The text discusses the importance of password hashing for online security, emphasizing the balance between security and performance in hashing algorithms. It highlights three popular algorithms—Argon2, BCrypt, and SCrypt—and their respective strengths and weaknesses. Argon2 is praised for its adaptability and strong resistance to modern hardware attacks, BCrypt for its long-standing reliability, and SCrypt for its resistance to specialized hardware attacks. The document details a benchmarking process using Java and CircleCI to evaluate these algorithms' performance across different operating systems (Linux, Windows, macOS) and Java versions (17 and 21). The results show Argon2BouncyCastle as the most balanced performer, SCrypt as fastest on Linux, and BCrypt as consistent across platforms, while Argon2SpringSecurity is noted for its inefficiencies. The study recommends algorithm choice based on specific operational needs, aided by CircleCI's capabilities to automate and streamline the testing process.