Hashing
RIPEMD-160 hash generator
RIPEMD-160 hashes any text you paste into a fixed 40-character hex digest. Developers run into it on Bitcoin tooling, where a RIPEMD-160 hash of a public key's SHA-256 digest becomes the address payload, and in legacy PGP and OpenSSH fingerprints. The output is lowercase hex, computed live as you type, and the same as any other conforming implementation gives.
How to use RIPEMD-160
- Open RIPEMD-160 in the Toolbox101 app.
- Paste the string you want hashed into the
Inputbox, or type it directly. - The 40-character digest appears in the
Outputbox as you type: no button to press. - Click
Copyto grab the digest, then compare it against your reference value.
Worked example
RIPEMD-160 returns the output below for this input.
Input
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogOutput
37f332f68db77bd9d7edd4969571ad671cf9dd3bCheck it yourself: open RIPEMD-160 and enter the same input.
Frequently asked questions
What is RIPEMD-160 still used for?
RIPEMD-160 is a 160-bit cryptographic hash from the RIPEMD family. Its most visible use today is Bitcoin: address derivation takes the SHA-256 hash of a public key and hashes it again with RIPEMD-160 to shrink it to 20 bytes. You also meet it in PGP and OpenSSH legacy fingerprints. New designs usually pick SHA-256 instead.
Why is a RIPEMD-160 hash always 40 characters?
A RIPEMD-160 digest is 160 bits, or 20 bytes, and hex writes one byte as two characters, so the output is always 40 characters regardless of input length. Even hashing the empty string returns 40 characters: 9c1185a5c5e9fc54612808977ee8f548b2258d31. That fixed length makes digests easy to compare by eye in checksum listings.
Is RIPEMD-160 safe for password storage?
No. RIPEMD-160 is fast and unsalted, so passwords can be brute-forced quickly and rainbow tables apply. Its 160-bit output also sits below the 256-bit minimum recommended today. Store passwords with a slow, salted KDF such as Argon2, scrypt, or bcrypt, and use this tool for checksums and fingerprints.
How is RIPEMD-160 different from SHA-256?
SHA-256 returns 64 hex characters from a 256-bit digest; RIPEMD-160 returns 40 from 160 bits. Both are collision-resistant enough for checksums, but SHA-256 has far wider analysis and deployment. The two meet in Bitcoin, where SHA-256 runs first and RIPEMD-160 second when an address is derived.