Generate a proof of work for a custom input and prefix, using MD5

proof_of_work.py

from hashlib import md5
import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Proof of work')
parser.add_argument('--input_string', default='chungus',
                    help='String to compute proof of work on')
parser.add_argument('--prefix', default='000',
                    help='Required prefix for PoW - longer is more difficult')
args = parser.parse_args()

complete = False
n = 0

while not complete:
    curr_string = f'{args.input_string} (nonce: {str(n)})'.encode('utf-8')
    curr_hash = md5(curr_string).hexdigest()
    n = n + 1

    if curr_hash.startswith(args.prefix):
        print(curr_hash)
        print(curr_string)
        complete = True