Chapter 1 - Assessment

Question 1

Using the hash tool, put the following strings through the SHA256 hash function to generate the leaf nodes for a n=8 Merkle tree and submit your answers for checking.

String	Hash Output
Merkle	728beae3756e9ea17b15ecbc095a5c0d7bba2c3182b83606baf199560ba868ba
merkle	7975edd9e7393c229e744913fe0d0bb86fb4cf46906e2e51152137e20ad15590
Merkle.	deec3768d35c91629a6009615c81325ce64326b64cc6cf4bc030ac81735f44a6
Angela Merkle	1bbf3a5e3dcd411436ac3f316f943d6c8bb73d0fe2e61eb0bfb05fafc7b27c68
The Merkle tree is data structure that allows for the efficient verification of an object within a data set.	dd9b934231c0de7bb17ae690de982d415a14805e922278001fd942ed1864ba9a
Merkle trees are better than normal trees.	7437606ded93a98d18ba92655e7b4d80341e67f4d2ed8668c0e03580f5902f29
I want Merkle trees in my garden.	08799c76ea4b1fe1e29549efb6546d925a2f455eec0c34135e8a213b96f3240f
Ralph and Angela sitting in a Merkle tree, H, A, S, H, I, N, G.	104f2c8ee72d8e45fc57c625f7eba77f060b14ff74f1cf52e8945ebef3dab3c7

Question 2

String	Hash Output
1	728beae3756e9ea17b15ecbc095a5c0d7bba2c3182b83606baf199560ba868ba
2	7975edd9e7393c229e744913fe0d0bb86fb4cf46906e2e51152137e20ad15590
3	deec3768d35c91629a6009615c81325ce64326b64cc6cf4bc030ac81735f44a6
4	1bbf3a5e3dcd411436ac3f316f943d6c8bb73d0fe2e61eb0bfb05fafc7b27c68
5	dd9b934231c0de7bb17ae690de982d415a14805e922278001fd942ed1864ba9a
6	7437606ded93a98d18ba92655e7b4d80341e67f4d2ed8668c0e03580f5902f29
7	08799c76ea4b1fe1e29549efb6546d925a2f455eec0c34135e8a213b96f3240f
8	104f2c8ee72d8e45fc57c625f7eba77f060b14ff74f1cf52e8945ebef3dab3c7

Using the above 8 leaf node values from Question 1, calculate the interior node values for each layer and the Merkle root for the n=8 data set.

Node	Hash Value	Node	Hash Value	Node	Merkle Root
1-2	cd550962d71468c3fd506659550e85556cdb1bc5732147c8d0a83e0039073157	1:4	5c4e816ff3f423c944bb731ff9c5d8d6c94ad2382fdd20d683f7f53cdaaa2a96	1:8	cb616ffdb9c4b9d8a5779d313feb1d4e72057a18aa8afbbba4cbd0668c6c3143
3-4	fd1dda0adc00ac809aa919ffa6c51945298f361236fcb8bf6ab603994070a3f0
5-6	4986379cc1f295d076d5c1f9024684a38a312af31375d8ddec806c320fb61a45	5:8	ac23d6710fe773c9a65343383f2c43bda4d731fe373572c31a89692b631b72ba
7-8	b62bd0509ad0fcb0f3a2e3187ad9ba377671aae923ff05af5454bd4924af926c

Question 3

Now using the Merkle root calculated in the previous question: cb616ffdb9c4b9d8a5779d313feb1d4e72057a18aa8afbbba4cbd0668c6c3143, calculate the value of the leaf node for a ninth data element that has been added to the set, then using that value calculate the interior node values for each layer and the new Merkle root.

Merkle Root for the 9-element data set
String	Merkle merkle Merkle. Merk!
Layer 0	5bff83fe50c8f36e3a7829510ad1cac2d1e31ae2585c00d7db46bd696e15d528
Layer 1	55066a8b1980529201c99f64e8e69e7a24a78ccb3d73e1ab37f8a255840cd998
Layer 2	3520f3f3051db6c548cdb16be0477f6121f13b5d1c4af45a580af77b62b47133
Layer 3	eeeea7acddb8616e046da57d3b11999aa41f092d3542d7b48b8ca9c48d6e3012
Merkle Root	4a126667a1f5adb902803bb3c6e073902d39e012f05f922ba9d0a45c0e628061