The hash function in this case is used purely for generating an integer from a small binary blob (bucket&#x2F;key pair) and that integer is the deterministic artifact that tells Riak Core which machines and hash partitions are supposed to own that data.<p>The performance impact of that is massively dwarfed (by probably 3+ orders of magnitude) by everything else that&#x27;s going on in the critical sequential read&#x2F;write path.