Comparison of algorithms - DevsDaddy/quarkdash GitHub Wiki

Benchmarks

Below is information on synthetic benchmark tests, as well as some comparative characteristics of popular encryption methods.

Quantum resistance – AES is vulnerable to Grover's algorithm (brute-force attack speeds up by √N).
Built-in key exchange – no pre-distribution of keys is required.
Forward secrecy – compromising a long-term key does not reveal past sessions.
Replay protection – in AES, this must be implemented separately.
Faster when implemented in software (QuarkDash is faster than AES without hardware acceleration).

Quantum resistance – Shor's algorithm breaks ECC in polynomial time.
Better performance for large messages – ECIES encrypts data using AES, but adds the overhead of ECDH.
Smaller packet size – 44 bytes versus 61 bytes for ECIES.
Easier to implement – no need to check points on the curve or protect against subgroup attacks.

Quantum resistance – RSA is broken by Shor's algorithm.
Huge performance gap – RSA is 250+ times slower for encryption, 1000+ times slower for decryption.
Smaller keys – No, RSA has a 256-byte key, while QuarkDash has 2 KB (but 256 bits of security versus 112 bits for RSA-2048).
No padding issues – RSA requires complex OAEP, which is susceptible to oracle attacks.
Linear scaling – QuarkDash has O(n) complexity, while RSA has O(n³).

Characteristic	QuarkDash (ChaCha20)	QuarkDash (Gimli)	AES-256-GSM	ECDH/P-256 + AES	RSA-2048 + AES
Type	Hybrid	Hybrid	Symmetric	Asymmetric (KEX)	Hybrid
Quantum stability	✅ Ring-LWE	✅ Ring-LWE	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Encryption speed (1mb)	~2.5 GB/s	~2.8 GB/s	~1.2 GB/s	~50 MB/s (ECIES)	~10 MB/s
Decryption speed (1mb)	~2.5 GB/s	~2.8 GB/s	~1.2 GB/s	~50 MB/s	~1 MB/s
Session speed	~10-15 ms	~10-15 ms	0 ms (pre-shared)	~5 ms	~50 ms
Public key size	~2 KB	~2 KB	N/A	33 bytes	256 bytes
Private key size	~1 KB	~1 KB	N/A	32 bytes	256 bytes
Overhead size	44 bytes	44 bytes	28 bytes	61 bytes	256+ bytes
Forward secrecy	✅	✅	❌	⚠️ optional	❌
Replay security	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
Authentication	✅ MAC (SHAKE256)	✅ MAC (SHAKE256)	✅ (GSM)	✅ (ECIES)	❌
Timing attacks security	✅ constant-time	✅	⚠️ Partial	⚠️ Partial	❌
The Difficulty of Quantum Hacking	2^256	2^256	2^128 (Grover)	0 (Shor)	0 (Shor)

Please, note. This benchmark is launched at Intel i7-12700H, 32GB RAM, Node.js 20

Operation	QuarkDash (ChaCha20)	QuarkDash (Gimli)	AES-256-GSM	ECDH (P-256) + AES	RSA-2048
Key generation	12.3ms	12.1ms	N/A	1.2ms	48ms
Session (KEM)	8.7ms	8.5ms	N/A	3.4ms	42ms
Encryption (1KB)	0.003ms	0.0028ms	0.005ms	0.05ms	0.8ms
Decryption (1KB)	0.003ms	0.0028ms	0.005ms	0.05ms	0.1ms
Encryption (1MB)	0.42ms	0.38ms	0.85ms	21ms	102ms
Decryption (1MB)	0.42ms	0.38ms	0.85ms	21ms	1080ms
Speed (MB/s)	2300	2630	1176	48	0.9