## Proposed Changes
Modify the SHA256 implementation in `eth2_hashing` so that it switches between `ring` and `sha2` to take advantage of [x86_64 SHA extensions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_SHA_extensions). The extensions are available on modern Intel and AMD CPUs, and seem to provide a considerable speed-up: on my Ryzen 5950X it dropped state tree hashing times by about 30% from 35ms to 25ms (on Prater).
## Additional Info
The extensions became available in the `sha2` crate [last year](https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/hf2vcx/ann_rustcryptos_sha1_and_sha2_now_support/), and are not available in Ring, which uses a [pure Rust implementation of sha2](https://github.com/briansmith/ring/blob/main/src/digest/sha2.rs). Ring is faster on CPUs that lack the extensions so I've implemented a runtime switch to use `sha2` only when the extensions are available. The runtime switching seems to impose a miniscule penalty (see the benchmarks linked below).
## Issue Addressed
NA
## Proposed Changes
Rust 1.50 has landed 🎉
The shiny new `clippy` peers down upon us mere mortals with disgust. Brutish peasants wrapping our `usize`s in superfluous `Option`s... tsk tsk.
I've performed the goat sacrifice and corrected our evil ways in this PR. Tonight we shall pray that Github Actions bestows the almighty green tick upon us.
## Additional Info
NA
Co-authored-by: realbigsean <seananderson33@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Michael Sproul <michael@sigmaprime.io>
## Issue Addressed
- Resolves#1706
## Proposed Changes
Updates dependencies across the workspace. Any crate that was not able to be brought to the latest version is listed in #1712.
## Additional Info
NA
