SHA-256

SHA-256 is a cryptographic hash function belonging to the SHA-2 family, initially designed by the National Security Agency (NSA). It gained fame as a foundational aspect of the Bitcoin blockchain network. SHA-256 secures data by employing a cryptographic mathematical operation to generate a unique 256-bit, 64-character random sequence of letters and numbers (hash) from an input. As a one-way function, it is nearly impossible to reverse the process and retrieve the original data from its hash value.