Glossary · Ledger

Hash.

A short, fixed-size fingerprint of arbitrary data that changes drastically with any input change.

Think of it as

A digital fingerprint. Tiny change to the data, completely different fingerprint. Easy to compute one way, impossible to reverse.

In depth

Blockchains use cryptographic hashes (BLAKE2b on Cardano) to identify transactions, blocks, scripts, and datums. A hash is computed deterministically from its input; changing a single byte produces a completely different hash, which is what lets a chain detect tampering.

Example

A transaction’s hash like "a1b2…e3f4" uniquely identifies it on the chain; you can look it up in any explorer.

Next on this path

  1. Blockchain An append-only sequence of blocks, each linking to the previous one by hash.
  2. Address The destination encoded into a UTxO. May be a public-key address or a script address.