Performance Analysis of Cryptographic Hash Functions Suitable for Use in Blockchain

Abstract

A blockchain, or in other words a chain of transaction blocks, is a distributed database that maintains an ordered chain of blocks that reliably connect the information contained in them. Copies of chain blocks are usually stored on multiple computers and synchronized in accordance with the rules of building a chain of blocks, which provides secure and change-resistant storage of information. To build linked lists of blocks hashing is used. Hashing is a special cryptographic primitive that provides one-way, resistance to collisions and search for prototypes computation of hash value (hash or message digest). In this paper a comparative analysis of the performance of hashing algorithms that can be used in modern decentralized blockchain networks are conducted. Specifically, the hash performance on different desktop systems, the number of cycles per byte (Cycles/byte), the amount of hashed message per second (MB/s) and the hash rate (KHash/s) are investigated. The comparative analysis of different hashing algorithms allows us to choose the most suitable candidates for building decentralized systems type of blockchain.

A Review on Deploying Blockchain Technology for Network Mobility Management

“…A blockchain inherently comprises of an array of blocks linked in a simple or mesh approach in accordance with the design of the transparent ledger platform [13]. Particularly, transactions/blocks are intertwined through a specified block/transaction safeguarding the hash result of multiple parental transactions/blocks securing their immutability [14].…”

“…To sustain the incorruptibility of operations/transactions in blockchain, secure hashing is utilized to offer steady size hash results with scant same outputs [13]. Utilizing an electronic signature, asymmetric encryption technology exhibiting cryptographic keys is utilized to check the validity operations/transactions.…”

Beccak: Combination of Blockchain and Keccak Algorithm for Improved Digital Signature Performace

“…Several hash algorithms are commonly used on blockchain, namely SHA256, Keccak256, Blake2, and others (Alshaikhli et al, 2012). Keccak256 is a faster hash algorithm than other algorithms (Kuznetsov et al, 2021). Keccak256 is a SHA3 family and a cryptographic function.…”

Hash algorithm comparison through a PIC32 microcontroller

“…In order to protect data from malicious attacks and to ensure information authenticity, various cryptographic hash functions have been developed. A hash function converts binary sequences of arbitrary length, called messages, into binary strings of a specific length [1], called message digests or hash values [2], [3]. Hash functions are mainly used for the confirmation of data integrity [4] as well as for message authentication codes (MAC) [5] or hash message authentication code (HMAC) [6]- [8].…”