How Hashing is useful in recent technologies? Few applications related to it.

Khushi Jhanwar
5 min readDec 21, 2020

--

Let’s say you have an important file to send and you want to ensure it will get to the addressee without any changes, in one piece. You could use some trivial methods, like sending it multiple times, contact the addressee and verify the file, and so on… but there’s a much better approach: using a hashing algorithm.

What is Hashing?
Hashing is the practice of taking clear text. and converting it into a dissolve of clear text data in such a manner that it is not meant to be decrypted. Hashing‘s output is defined as a digest of a hash, hash price, or text. It is an interesting field of alphanumeric that is distinct from contrivance for encryption. Hashing generates a distorted result that cannot easily be restored. scientifically, hashing produces a value of a fastener length that is fairly simple to determine in one command, but almost difficult to back.

Hashing is a method for chopping up and mixing results, as the name loosely implies. Searching for individual records based on their shorter hashed keys, rather than their original values, is typically much simpler for database indexing and retrieval. For limited enough data sets, each record can produce a unique hash key, and hashing a long string of characters (such as a letter or data set) generates a simplified key for encryption purposes that can be as special as a “fingerprint”.

Use of hashing in recent technologies
Data is the most valuable asset you have. As a marketer, the data on your existing audience and your target audience matters a lot. But data alone does not add value, you need to segment and use that data further correctly.

For example, you can share a list of email addresses of your current customers who have already purchased a certain product and exclude them from your advertising campaigns. And so, you can drive a much more efficient and targeted advertising campaign and hashing is your way there

It is a way to add data in any data structure in such a way that it is possible to insert, delete, and scan the simple operations on that data in O (1) time. Since it optimizes the code to a large degree, it is one of the most critical things that any programmer and developer should know.

To implement programming languages, file systems, pattern searching, distributed key-value storage, cryptography, etc., hashing is used. There are several cases in which the principle of hashing is used.

There are also other hashing uses, including the hash functions of modern-day cryptography.
Message Digest: The task that generates a result from which it is close to unfeasible to enter the input are cryptographic hash functions. Irreversibility is considered this property of hash functions.

Suppose the files have to be stored on some of the available cloud providers. You must make sure that no third party is messing with the files that you keep. You do so using a cryptographic hash algorithm by calculating the “hash” of the text. So the computation of hashing huge amounts of files won’t be an issue. These hashes are saved on your local instruments. So, you wonder whether or not the files have been manipulated or not. The hash price of the file will certainly change if anyone manipulates the file. It is almost difficult to tamper with the file without modifying the hash.

Password Verification: In password authentication, the cryptanalysis hash task is very widely used.

You type your email and password to validate that the account you are attempting to access belongs to you anytime you use any online service that needs a user username. A hash of the password is calculating as the password is entered, and is then forwarded to the server for password authentication. The passwords saved on the server are simply the original passwords’ calculated hash values. This is required to guarantee that no sniffing is present when the password is transmitted from client to server.

Linking File name and path together: We notice two very important components of a file when going through data on our local machine, i.e. file name and file path. The system utilizes a guide (document name, record way), which is actualized utilizing a hash table, to spare the correspondence between document name and document way.

Some really cool application in the real-world where we using Hash functions

In its proof-of-work programs, Bitcoin utilizes a hash algorithm. Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 hash algorithm to generate verifiably “random” numbers in a way that requires a predictable amount of CPU effort. Generating an SHA-256 hash with a value less than the current target solves a block and wins you some coins.

Transaction hash (txid) is an identifier used to uniquely identify a particular transaction. All on-chain transactions (the transactions from or to external addresses) have a unique txid that can be seen in transaction details. A transaction hash usually looks like a random set of letters and numbers. All on-chain transactions (depositing and withdrawing of funds) have a unique txid that can be found in transaction details.

In the bitcoin protocol, hash functions are part of the block hashing algorithm which is used to write new transactions into the blockchain through the mining process.

Hash functions in bitcoin mining, the inputs for the function are all of the most recent, not-yet-confirmed transactions (along with some additional inputs relating to the timestamp and a reference to the previous block).

Hash values are used by forensic experts to ensure that digital objects have not shifted.It is a fundamental tool in digital forensic analysis used both to ensure data integrity and to efficiently identify known data objects.

Hash values are used to identify and filter duplicate files (i.e. email, attachments, and loose files) from an ESI collection or verify that a forensic image or clone was captured successfully. Each hashing algorithm uses a specific number of bytes to store a “ thumbprint” of the contents. Digital forensics professionals use hashing algorithms such as MD5 and SHA1 to generate hash values of the original files they use in investigation.

--

--

Responses (22)