About a Fast Cryptographic Hash Function Using Cellular Automata Ruled by Far-Off Neighbours

摘要

This paper describes a 256 bits output cryptographic hashing algorithm based upon a specific kind of 2D cellular automata, adapted from Conway’s Game of Life, where each cell is ruled by its faroff neighbors. The notion of Moore’s far neighborhood of a cell on a 2D circular grid is defined, and more specifically, a far neighborhood of 8 cells is exploited to drive the cellular automaton. The obtained hash function is lightweight and fast by design, with a nice avalanche effect; it can be used as an effective and sustainable algorithm for ProofofWork blockchains, IoT, and many other applications.