Episode 3: BLAKE3, A Parallelizable Hash Function Using Merkle Trees!

Ever since its introduction in 2012, the BLAKE hash function has been reputed for achieving performance matching and even exceeding MD5 while still maintaining a high security margin.

While the original BLAKE did make it as a finalist to the NIST SHA3 competition, Keccak was ultimately selected. But this hasn’t discouraged the BLAKE team, who in January of this year, published BLAKE3, promising to be even faster than BLAKE2 thanks to a highly parallelizable design and fewer rounds.

But wait, what exactly is a parallelizable hash function? Isn't a lower round number risky? And heck, how do you even design a hash function?! Joining me today are two of the four BLAKE3 authors: Jack O’Connor and Jean-Philippe Aumasson, to discuss these questions and more.

Links and papers discussed in the show:

• BLAKE3
• Too Much Crypto
• PoSH: Proof of Staked Hardware Consensus
• Online Authenticated-Encryption and its Nonce-Reuse Misuse-Resistance

Music composed by Toby Fox and performed by Sean Schafianski.