Steemit Crypto Academy Season 3 Week 4 | Homework Post for Professor @pelon53 - Root Hash and Merkle Tree

Hi everyone, I’m very delighted to take part of this lecture of professor @pelon53. The lecture was on Root hash and the Merkle Tree. Prof detailed this lecture very well and upon the way I understand it, I’ve decided to take part of this assignment task.

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1.- Explain in detail the hash rate.

Hash rate of a cryptocurrency is sometimes referred to as the Hash power. For mining of a cryptocurrency to be complete, the speed of the miner is very important because the miner is trying to solve questions. This means the miner will add a block to the chain before anybody can do that and for that matter reap rewards before anyone else.

In short the hash rate simply means the speed at which a cryptocurrency mining device operates. This hash rate is measured in units of hash/second. For instance, 2M hash/s indicates 2 million hash calculations are done every second.

Hash rate is a very important tool in the development of cryptocurrencies. The growth of the blockchain network also requires a great development in the hash rate as well. The increase in hash rate means there’s an increase in the security of the blockchain network because hash rates adds very difficult mathematical operations to the blockchain.

The increase in speed of a blockchain means hackers will need to find very high hash rates before they can break into a system. This makes the work of the hackers difficult and hence the blockchain is somehow safe from these hackers. The more difficult the mining becomes, the more hashes miners will need to reap rewards, making the total hash to be higher.

2.- Make the following Merkle Tree:

Transaction (tree leaves): Steem1; Steem2; Steem3; Steem4; Steem5; Steem6; Steem7; Steem8.

I made it to the Root Hash. And put every hash generated using SHA-256 , show screenshots.

Tell the steps to follow to verify if Steem6 is included in the Merkle Tree.

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To follow the right procedure for the Merkle tree, you’ll have to start from bottom up with the leaves of the tree which are Steem1, Steem2, Steem3, Steem4, Steem5, Steem6, Steem7, Steem8.

One begins from left to right to make two by two groups. The process is continued until you reach the Root Hash

I used SHA256 generator to obtain the components below:

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The Leaves Hash

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Steem1
Hash:
7760E25BCB80ADF1DD92DB339BF5790A59E90CD54EFA072F1250DCE13FA97045

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Steem2
Hash:
FE00506E91CF52BC4B35321E6B978D1A7349397B19C6C1C01E095971FDEC9741

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Steem3
Hash:
A9418332E0C351D6A50C835AA9E57D514F0573C231D491E97726DB8A5844F2DC

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Steem4:
Hash:
22F4EC8E20C9CCAF2C313B23F18981B1C73BF39081BCD739E5D998A95A46AB30

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Steem5
Hash:
2A3C87336683AB0DDFA56AFEFC740E6C13A02FEA0A43D6797343B26D7AF0C57B

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Steem6
Hash:
A7BAA6DE0C0658E9E3681966E542BACD116529F5AE9A2D9126CDB1C1D5BC1278

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Steem7
Hash:
D441688DDA7F9285E8811728DD9A3955CF74F0A3C7600C1589D0F1D3B48FFAC7

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Steem8
Hash:
F2E38ED4FF662087B6E9BEAFA4158EBC488B995732057BDA019A6A77FFB5F9F5

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Tree branches hash

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Steem1Steem2
Hash:
A5568957014F6AC3866923C7DE20D375E706B8D8C9F453636E90B9965ABEC62B

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Steem3Steem4
Hash:
18D25196DB699F6AB9222B7302EB8A6F6EBFADEC703C07DD5DB8D9455913A499

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Steem5Steem6
Hash:
D118E137F92A0DBEA138B6BF70C7714153A7BC393CD0272A44BD94864645224B

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Steem7Steem8
Hash:
A81D57BA11AEDFA9EFBBA42F6523D75D1EFA50B22C5E3557A21CEFFE87DDFC4A

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Second level tree branches

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Steem1Steem2Steem3Steem4
Hash:
8A248C05E69C4F1AA403AD18A7F445FF500C42483DA425CE0C980CDB2FD1AD9B

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Steem5Steem6Steem7Steem8
Hash:
8B0935AEAB3F51BFA2B0750703EE2387E2B20EB19B0D24227E180C03A851AF17

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ROOT HASH

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Steem1Steem2Steem3Steem4Steem5Steem6Steem7Steem8
Hash:
9C2FC83F36D59B8ED5033D2BCC417728583C8DAA0AA9868FD374BE3619D6E4F9

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Create Merkle tree

Now that we’re done with each component of the Merkle tree, we can now place each component in their rightful position in the tree as shown below.

