Bitcoin Primitives: Hash Functions

There are three foundational concepts, if understood well, can make the initial learning journey for BSV easier. These are: Hash Functions, Merkle Trees, and Digital Signatures.

In this path we examine Hash Functions on the Bitcoin protocol - that the BSV blockchain (BSV) is based on. You will learn:

• What hash functions are,

• The hash functions used in BSV,

• How hash functions are used in BSV,

• Why double hashing is used in BSV, and

• The role hash functions play in BSV's security model.

As this is a beginner-level path, it assumes no knowledge of the BSV blockchain. This course is designed for anyone that wants to learn more about BSV and will introduce some general computer science techniques. Upon completion, students will understand how these techniques enable the network to scale efficiently.

Please note:

There is example code in various parts of the course, and two example hash function implementations (all written using the Go programming language). These examples are simply meant to aid in understanding the course material; knowing how to read and write code is not required to complete this course.

However, although it is not necessary to understand and complete the course, some familiarity with command line or terminal environments and programming is assumed with respect to the example code presented in the course.

Installation of Supporting Libraries Quick-Start: GoLang

You can install Go for your operating system from the official Go website: https://go.dev/doc/install

Once you have Go installed, create a new directory and initialize a new Go module using the following command:

// go mod init github.com/[your username]/bsv-examples

The examples are built from first principles, but if you'd like to use the SDK you can install it by running:

// go get github.com/bsv-blockchain/go-sdk

Once you complete the path with a score of 80% or more, you’ll earn a Certificate of Completion to recognize your achievement.