Hi to all, this is Coin Girl and welcome to another episode of Bitcoin for Beginners, this video is going to explain what is the Bitcoin Hash.
If you are fairly new to the crypto world, you might have heard the term “hash” quite a lot, haven’t you? Or cryptographic Hash function?
Ok, let’s see what this is about.
Hash functions are extremely important for the information’s security, not just for Bitcoin.
A hash algorithm turns an arbitrarily-large amount of data into a fixed-length hash. In other words, this is a mathematical process that converts any size data into a fixed size.
The same hash will always result from the same data, but modifying the data by even one bit will completely change the hash. Like all computer data, hashes are large numbers, and are usually written as hexadecimal.
One good example where the hash function is used is to store passwords. When we register on a website and are required to create a password, that password is ran through a hash function, therefore it creates a unique hash for that specific password. Whenever we type in the password to log in, the info is verified against the stored hash and it is verified if it matches.
How does this apply with BItcoin?
Bitcoin’s blockchain uses SHA-256 (Secure Hash Algorithm) and Hash functions are part of the block hashing algorithm, which is used for to write new transactions through the process of mining.
In a previous video I made within this series, you will find out what mining is, also what is the blockchain.
In Bitcoin mining, the input data is related to non-confirmed yet transactions, along with the time stamp and other info about the previous block.
Find out more about the Bitcoin hash and how it applies to the blockchain technology by watching my video!