A Deep Dive into SHA-256 By Learning To Hash by Hand

A thorough exploration of the fundamental details of the algorithm that preserves the security of today’s computer systems

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SHA-256 or the Secure-Hash-Algorithm 256-bit is a cryptographic hashing algorithm/ function that is widely used by almost all computers today.

It belongs to a family of SHA-2 hashing algorithms developed by the National Security Agency (NSA) and first published in 2001.

Some popular use cases of this algorithm today are:

• Digital certificates for SSL/ TLS

• Mining algorithm of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin wallet address generation

• Checking the integrity of files in version control systems like Git

• Password hashing, storage and verification

This is a story that discusses this algorithm in great depth and teaches its implementation by hand.