blog posts

What is a hash and what is its role in digital currency?

The world of digital currencies is so vast that new terms are being added day by day. If you’ve been in this market, you’ve probably come across hassles, hash rates, etc. Maybe you understand what it means, or you do not know exactly what these terms are used for.

We suggest that you follow us to the end of this article for detailed information on all these words and terms and how to use hash, hashing, and hashing algorithms.

SEE also staking on Binance

What is a hash?

“Hash” is a word you must have seen if you have spun it a few times in articles related to digital currency. But the term is not unique to the digital currency market and has had various uses.

So before we get into the concept of hash in the digital currency market, let’s define the concept in general terms:

“The hash function is actually a function that converts an input of numbers and letters to a fixed length in encrypted form.”

Hash functions are used throughout the Internet. It is used to store passwords, save quickly, find duplicate records, retrieve information, etc.

Because the hash is based on an algorithm that can be used in the Chinese blockchain management space in cryptocurrency, to put it better, the hash is the basic mechanism of China’s blockchain space. It plays a key role in creating China’s blockchain technology.

But to better understand hash, it is better to have information about hash or hashing!

What is hashing?

What is hashing, and how does it work?

Hashing is used to convey an encrypted message based on a fixed function. For example, you might want to encrypt a message to someone who needs to keep it in the format you want.

In this case, you have to send that message several times. But not all messages are short; some are long and need to be encrypted and transmitted using a fixed algorithm. So that our message is in the same format that we intend to send, to clarify this issue, it is not bad to consider an example:

Suppose we want to encrypt and transfer a simple word like “hello” using hash functions. This word will be: 78903c575b0dda53c4a7644a2dd36d0e using the eight function.

The length of this hash function is fixed, and the output hash function will be different as each part of the word changes. That is if instead of hello, we want the word “hello!” As a function of hash, the answer will be completely different.

As we said, hash functions are very important in digital currencies. It is no exaggeration to say that digital currencies depend on hash functions to be safe and secure. Most of the operations created in blockchain are based on hash functions and provide security in this area.

What is a hash rate?

We have indeed said that hash functions are used throughout the digital space, but this function plays a fundamental role in the world of digital currencies. How? Well, we will explain to you:

The number that indicates the processing power of a minor is called redundancy.

In bitcoin mining operations, miners have to solve mathematical operations to succeed in mining and mining bitcoins. This equation or decoder is solving the same code created with the hash functions. The hash rate or hash power is the measure that shows how fast a miner performs mine operations and will solve this equation.

How is the hash rate measured?

The hash unit (H / S) must be used to measure eight rates or eight rates. This formula is used to calculate the hash rate per second. The eight rates have smaller and larger units, some of which are listed below:

  • One kilowatt per second (1 KH / S), which is equal to one thousand hashes per second
  • One mega hash per second (1 MH / S), which is equal to one million hashes per second
  • One Giga hash per second (1 GH / s) equals one billion hashes per second
  • One conversion per second (1 TH / S) equal to one trillion hashes per second
  • A potash per second (1PH / S) equal to one quadrillion hashes per second
  • An excitation per second (1 EH / S) equal to one quintillion hashes per second
  • One zeitgeist per second (1 ZH? S) equal to: one hashtag per second
  • One Utah per second (1 YH / S) equal to one septillion hash per second
Hash algorithm

Hashing algorithms

There are many hash algorithms for cryptography, from the newest to the oldest:

Blake algorithm

Blake is one of the algorithms that have two different types. One type uses 32-bit words with a maximum hash length of 256 bits, while the other uses 64-bit words with a hash length of 512 bits.

The most well-known member of the Blake algorithm family is Blake2, introduced in 2012. Although the algorithms introduced and released before Blake was very popular, unfortunately, they did not have high security. They were very vulnerable, which was why Blake2 was introduced to solve this problem and, of course, higher performance.

Blake2 is divided into two subgroups, Blake2b, and Blake2s, which is much higher than its predecessor hash algorithms and is equal in security to the latest version of the secure hash algorithm.

Whirlpool algorithm

The Whirlpool algorithm was first published in 2000. In this algorithm, each message is received with a length of fewer than 2256 bytes, and an encrypted hash with a size of 512 bits (64 bytes) is generated. In the 512-bit hash of this algorithm, numbers are displayed as 128-digit numbers.

Whirlpool has been reviewed twice since 2000. For the first time, changing the S-box made it easier to implement the algorithm on the hardware and named it Whirpool-T. The second review in 2003 identified a bug that had reduced security, and eventually, the original version has renamed the Whirlpool.

SHA algorithm

SHA, abbreviated (Secure Hash Algorithm), means secure hash algorithm. This algorithm is a set of algorithms developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology and developed in 1993.

Of course, this version still works, and after fixing its defects, it became a newer and modified version called SHA-1. SHA-1 is a 160-bit hash function designed by the US National Security Agency to sign a digitization part of the algorithm.

However, in 2005, security breaches were detected in this algorithm, which was a sign of its possible vulnerability. And this is the path that led to the emergence of many different algorithms in other years.

What is a bitcoin hash rate?

As we said, the unit of measurement for hash rate is hash per second or H / S. This criterion is used to measure the power of a miner in bitcoin mining.

For example, if the eight-rate rate of a device is 60 hashes per second, 60 different hashes per second are presented as the answer to solving the block, which is a puzzle. In fact, the higher the hash rate, the more difficult it will be to mine a bitcoin.

These conditions in bitcoin mining are such that the network hardness is adjusted regularly until a fixed amount of bitcoin is finally mined. In this case, the more miners enter a network, the more difficult the network becomes. Higher hash rates per miner in this situation will increase the chances of getting more rewards.

How many bitcoins are in each issue?

Currently, the current bitcoin hash rate is fifty exacerbations per second. Of course, this rate increases with the addition of miners and, consequently, the difficulty.