Cryptographic PrimitivesΒΆ
Algorand Smart Contracts support 4 cryptographic primitives, including 3 cryptographic hash functions and 1 digital signature verification. Each of these cryptographic primitives is associated with a cost, which is a number indicating its relative performance overhead comparing with simple TEAL operations such as addition and substraction. Simple TEAL opcodes have cost 1, and more advanced cryptographic operations have a larger cost. Below is how you express cryptographic primitives in PyTeal:
| Operator | Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
Sha256(e) |
35 | SHA-256 hash function, produces 32 bytes |
Keccak256(e) |
130 | Keccak-256 hash funciton, produces 32 bytes |
Sha512_256(e) |
45 | SHA-512/256 hash function, produces 32 bytes |
Ed25519Verify(d, s, p) |
1900* | 1 if s is the signature of d signed by private key p, else 0 |
* Ed25519Verify is only available in signature mode.
Note the cost amount is accurate for version 2 of TEAL and higher.
These cryptographic primitives cover the most used ones in blockchains and cryptocurrencies. For example, Bitcoin uses SHA-256 for creating Bitcoin addresses; Alogrand uses ed25519 signature scheme for authorization and uses SHA-512/256 hash function for creating contract account addresses from TEAL bytecode.