Hashing in Blockchain
Immutability via hashes.
What Is a Hash Function?
A hash function takes any input and produces a fixed-size output called a digest or hash.
Blockchains rely on cryptographic hash functions like SHA-256 (Bitcoin) and Keccak-256 (Ethereum).
sha256("hello") =
2cf24dba5fb0a30e26e83b2ac5b9e29e
1b161e5c1fa7425e73043362938b9824Deterministic Output
Hashing is deterministic: the same input always yields the same output.
This lets any node independently verify a hash and arrive at the identical result — essential for distributed agreement.
All lessons in this course
- Blocks and Chains
- Merkle Trees
- Hashing in Blockchain
- Distributed Ledgers