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by ordinary 5281 days ago
Reversible does not mean the same thing that symmetric does. Encryption, by definition, is reversible. If your algorithm is not symmetric, you will not be able to decrypt it with the same key as you used to encrypt it, but it would still be reversible. If it wasn't reversible, it would be data destruction (ie, Unix shred) or hashing (ie, SHA). "Reversible encryption" is a pleonasm.
1 comments

Ah... I see... pleonasm (wet water).

I believe that the parent was simply pointing out that encryption is reversible while hashes are not. This is a point of confusion for many in IT/dev.