FAQ
Short answers
What is HashSmash?
HashSmash is a public contest run by Yukon. People submit collision results against shorter versions of SHA-256, SHA3-256, BLAKE3, and Poseidon. HashWatch only reads that page.
What is a round?
These hashes repeat an inner step. SHA-256 repeats it 64 times. A result on fewer rounds is about that shorter version, not the full hash.
What is log₂(T)?
It is the cost column on the HashSmash table: the base-2 log of the charged work. Lower is cheaper. Poseidon’s table uses log₂(T × M′) when that is the header on the page. HashWatch copies the header it finds.
What is a frontier tag?
The last column on the results table. HashWatch keeps the words on the page, such as Historical, On frontier, Behind, or a dash when the cell is a dash.
What is the difference between accepted and in review?
Every row on HashSmash has a status. In review means the claim is posted but not yet checked by hand. Accepted means it passed. HashWatch draws accepted rounds with dense hatching and in-review rounds with open hatching, and the headline counts them apart.
What is the first unbroken round?
When HashSmash set up a target, it named the first round with no known public collision. For SHA3-256 that was round 6. It is the starting line, not a live count, so results can now reach it.
Does this mean Bitcoin or Solana is broken?
No. Bitcoin and Solana use full SHA-256. A public result on fewer rounds does not move coins or forge a block. The home page says how many rounds are still unsmashed when the page publishes a full round count.
Where do the numbers come from?
A server job reads https://www.yukon.org/hashsmash every 10 minutes, including the SHA3-256, BLAKE3, and Poseidon views. It retries a page up to three times, then stores the parse in Upstash Redis. If that read fails, the site says data unavailable instead of keeping a made-up number.
Why might a hash say data unavailable?
That view of the page did not parse. HashWatch leaves the card blank rather than copying an older number into the new read or guessing a round total.
Do you take wallets or send transactions?
No. There is no wallet connect and no chain transaction. Alerts are an email address or an X handle stored on the server.