blake3-fast

1.6 GB/s BLAKE3 in pure TypeScript. No native bindings, no node-gyp, no Python.

Just drop it in and hash. Works in Node.js, browsers, Deno, Bun—anywhere JavaScript runs.

Why?

The official blake3 package uses native bindings. That means:

• Build failures on CI
• Platform-specific headaches
• Pain when deploying to serverless

This library generates WebAssembly SIMD bytecode at runtime. Same interface, zero dependencies, actually fast.

Install

npm install blake3-fast

Quick Start

import { hash, createHash } from 'blake3-fast';

// One-shot
const digest = hash("hello world");

// Streaming
const hasher = createHash();
hasher.update(chunk1);
hasher.update(chunk2);
const result = hasher.digest();

// Keyed hash (MAC)
const mac = keyedHash(key32bytes, message);

// Key derivation
const derived = deriveKey("my-app-v1", password);

Benchmarks

Measured on Apple M4 Max, Node.js v22:

Input Size	Throughput	vs Reference
96 B	224 MB/s	5×
512 B	426 MB/s	7×
1 KB	465 MB/s	8×
32 KB	1.20 GB/s	24×
64 KB	1.20 GB/s	23×
256 KB	1.6 GB/s	26×
1 MB	1.6 GB/s	26×

Fast for small inputs, faster for large ones. Run npm run bench to test on your machine.

How It Works

The library automatically picks the best strategy based on input size:

• Small inputs → SIMD-accelerated compression (~450 MB/s)
• Large inputs → 4-way parallel chunks (~1.6 GB/s)

For large data, we process 4 independent chunks simultaneously. BLAKE3's Merkle tree makes chunks independent—we interleave them across the four lanes of each 128-bit SIMD register. One i32x4.add = four additions.

No .wasm files to load. The bytecode is generated programmatically at startup (~1ms).

API

Drop-in compatible with the official blake3 package:

// Hashing
hash(input: string | Uint8Array, options?: { length?: number }): Uint8Array
createHash(): Hash

// Keyed hashing (MAC)
keyedHash(key: Uint8Array, input: string | Uint8Array): Uint8Array
createKeyed(key: Uint8Array): Hash

// Key derivation
deriveKey(context: string, material: string | Uint8Array): Uint8Array

// Utilities
toHex(bytes: Uint8Array): string
fromHex(hex: string): Uint8Array

Browser Usage

Works out of the box with any bundler (Vite, esbuild, webpack, etc.):

<script type="module">
  import { hash, toHex } from 'blake3-fast';
  
  const digest = hash(new TextEncoder().encode("hello"));
  console.log(toHex(digest));
</script>

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/Atamanov/blake3-fast.git
cd blake3-fast
npm install
npm run build    # Compile TypeScript -> dist/
npm test         # Run test suite
npm run bench    # Performance benchmarks

Browser Benchmark

npm run bench:browser   # Generate benchmarks/browser-bench.html
open benchmarks/browser-bench.html

Opens a cyberpunk-themed benchmark page. Click "run" to compare implementations in your browser.

License

MIT © Alexander Atamanov 2025