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Hash Pointers

This document provides an introduction to cryptographic hash functions, hash pointers, and data structures used in cryptocurrencies. It defines a hash pointer as a pointer to stored data along with a cryptographic hash of the data. A block chain is described as a linked list built using hash pointers that allows verification that stored data has not changed. Modifying data in the block chain would result in an incorrect hash pointer in the next block, detecting tampering. A Merkle tree is also discussed, which groups data blocks into a tree structure hashed at each node, allowing efficient proofs that a data block is included in the tree.

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Kaushik Gupta
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164 views

Hash Pointers

This document provides an introduction to cryptographic hash functions, hash pointers, and data structures used in cryptocurrencies. It defines a hash pointer as a pointer to stored data along with a cryptographic hash of the data. A block chain is described as a linked list built using hash pointers that allows verification that stored data has not changed. Modifying data in the block chain would result in an incorrect hash pointer in the next block, detecting tampering. A Merkle tree is also discussed, which groups data blocks into a tree structure hashed at each node, allowing efficient proofs that a data block is included in the tree.

Uploaded by

Kaushik Gupta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Module 1 Introduction to Cryptography &

Cryptocurrencies
Cryptographic Hash Functions, Hash Pointers and Data Structures, Digital Signatures, Public Keys as Identities, A
Simple Cryptocurrency.
Hash Pointer - DS
Hash Pointer - DS
• A hash pointer is simply a pointer to where some information is stored together with a cryptographic hash of
the information.
• Whereas a regular pointer gives you a way to retrieve the information, a hash pointer also gives you a way to
verify that the information hasn’t changed.

Hash pointer. A hash pointer is a pointer to where data is stored together with a cryptographic hash of the
value of that data at some fixed point in time.
• Block chain. A block chain is a linked list that is built with hash pointers instead of pointers.

• Tamper-proof logs Ensuring that personal data are only accessed by


authorized users— and for authorized purposes
• So we can build a block chain like this containing as many blocks as we want, going back to some special
block at the beginning of the list, which we will call the genesis block .
Tamper‐evident log. If an adversary modifies data anywhere in the block chain, it will result
in the hash pointer in the following block being incorrect. If we store the head of the list, then even if
the adversary modifies all of the pointers to be consistent with the modified data, the head pointer
will be incorrect, and we will detect the tampering.
• Merkle trees. Another useful data structure that we can build using hash pointers is a binary tree. A binary
tree with hash pointers is known as a Merkle tree , after its inventor Ralph Merkle

• Merkle tree. In a Merkle tree, data blocks are grouped in pairs and the hash of each of these blocks is stored
in a parent node. The parent nodes are in turn grouped in pairs and their hashes stored one level up the
tree. This continues all the way up the tree until we reach the root node.
• Proof of membership. Another nice feature of Merkle trees is that, unlike the block chain that we built
before, it allows a concise proof of membership. Say that someone wants to prove that a certain data block
is a member of the Merkle Tree. As usual, we remember just the root. Then they need to show us this data
block, and the blocks on the path from the data block to the root. We can ignore the rest of the tree, as the
blocks on this path are enough to allow us to verify the hashes all the way up to the root of the tree.
Thank You

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