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Wasn't Node's big draw early on (aside from the fact that it's JavaScript) the fact that everything is supposed to be asynchronous? I'm actually surprised this is a problem.

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Everything is asynchronous but the linked article uses the synchronous versions of the functions for some reason... async versions exist and are recommended[1]

[1] https://github.com/ncb000gt/node.bcrypt.js#async-recommended

Do the async methods actually execute on a thread pool though? Or do they use enough async methods internally to periodically release the main thread enough to keep it responsive?

From a quick glance at the source, the answer to the first is no.

This one is truly async, it uses a libuv managed thread pool.

Yep you're right - disregard what I said above. :)

asynchronous doesn't magically make CPU-intensive tasks faster.

Correct, but it sure does stop your entire single-threaded process from blocking to the detriment of all other requests.

It does mean other tasks (e.g. serving pages to visitors) can still be run at the same time as the CPU-intensive task though, like most languages do when it comes to hashing passwords and logging people in

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