Meaning/Derivation of 32 byte TxID hash

1

A largely abstract question (set) I've tried to answer for awhile is the nature of a TxID (32 byte hex Transaction ID hash).

First and foremost, I certainly understand the main function if this value(?) is to uniquely identify a Transaction (primarily to tracks unspent outputs, AKA UTXOs).

But let's take a random TxID, say e151de4f5a339ed545e24ecfc8f811f9143fefc10574af40721a156ff2d3a389.

  1. How is a TxID assigned to a Transaction?
  2. Are 2 identical Txs that: double spend, have identical k PRNG-signed (so not a RNG!) sigs, identical inputs/outputs (a lot of assumptions here) given identical hashes?
  3. Tangentially: are the Big/Little Endian expressions of TxIDs (by BCI and bitcoincore respectively) suggesting two different usages (ie TxIDs are values in one sense but akin to URIs in another: is this normal?)

I know the questions seem somewhat disparate but I think the best summation is what exactly are TxIDs?

Wizard Of Ozzie

Posted 2015-03-15T10:37:53.307

Reputation: 4 535

Answers

3

How is a TxID assigned to a Transaction?

It's a hash of key transaction information -- inputs, outputs, scripts, signatures.

Are 2 identical Txs that: double spend, have identical k PRNG-signed (so not a RNG!) sigs, identical inputs/outputs (a lot of assumptions here) given identical hashes?

This question is ill-formed. Unless there's some difference between them, they're not 2 transactions, they're one transaction. It's like talking about "two identical integers" -- that would just be one integer.

David Schwartz

Posted 2015-03-15T10:37:53.307

Reputation: 46 931

To clarify: a Tx formed from identical components except the signature will have different hashes, correct? How does one calculate the Tx hash from a raw Tx exactly? (ie is it a double SHA256 of the raw Tx with(out) appended SIGHASH?) – Wizard Of Ozzie – 2015-03-16T07:39:11.237

1

Yes, different signatures means a different transaction. It's not quite as simple as hashing the raw transaction. See this link.

– David Schwartz – 2015-03-16T09:24:16.540

Asked: 2015-03-15T10:37:53.307

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Active: 2015-03-15T12:25:31.827