CSE1006 Study Guide - Bitcoin, Collision Resistance, 2014 Fifa World Cup
20 Dec 2022
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Bitcoin is a data structure to which we can write new data, and one where data is tamper proof and available forever once it has been written. We can tell if one piece of data was written to the log before or after another piece. This ordering arises from the block hash pointers, not the block timestamps a block"s timestamp can in fact be a lower (earlier) value than its predecessor. That"s because miners can lie about time-stamps, miners" clocks may not be synchronized, and there is latency on the network. The goal is to prove that we knew some value x at a specific time t. so, x can be kept secret until we need to prove we knew it. And we want this evidence to be permanent. To fulfil our purpose, we can compute the hash of x and submit it into the blockchain at time t.
