Digest ≠ encryption
Hashes are one-way; they don’t replace password hashing (use salted password hashes like bcrypt/argon2).
Client-side digests are great for quick integrity checks, fingerprints, and “did this payload change?”.
Which algorithm?
Vendor checksum lists often still show MD5/SHA1 for corruption checks—integrity, not authenticity.
For security-sensitive contexts, prefer SHA-256+ as required by modern standards.
Gotchas
CRLF vs LF changes the digest—normalize newlines before comparing.
Avoid pasting secrets into untrusted environments, even with local-first tools.