Hashing algorithms are the unsung heroes of cryptography, turning passwords into secure keys with a bit of math. Meet ECHO (Expand Compact Hashing Order), a custom-built hashing beast designed to churn out 256-bit keyhashes with wicked diffusion. ECHO’s core is a two-step dance: Bit Interleaving Expansion (BIE) and Sequential Bit Compaction (SBC). Now, is it secure? Probably not, I’m no cryptographer, and this was made as a fun little side project. Enough disclaiming though, let’s dive into how this algorithm works.