Re: New hash contest by NIST, similair to AES competition

Symmetric block ciphers can be used in various ways to produce a
message digest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_functions_based_on_block_ciphers

Is there a drawback to that approach (other than wanting more diversity
in the toolbox)?

If diversity is the issue, wouldn't it be equally beneficial to come up
with new block ciphers? That way you improve diversity both of hash
functions and block ciphers.

.