3 ms·

Could someone scan all the mined blocks, and find one that has a plaintext conforming to the submission requirements? Edit: Looking at the data structure for a

• taxborn 2y ago
  This would be roughly equivalent to finding a SHA256 collision then, right?
  • WatchDog 2y ago
    Before looking into the actual bitcoin block structure, and realizing this wasn't possible, I thought that maybe hashes were a hash of a hash. A hash is essentially just some random bytes, there is a small chance that the first hash bytes would randomly all be printable characters that fit the submission format, given that the bitcoin network has already done most of the work finding the small hashes, scanning through the blockchain trying to find a hash with a plaintext that fits the submission criteria, should be much less work.
    • Retr0id 2y ago
      They are hashes of hashes, and in fact I already did scan all* the blocks to check if any of them meet the constraints, just in case (they don't, and it would be extremely unlikely but not entirely out of the question). *as of a year or so ago (my archive is stale and I'm too lazy to update it)
  • anacrolix 2y ago
    No, you're looking for a suitable hash but not an exact match to anything. Some of the hashes are premined. But you do need the hash input to fit a specific format. That's still more likely and more accessible than a collision (I'm sure scanning all the available values is computable in a relatively shorter time than finding arbitrary collisions with a specific hash).