How secure is 256 bit security?

3Blue1Brown · explainer · Watch on YouTube

What it is

3Blue1Brown illustrates how enormous the 256-bit search space is, showing how infeasible it is to find a hash or key by guessing and checking.

HN uses it as the go-to illustration of just how large 2^256 is.

“I went looking for answers and found this excellent video by 3Blue1Brown”
Answers how secure 256-bit security really is
yamrzou, 2021-06 · Strong recommendation · in “DOJ seizes $2.3M in cryptocurrency paid to the ransomware extortionists Darkside”
“3Blue1Browns wonderful illustration of how large 2^256 is”
Illustration of how enormous 2^256 is
AareyBaba, 2020-01 · Recommendation · in “The most important scientific problems have yet to be solved (1897)”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: sha-256, cryptography, hashing, big numbers, security