate Hash?
The Secure Hash Algorithm 256 bit (SHA-256 algorithm) is the most commonly used hash function, and here are the steps involved in the process of generating a fixed-size string of bytes:
- Input data: When a user inputs information (transaction data), the system immediately accepts it.
- Processing: As the data is received, the hash function quickly processes it using the SHA-256 algorithm. This is a series of mathematical operations that completely change the appearance of the data, making it unrecognizable to the human eye.
- Output hash: After putting it through the SHA-256 algorithm, the hash function outputs a unique 64-character string.
We’ve discussed hashing and how blockchain generates random characters. However, it’s essential to understand how the above three steps apply to the system.
Every block in a blockchain is unique, holding valuable information in the form of a hash. This gets hashed again, resulting in a Merkle root or “hash of hashes,” which is further hashed to create a unique hash for the block.
While this process may seem repetitive, it ensures the security of transactions and users’ personal and financial data.
Any attempt to alter the information within a block would change the hash, sending a distressing signal to the system and notifying it of any tampering.
What Are the Different Properties of a Hash Function?
To ensure the security and usefulness of a hash function, it should have the following properties:
- Collision resistant
- Preimage resistance
- Second preimage resistance
- Large output space
- Deterministic
- Avalanche effect
- Puzzle friendliness
- Fixed-length mapping
What Are the Different Hashing Algorithms in Blockchain?
The specific algorithm used in hash functions may vary depending on the needs of a particular blockchain, and these are as follows:
- SHA-256
- ETHASH
- SCRYPT
- X11
- CRYPTONIGHT
- BLAKE2
Role of Hashing in Blockchain
Hash functions have many different uses, some of which include the following:
Merkle Tree
Due to the nature of hashing, it is nearly impossible to have two Merkel trees with the same root hash. This ensures the integrity of the block header and the transactions that follow.
Proof of Work Consensus
This is a blockchain mechanism that requires a lot of computing effort. Proof of work (PoW) incentivizes network validation by rewarding miners who lend their equipment to provide the power needed.
The main purpose behind PoW is to ensure that all of the nodes work in harmony in an environment where they don’t trust each other.
Digital Signatures
Blockchain uses hash functions for digital signatures, which is perfect for ensuring data integrity and authentication of transactions.
The Chain of Blocks
Each block header contains the hash of the previous block, making it challenging to tamper with the blocks without being detected.
Modifying each block requires changing the other block, and so on, thus increasing the difficulty.
Final Thoughts on Hashing in Blockchain
Today, blockchain is on everyone’s lips, as it promises to protect the integrity and immutability of the data on the linked chain. To do that, it needs to use hash functions, making them an integral part of the system.
Nevertheless, due to the intensive mining requirements, hashing can give rise to issues such as scalability, threats from quantum computing, and environmental concerns.
