BLAKE2b
Faster than MD5, more secure than SHA-3. Quietly powers WireGuard, Argon2, libsodium, and most password managers' KDF inputs.
By Deepak Gupta ·
BLAKE2b is a 512-bit hash (variable-length output, up to 64 bytes) optimized for 64-bit platforms and designed to be *faster than MD5* while remaining cryptographically secure. It's the hash function inside Argon2's compression step, inside libsodium's `crypto_generichash`, inside WireGuard's noise protocol, and inside an enormous number of password managers. The Achilles heel is awareness: BLAKE2 is less famous than SHA-256 so it gets reached for less often, even when it would be the better choice. BLAKE3 (2020) is its successor and is faster again on modern multi-core CPUs, but BLAKE2b is still the practical default for embedded systems and single-threaded code paths.
Recommended uses
- ·High-throughput hashing on 64-bit servers without SHA-NI
- ·Generic-purpose keyed hash (built-in `key` parameter, no HMAC wrapper needed)
- ·Generating salts, nonces, derivation chains in libsodium-style cryptography
Known attacks / caveats
- ·None practical.
Designed by
Aumasson, Neves, Wilcox-O'Hearn, Winnerlein, published 2012.