You can shave a few milliseconds by moving the heavy lifting to the hardware that already does it for you – a GPU or a dedicated ASIC – but you can't cheat the math. Stick with a proven memory‑hard algorithm like Argon2id or scrypt and dial the cost factor down only as far as the attack model allows. Parallelise the work; hash each block with a separate thread so you’re not bottlenecked by a single core. Keep a unique, random salt per password; that alone stops precomputation attacks. If you’re desperate, use a key derivation function with a small iteration count for low‑risk passwords and a larger one for high‑value accounts – that’s the only way to balance speed and safety without turning your locks into paper‑clips.

Sounds about right – just remember a predictable salt is a dead giveaway, so keep that generator on a single‑seeded PRNG only for the long‑term vault, not the everyday login.

Exactly, just treat the PRNG like a one‑time pad—fresh seed, no reuse, and you’ll never fall into the predictable trap.