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BLAKE2b Hash Generator

Generate BLAKE2b hashes online. 512-bit output. Faster than MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256 on 64-bit systems. Used in Zcash, WireGuard, and Argon2. Supports UTF-8, Hex, and Base64 input encodings.

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BLAKE2b natively supports keyed hashing. Keyed BLAKE2b (MAC mode) will be added in a future update.

Related Hash Tools

BLAKE2b FileHash from file BLAKE2s256-bit, 32-bit opt. SHA3-512512-bit SHA-3 SHA-512512-bit SHA-2 RIPEMD-160160-bit RIPEMD

Frequently Asked Questions

What is BLAKE2b?
BLAKE2b is a cryptographic hash function designed for 64-bit systems. It is based on BLAKE (a SHA-3 finalist) and was designed specifically to be faster than MD5, SHA-1, SHA-2, and SHA-3 while maintaining strong security. It produces outputs of 1–64 bytes (default 64 bytes / 512 bits). Published as RFC 7693 in 2015.
Is BLAKE2b secure?
Yes. BLAKE2b has no known weaknesses. It provides 256-bit collision resistance for its full 512-bit output. Its security is based on the HAIFA construction with a 12-round version of the ChaCha stream cipher's quarter-round function (G). It has undergone extensive cryptanalysis without any meaningful weaknesses being found.
Where is BLAKE2b used?
BLAKE2b is used in: Zcash (hashing in zk-SNARK computations), WireGuard VPN (key derivation), Argon2 password hashing (as the internal compression function), libsodium's crypto_generichash, the I2P network, and several blockchain projects. Python's hashlib includes BLAKE2b since version 3.6.
BLAKE2b vs SHA-512 — which is better?
BLAKE2b is faster than SHA-512 on 64-bit hardware (no dedicated instructions needed) and provides comparable security. SHA-512 is more widely supported by legacy systems and hardware security modules (HSMs). For new software implementations, BLAKE2b is often preferred for its speed advantage.

About BLAKE2b Hash Generator

BLAKE2b is a cryptographic hash function designed by Jean-Philippe Aumasson, Samuel Neves, Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn, and Christian Winnerlein, published in 2012 and standardized as RFC 7693 (2015). It is based on BLAKE, a finalist in the NIST SHA-3 competition, and was optimized specifically for software performance on 64-bit platforms while maintaining a security margin comparable to SHA-3.

Performance Characteristics

BLAKE2b can process data at approximately 1 GB/s on a modern 64-bit CPU without any hardware acceleration. In comparison, SHA-256 (without SHA-NI) processes at ~400 MB/s and SHA-512 at ~600 MB/s. BLAKE2b achieves this through careful design: it uses 12 rounds of the BLAKE G mixing function applied to 64-bit words, minimizing memory accesses and branch instructions.

BLAKE2b in Zcash and Blockchain

Zcash uses BLAKE2b extensively in its zk-SNARK proving system (Groth16 and PLONK), block header hashing (Equihash), and address derivation. The Equihash proof-of-work algorithm specifically uses BLAKE2b because of its speed — miners need to evaluate millions of hashes per second, and BLAKE2b's performance advantage directly translates to energy savings.

BLAKE2b in WireGuard VPN

WireGuard, the modern VPN protocol, uses BLAKE2s (the 32-bit variant) for its key derivation and MAC operations. The protocol was designed to use only modern, well-analyzed primitives — BLAKE2 was chosen over HMAC-SHA2 for its speed and simpler key schedule.

BLAKE2b as a Password Hashing Helper

Argon2, the winner of the 2015 Password Hashing Competition, uses BLAKE2b as its internal compression function. When you hash passwords with Argon2 in any modern system (Linux PAM, PHP, Python, Rust), BLAKE2b is doing the underlying work. Argon2 is now the recommended password hashing algorithm, replacing bcrypt and scrypt in new applications.

Keyed BLAKE2b

Unlike HMAC, which applies a two-pass construction around a hash function, BLAKE2b natively supports keyed hashing by incorporating the key into the initialization vector. This eliminates the overhead of HMAC's double-hashing while providing equivalent security as a MAC. BLAKE2b(key, message) is a true MAC with 256-bit security.