SHA-256

So what exactly is SHA-256? Well, as i said before, it’s an algorithm. To be more specific, a cryptographic hash function, which has been designed by your friends and mine, the NSA. Wait, wait, don’t freak out yet, there is nothing to worry about. Bear with me for this, you won’t be bored, I promise.


What this hash function does, is it transforms (or hashes) a set of data elements into a fixed length value. This length value will then be compared against copies of the original data, without the ability to derive the original data. That’s the official Wikipedia explanation, which is all fine and dandy, but i don’t speak that language. I am pretty sure most of you don’t either, so allow me to explain what this means for us “commoners”.

As we all know, when mining SHA-256 coins, we are solving shares with our CPU or GPU. These shares are displayed in your mining program as something along the lines of “Accepted 0aef41a3b”. That value, 0aef41a3b, is a hash. It represents the data element we have solved, converted to a hash value. In very simple terms : it’s a short line of data we have solved, while the main chunk (or block) of data consists of several thousands, if not millions, lines of data.

Which also explains why you (usually) need to solve a lot of shares before finding a block of your coin. You have a one in a thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, or one in a million chance of solving THE line that identifies the EXACT value required to unlock, or mine the data (or block). It’s kind of like playing the lottery, but using machinery, which can perform calculations to the winning combination way faster and better than any of us humans can do. This does not include humans who luckily guess a winning combination!

So, for solving SHA-256 hashes, you would need some powerful hardware, you say? Well, yes, you do. The more computational power you can throw at it, the better, and the bigger your chance of getting a big payday. However, keep in mind, you aren’t the only person fighting for a piece of the data pie, and there are people who have more and better resources than you. Don’t get discouraged when you appear unlucky. Like playing the lottery, you never know when your moment may come!

But now let’s go back to the actual SHA-256 algorithm. Crypto-currency isn’t the only example of where SHA-256 is used. There are several protocols you may have heard of which implement the same algorithm. Protocols like SSL, SSH, PGP, and many more. Every time you visit a secure website with an SSL certificate, SHA-256 is involved. I bet you didn’t think of it that way, did you? See, we are all learning here today!

So let’s talk some SHA-256 then! You’ve got, of course, Bitcoin, which is probably the most famous in this category. But it doesn’t stop there, of course. Lately, there has been a surge of new SHA-256 coins, including, but not limited to : Zetacoin, Ocoin, Tekcoin, and more. But we also can’t forget the coins that launched before the new SHA-256 coins, such as NameCoin and others.

As you can see, there’s plenty of SHA-256 going around inside and outside the crypto world. Should you wish to learn more about the exact workings of SHA-256, or learn a bit more about it’s history and implementations, head on over to Wikipedia.

SHA-256