Want to verify previous block hash and prove of work

Question

I want to verify several random blocks and check if there was prove of work really found. I need it for some reasearch reasons. I have downloaded the blocks historical info and there are only hashes with number of zeroes in the block headers in the ladder I have downloded. This means the prove of work was alredy found. Is there any way to get initial block hash and the prove of work which was found, so I could calculate their hash by myself?

There is an exaple: SHA256 hash of the current block hash = 000000000000000000044F29DB8B3388FD4E4CF400420B2AA8DA008E9891250B

How can I find what was the initial hash number and prove of work?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

How can I find what was the initial hash number ...

There's no such thing. Every miner assembles their own choice of transactions and makes their own choice of initial nonce value. There's no way to find out which combinations and values each miner tried first - they simply discard ones that don't hash less than the target, there's no record of failed attempts.

... and prove of work?

The hash being less than the target appropriate for that block height is the proof of work. Your example number is the proof of work for that block.

To validate that proof you just need to recalculate the hash and see that it agrees with the one you posted and then calculate the current network target for that block height based on prior block targets and times.

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