Distributed hash tables are now commonly used in peer to peer file sharing systems. They allow small amounts of data to be referenced quickly and efficiently, and the system easily scales in size. Since it is distributed over thousands of computers, each node only has to store a few hashes.
Rainbow tables are a set of precalculated password hashes, allowing a user to look up a hashed password and retrieve the original plain text password. The system works very well, but it has a couple drawbacks. It takes quite a bit of computational power to create the tables, and they tend to be rather large in size, on the order of a couple terabytes. While many people have taken the time to generate their own tables, they remain fairly difficult to distribute and store due to their size.
A distributed rainbow hash table seems like a perfect match to me. A couple terabytes distributed across the network is next to nothing, and the system yields itself to very fast and efficient lookups. No longer will websites offering hash lookups be swamped with requests, and the distributed nature of the system makes it extremely difficult to prosecute or shut down.-- Aq_Bi, Aug 10 2010 Distributed hash table http://en.wikipedia...tributed_hash_table [Aq_Bi, Aug 10 2010] Rainbow table http://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Rainbow_table [Aq_Bi, Aug 10 2010] "double rainbow" what? http://cakewrecks.b...bow-connection.htmlRelevant links at the bottom of the page, but I thought a link to cakewrecks' take on this Internet meme would also be apropos for this site. [jutta, Aug 11 2010] <hash> WHOAH! DOUBLE RAINBOW!! </hash>-- Cedar Park, Aug 10 2010 722e0dae790ad2c 116a40ea81db91c59-- Voice, Aug 10 2010 Hey, no salt!-- Aq_Bi, Aug 10 2010 cool!-- webfishrune, Aug 11 2010 random, halfbakery