The Birthday Paradox and Hash Collisions: Understanding Probability in Cryptography
By
0xkrt26
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Summary
This article explores the birthday paradox (birthday problem) in probability theory and connects it to hash collisions in cryptography. It explains how with just 23 people in a room, there's a 50% chance of a shared birthday, and extends this mathematical principle to explain why hash functions can have collisions, why encryption systems have vulnerabilities, and the mathematical foundations that make both the surprising birthday result and cryptographic security work — and sometimes fail.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledWhat is the probability that you are sharing the same birthday with people around you? Well, if you're alone in the room, then it's most certainly zero.
This post turned out a little different from the previous ones. It's more of an essay than a dialogue.
sometimes the topic just has its own shape, so I left it like this.
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