Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Fast Merkle Trees

From: "Russell O'Connor" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2017 11:51:14 -0400

On Thu, Sep 7, 2017 at 1:55 AM, Peter Todd <[email-masked]> wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 06, 2017 at 09:59:54PM -0400, Russell O'Connor via bitcoin-dev
> wrote:
> > The fast hash for internal nodes needs to use an IV that is not the
> > standard SHA-256 IV. Instead needs to use some other fixed value, which
> > should itself be the SHA-256 hash of some fixed string (e.g. the string
> > "BIP ???" or "Fash SHA-256").
>
> Note that in general, designs should *not* create new hash functions by
> using
> custom IVs, but rather use bog-standard SHA256, and make a fixed first
> block.
> That allows unoptimised implementations to just hash a block with the
> second
> initialization value, and optimized implementations to start with the fixed
> midstate.

I 100% agree.

With SHA256 every final state is also a valid midstate.  Therefore, using a
custom IV of the SHA256 hash of some fixed string results in a hash of data
that is functionally equivalent to prefixing the data with the padded
version of the fixed string and using a regular SHA256 hash of the combined
data.  This is important and I should have explicitly pointed it out.