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organicAnt · 3485 days ago · link · · parent · post: Julian Assange: Bitcoin and the control of history
The Blockchain uses cryptography and its decentralized nature means that one would have to not only crack the crypto but corrupt all copies of the blockchain to successfully change its past records. How does GIT prevent past records from being modified?
Well, Git uses SHA-1. It is a cryptographic hash, but of course vulnerable to collisions and already a bit deprecated. But a Git like system with a more robust hash (SHA-3, if you will) addresses that. (That paper that was gibberish explains it.) [p.s. Same with git re. 'copies'. If someone somehow manages to hack the SHA-1 sig for a commit on github for repo x, all the extant clones of the repo still maintain the original records and can challenge it.]