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Foundations of Blockchain

You're reading from   Foundations of Blockchain The pathway to cryptocurrencies and decentralized blockchain applications

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Product type Paperback
Published in Jan 2019
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781789139396
Length 372 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Koshik Raj Koshik Raj
Author Profile Icon Koshik Raj
Koshik Raj
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Table of Contents (14) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Introduction 2. A Bit of Cryptography FREE CHAPTER 3. Cryptography in Blockchain 4. Networking in Blockchain 5. Cryptocurrency 6. Diving into Blockchain - Proof of Existence 7. Diving into Blockchain - Proof of Ownership 8. Blockchain Projects 9. Blockchain Optimizations and Enhancements 10. Blockchain Security 11. When Shouldn't We Use Blockchain? 12. Blockchain Use Cases 13. Other Books You May Enjoy

Cryptographic hashing

A cryptographic hash function is a type of function that maps arbitrary sized data to a fixed size string called a hash. Hash functions possess certain properties that make them ideal for use in cryptography.

Hash functions are widely used in hash table data structures. A hash table stores the data in a key-value pair. Hash tables are used when large keys need to be converted into smaller keys using a hash function, and then the values are mapped to these smaller keys. This makes the mapping of key to value quite easy, and this could be achieved in O(1) time complexity. This is due to the fact that hash functions have a constant time complexity.

We have repeatedly mentioned that hashing is the backbone of blockchain architecture, and it has several properties that make it really valuable and ideal for blockchain implementation.

Every hash function has the...

You have been reading a chapter from
Foundations of Blockchain
Published in: Jan 2019
Publisher: Packt
ISBN-13: 9781789139396
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