Crypto Hash Performance

Discussions compare speed, hardware acceleration, security, and alternatives for cryptographic hash functions like SHA-1, SHA-2, SHA-3, BLAKE2, and BLAKE3, often recommending faster options over slower or outdated ones.

📉 Falling 0.4x Security
2,822
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#3917
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
1
2008
7
2009
22
2010
28
2011
26
2012
127
2013
123
2014
144
2015
158
2016
146
2017
456
2018
91
2019
141
2020
286
2021
248
2022
333
2023
153
2024
156
2025
163
2026
13

Keywords

SHA3 GCM XOF p.info moserware.com ARM SipHas advanced.html DES SHAKE256 sha hash 256 512 md5 faster fast checksum hardware hardware support

Sample Comments

conradludgate • Oct 13, 2023 • View on HN

SHA3 is fine but it's so slow, I don't many people that use it

altmind • Jun 20, 2020 • View on HN

because the speed is not the only concern. also, sha2 is already hardware accelerated, and may still be faster than the rest of the hashes.

somedude11 • Sep 8, 2020 • View on HN

SHA2 is hardware accelerated on many new CPUs, Blake family not so much.

yencabulator • Jul 3, 2022 • View on HN

And Blake3 is almost 7 times faster than SHA-1...

nly • Dec 22, 2015 • View on HN

Aren't there more secure hashes than SHA1 that are also faster? Like BLAKE2, which can be configured for 128 or 160 bit output?

ktta • Jun 21, 2017 • View on HN

Depends on the context. If there is a lot of hashing, then a faster alternative like BLAKE2b is better.

newpavlov • Dec 31, 2022 • View on HN

One issue with SHA-3 is that it currently (unfortunately) lacks hardware acceleration support, while SHA-256 can be ridiculously fast on modern x86 and ARM chips. BLAKE3 is another potential alternative, it can be used as XOF and can be very fast without hardware support.

kzrdude • Oct 24, 2020 • View on HN

Time to move on to SHA-512/256 or BLAKE3

bawolff • Oct 24, 2020 • View on HN

Sha256 has special instructions in silicon for it. Performance is not a reasonable excuse. If performance mattered and you didnt need sha's security properties, you would be using CRC32 or something.

mtgx • Jun 11, 2017 • View on HN

Isn't this SHA-3 less safe, too? Why not just go with BLAKE2?