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Tell the steps to follow to verify if Steem6 is included in the Merkle Tree.

For us to be able to determine whether Steem6 is included in the root hash, we have to check through the root hash by downloading it. The steps below can lead to the verification:

• Check the presence of Steem5, Steem7Steem8 and Steem1Steem2Steem3Steem4.

• Then calculate the following hashes:

1. Hash Steem6
2. Hash Steem5Steem6
3. Hash Steem5Steem6Steem7Steem8
4. Hash Steem1Steem2Steem3Steem4Steem5Steem6Steem7Steem8.

• After all these processes you’ll realize that Steem6 is included in the last Hash which is the Root Hash of the Merkle tree.

This means we can draw a conclusion that the Steem6 hash is in the root hash.

3.- Using the SHA-256; you must place each complete hash in the Merkle Tree.

Transaction (tree leaves): SCA1; SCA2; SCA3; SCA4; SCA5; SCA6; SCA7; SCA8. Explain each step, show screenshots.

If the number of leaves on the tree is odd, what should you do? Explain.

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Here we have to make a Merkle tree from the leaves of the tree: SCA1; SCA2; SCA3; SCA4; SCA5; SCA6; SCA7; SCA8. We repeat the steps in question 2.

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SCA1
Hash:
13E0A04BB0E669E1C638DBE3A704743F99F162B25245E4D8C064D35BA38FA8C8

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SCA2
Hash:
27849353A9C8CC4E948EB6E5748EDD79CB83513D8C0ADAF3E8C83D3792C9149B

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SCA3
Hash:
67E872F952C105C35E0BCE130536D061F4999DCA5593754BA9BA7BE59B8E7C0D

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SCA4
Hash:
491928A32BAE70A12FA251412BBFD7C9999F317BA6BF577C283C724225270A43

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SCA5
Hash:
99C078C39CDE7F47799E0E8691460A9F3E83E78D498EA989308FCFCC58907B19

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SCA6
Hash:
7A648D887B124DB14E96E23BA92783E7F26D00957C19B9B8229632C2C1873729

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SCA7
Hash:
7E0BBD6BA4BA9896F9911AF46B06DD2C47535F9C80B29D693FDF6B9319D0D68E

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SCA8
Hash:

562ABCEEB497E1FE7AE275A883FD5EF9D92A05F5C19D82ABAA0DC1571B7DF3AD

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SCA1SCA2
Hash:
91B09BBA815748166FB36413342C7E4E7E809F4BAC538C0418841A4476B527EF

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SCA3SCA4
Hash:
B49B48697A3ACBC5E3D2E36B6EE49C44020D88E664C5C1AA7A7CF34058177379

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SCA5SCA6
Hash:
F026924CD1285FF92C2A2DE9B9313027EB67273A82375C939348C887F6B52F77

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SCA7SCA8
Hash:
AA55EC5A6B11393B289C4B2B6916172ACC2941C5C978FB1D7BF02696BAB323A4

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SCA1SCA2SCA3SCA4
Hash:
F50DC120CBF6C46923037F6D7F41D4153ECC9AB7430DDA662C142DB1FFE483F7

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SCA5SCA6SCA7SCA8
Hash:
A3D8CA8494CC426ABD5E1FC5FA0FEAE4F2B2ECE4C4CECDCA05E19EB66542533F

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SCA1SCA2SCA3SCA4SCA5SCA6SCA7SCA8
Hash:
CB40CA6DB72DD507CF9118963F94B7740822258E74AFB0FD45D89DB35D24B386

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Now you’ll place each hash in its corresponding node in the Merkle tree as shown below.

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If the number of leaves on the tree is odd, what should you do? Explain

When the number of leaves is odd, we do a transaction for the last leaf and add it so that we can get an even number of the leaves. This will balance the Merkle tree and make it complete as required.

Conclusion

The Speed of a hash increases the security of a blockchain network. Therefore Hashing must be taken very seriously so that hackers will find it difficult to hack the blockchain network.
Merkle tree has a very exclusive function in transactions of a blockchain. It is self verifiable and you don’t need to verify everything before you get access to a transaction.

Thank you professor @pelon53 for this detailed lecture.