Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps Paperback (Daniel Drescher, 2017)
Cryptographic hash functions exhibit the following properties Provide hash values for any kind of data quickly Deterministic Pseudorandom One-way usage Collision resistant Application of hash functions to data can be accomplished by using the following patterns Repeated hashing Independent hashing Combined hashing Sequential hashing Hierarchical hashing Hash values can be used To compare data To detect whether data that were supposed to stay unchanged have been altered To refer to data in a change-sensitive manner To store a collection of data in a change-sensitive manner To create computationally expensive tasks Blockchain blocks The blockchain-data-structure is a specific kind of data structure that is made up of ordered units called blocks Each block of the blockchain-data-structure consists of a block header and a Merkle tree that contains transaction data The blockchain-data-structure consists of two major data structures: an ordered chain of block headers and Merkle trees O...