Is it possible to calculate sha256 hashes in the browser using the user's video card, eg. by using WebGL or Flash?
I'm afraid this is all there is to ask, but if more elaboration is needed please do not hesitate to tell me in a comment.
Thanks.
This should be possible. Given an implementation of SHA as a fragment shader, you should be able to read back the results using readPixels:
Read Back Pixels [5.13.12] Pixels in the current framebuffer can be read back into an ArrayBufferView object.
void readPixels(int x, int y, long width, long height, enum format, enum type, Object pixels)
format: RGBA
type: UNSIGNED_BYTE
From the Kronos WebGL reference card (PDF)
For extra credit, do it all in an offscreen framebuffer, as described here.