Following the advances in the cryptanalysis of hash functions in the last 
years, and especially the alarming results on SHA1 and Merkle-Damgard hash 
functions, NIST has started a cryptographic competition to offer secure 
and fast hash function standard, to be named SHA3. The competition, 
currently at its second phase (with 14 remaining candidates), is the focus 
of many efforts in cryptanalysis and implementation.
In this talk, we shall cover some of the aspects of this competition, 
starting from the reasons that led to it, through the first phase, the 14 
candidates that were chosen for the second round, their status (both 
security-wise and performance-wise), and of course, what is left to be 
done, so the outcome of the process will be the best possible SHA3.