Correct me if I'm wrong, but an algorithm is a set of steps, which this looks like to me salt = urandom(16) pepper = "oFMLjbFr2Bb3XR)aKKst@kBF}tHD9q"

Correct me if I'm wrong, but an algorithm is a set of steps, which this looks like to me salt = urandom(16) pepper = "oFMLjbFr2Bb3XR)aKKst@kBF}tHD9q" # or, getenv('PEPPER') hashed_password = scrypt(password, salt + pepper) store(hashed_password, salt) That is an algorithm, which composes bcrypt with pepper. The idea of not using key-rotation alone is insane, but lets just focus on your last point Also, I'm confused at how the proposed alternative would be harder to get wrong Really? AES literally has hardware support, and can be done in a single call, and has been studied for years. How can that reasonably be considered "harder" to get wrong than something proposed by some random guy on the interwebs? Outside of Peer-Review, what reason would anyone have to use the pepper scheme? As others have posted, there are several community members who's opinions do matter due to extensive research and body of work