<p>RIPEMD160 was designed in the open academic community and not like SHA2 by a NSA competition... one may see this as security advantage.</p>

<p>160bit hashes do also have less space requirements (then sha256) on the blockchain as well as in indexes, etc.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-26T21:16:50.393Z
Thanks Jonas Schnelli, does it also give advantage for being used together with SHA256 in terms of double hashing?
Jamol
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-27T20:10:36.103Z
Most hashes in bitcoin are using double sha256. But an additional RIPEMD does protect against possible weakness in SHA256 since addresses are hashed with SHA256 and RIPEMD160.
Jonas Schnelli
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-26T20:47:26.510Z
2018-04-26T20:47:26.510Z
Jonas Schnelli
<p>Bitcoin uses RIPEMD160 on top of SHA256. Is its sole purpose to make public key address shorter or does it strengthen security in any way?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-26T22:04:47.290Z
Possible duplicate of [Why does Bitcoin use two hash functions (SHA-256 and RIPEMD-160) to create an address?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/9202/why-does-bitcoin-use-two-hash-functions-sha-256-and-ripemd-160-to-create-an-ad)
Raghav Sood
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-26T22:20:58.733Z
The question you mentioned has slightly different meaning where it asks  why double hashing instead of simple SHA256. My curiosity was why use RIPEMD160 with SHA256, for ex: why not SHA256d.
Jamol
<hash><script><public-key><ripemd160>
Bitcoin RIPEMD160 purpose
Jamol
# Bitcoin RIPEMD160 purpose

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-04-26)

Bitcoin uses RIPEMD160 on top of SHA256. Is its sole purpose to make public key address shorter or does it strengthen security in any way?

**Tags:** hash, script, public-key, ripemd160

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Possible duplicate of [Why does Bitcoin use two hash functions (SHA-256 and RIPEMD-160) to create an address?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/9202/why-does-bitcoin-use-two-hash-functions-sha-256-and-ripemd-160-to-create-an-ad)  
> **username_0**: The question you mentioned has slightly different meaning where it asks  why double hashing instead of simple SHA256. My curiosity was why use RIPEMD160 with SHA256, for ex: why not SHA256d.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-04-26. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

RIPEMD160 was designed in the open academic community and not like SHA2 by a NSA competition... one may see this as security advantage.

160bit hashes do also have less space requirements (then sha256) on the blockchain as well as in indexes, etc.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks username_2, does it also give advantage for being used together with SHA256 in terms of double hashing?  
> **username_2**: Most hashes in bitcoin are using double sha256. But an additional RIPEMD does protect against possible weakness in SHA256 since addresses are hashed with SHA256 and RIPEMD160.  

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