Protocol Foundations 003: Hashing
<p>Building on the concepts introduced in previous Protocol Foundations issues, let’s now explore another fundamental component powering our digital world: <em>hashing</em>.</p> <p>A <em>hash</em> is a one-way function that takes arbitrary-sized data as an input and produces a fixed-sized output, called a <em>hash</em> or <em>digest</em>. Its most important feature is that a given input will always produce the same output. Additionally, leveraging cryptography, hash functions can be designed such that an output reveals no information about the function’s input. In contrast with encryption, which allows for later decryption of the ciphertext, cryptographic hashing is, for most practical purposes, irreversible…</p>
Authors: Mario Havel, Tim Beiko
Part of: Summer of Protocols
ISBN: 9781962872539