DEV Community

Cover image for Design of Hashing Algorithms in Solidity
Shlok Kumar
Shlok Kumar

Posted on

Design of Hashing Algorithms in Solidity

The choice of hashing algorithm depends on the specific use case and security requirements

At the heart of hashing is a mathematical function that operates on two fixed-size blocks of data to create a hash code. This hash function forms part of the hashing algorithm. The size of each data block varies depending on the algorithm. Typically, the block sizes are from 128 bits to 512 bits.

The following illustration demonstrates the hash function:

Hash Function

The hashing algorithm, which is similar to a block cipher, consists of rounds of the hash function described above. For each round, a fixed-size input is required, which is often a combination of the most recent message block and the output from the previous round. This operation is repeated as many times as necessary to hash the entire message, up to the maximum number of rounds allowed.

The following graphic depicts a schematic representation of the hashing algorithm:

Hash Representation

As a result, the hash value of the first message block is used as an input for the second hash operation, the output of which influences the result of the third operation, and so forth. This phenomenon is referred to as the avalanche effect of hashing. When two messages differ by even a single bit of data, the avalanche effect results in significantly different hash values for the two messages.

Understand the difference between a hash function and an algorithm in the proper manner. The hash function generates a hash code by performing operations on two blocks of binary data of defined length. In computing, a hash algorithm is a procedure for employing the hash function that specifies how the message will be divided up and how the results from previous message blocks will be linked together.

Solidity includes many cryptographic functions that can be used to protect data. The methods listed below are essential.

  • keccak256(bytes memory) returns (bytes32) - It computes the Keccak-256 hash of the given input.

  • ripemd160(bytes memory) returns (bytes20) - This function is used to compute the ripemd160 hash of the input compute using RIPEMD-160 algorithm.

  • sha256(bytes memory) returns (bytes32) - Computes the SHA-256 hash of the input using the sha256(bytes memory) returns (bytes32) function

  • ecrecover(bytes32 hash, uint8 v, bytes32 r, bytes32 s) returns (address) - This function recovers the address associated with the public key from the elliptic curve signature or returns zero if there is an error. The following parameters of the function correspond to the ECDSA values of the signature: r represents the first 32 bytes of the signature; s represents the second 32 bytes of the signature; and v represents the final 1 byte of the signature. This method returns an address in the form of a string.

For more content, follow me at - https://linktr.ee/shlokkumar2303

Top comments (0)