RIPEMD-160
The hash inside every Bitcoin and Ethereum address. Cryptographically strong-ish, but mostly here because Satoshi picked it.
By Deepak Gupta ·
RIPEMD-160 is a 160-bit hash from a European academic team, designed in the mid-1990s as an alternative to MD5 and SHA-1. It would have remained an obscure footnote if Satoshi Nakamoto hadn't chosen it as the second hash in Bitcoin's address derivation (`RIPEMD160(SHA256(pubkey))`). Today every Bitcoin and Ethereum address depends on its collision resistance. There's no known practical attack (the best public result is on the closely related RIPEMD-128), but the algorithm is also not actively analyzed, which makes it an awkward dependency for the world's biggest cryptocurrencies. Pick RIPEMD-160 only when you're interoperating with cryptocurrency tooling.
Recommended uses
- ·Bitcoin / Ethereum address derivation and interop
Known attacks / caveats
- ·Theoretical preimage attacks on reduced rounds (Mendel et al., 2011)
Designed by
Dobbertin, Bosselaers, Preneel (KU Leuven), published 1996.