BLAKE3

BLAKE3 is a cryptographic hash function in the BLAKE family designed to be fast on modern hardware and to scale with multi-core processing. It represents an evolution of the BLAKE2 design, aiming for higher performance, a smaller code footprint, and straightforward implementation, while maintaining strong security properties.

Architecture and operation: BLAKE3 uses a tree-hashing approach that processes input in chunks and combines the results to form the final digest. This structure enables parallel hashing of independent data blocks, which can improve throughput on multi-core CPUs. The core compression function is a streamlined variant of the BLAKE2 family, optimized for speed and simplicity. The algorithm supports streaming input, so data can be hashed incrementally as it arrives without needing the full message in memory.

Performance and implementation: BLAKE3 is marketed as exceptionally fast on a wide range of processors, benefiting from modern CPU features and SIMD instructions. A reference implementation is available in multiple languages, including C and Rust, and is widely used in libraries and projects for hashing, checksums, and data integrity tasks.

Security and usage: BLAKE3 aims to deliver the established security properties of cryptographic hash functions, such as preimage resistance, second-preimage resistance, and collision resistance, under the assumption that the underlying primitives remain secure. It has undergone public review and is used for applications ranging from file verification to content-addressable storage, where speed and parallelism are advantageous.

See also: BLAKE family, BLAKE2, cryptographic hash function, extendable-output functions.