One-Way Fingerprints
A Fingerprint, as Ethent uses the term, is a unique mathematical representation of a value, like the dollar amount or payee written on a bank check. This fingerprint is a sequence or string of 0s and 1s and can be written as a hexadecimal number, where each hex number or letter is equal to a sequence or string of four numbers, each of which is either a 0 or a 1.
For example, if the value $945.62 was converted to a Fingerprint that was a sequence or string of one hundred sixty 0s and 1s, the hexadecimal number might be written with these 40 digits:
- 5a37b15891678db6b6f77ab35cde7949a20dcc1c
A Fingerprint is One-Way if the original value (for example, $945.62) cannot be calculated from the Fingerprint (for example, the sequence or string of one hundred sixty 0s and 1s).
Thus, a One-Way Fingerprint is:
- a Fingerprint because it is a unique mathematical representation of a value, like the dollar amount or payee on a bank check.
- One-Way because the value, like the dollar amount or payee, cannot be calculated from the Fingerprint.
Hash functions are mathematical systems that have been designed to produce one-way computations, where the original value cannot be calculated from the output of the hash function. For a more detailed discussion of hash functions and their use in authentication systems see Ethent Views: "Hash Function Authentication".