A basic understanding of cryptography and the maths behind it is essential. We will be gentle and try to convey the flavour and essence.
A cryptographic hash is a mathematical function that turns a set of input data into a string of symbols of a predetermined length. A small change in the input data will lead to a very different output hash — there is no evidence of correlation between two slightly different inputs.
Two key properties of a strong cryptographic hash:
- It will never produce the same output from a different input.
- It will always produce the same output given the same input.
It is also infeasible to reverse-engineer the output hash to determine the input data. These properties are what make cryptographic hashing the foundation of blockchain security.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions: mark@curiouscryptos.com