diff --git a/commons/config.go b/commons/config.go
index c257dff..41562c9 100644
--- a/commons/config.go
+++ b/commons/config.go
@@ -91,6 +91,7 @@ type PubsubConfig struct {
 	MsgValidationTimeout time.Duration        `json:"msgValidationTimeout,omitempty" yaml:"msgValidationTimeout,omitempty"`
 	Scoring              *ScoringParams       `json:"scoring,omitempty" yaml:"scoring,omitempty"`
 	MsgValidator         *MsgValidationConfig `json:"msgValidator,omitempty" yaml:"msgValidator,omitempty"`
+	MsgIDFnConfig        *MsgIDFnConfig       `json:"msgIDFn,omitempty" yaml:"msgIDFn,omitempty"`
 	Trace                bool                 `json:"trace,omitempty" yaml:"trace,omitempty"`
 }
 
@@ -103,6 +104,11 @@ func (psc PubsubConfig) GetTopicConfig(name string) (TopicConfig, bool) {
 	return TopicConfig{}, false
 }
 
+type MsgIDFnConfig struct {
+	Type string `json:"type,omitempty" yaml:"type,omitempty"`
+	Size int    `json:"size,omitempty" yaml:"size,omitempty"`
+}
+
 type MsgValidationConfig struct {
 	Timeout     time.Duration `json:"timeout,omitempty" yaml:"timeout,omitempty"`
 	Concurrency int           `json:"concurrency,omitempty" yaml:"concurrency,omitempty"`
diff --git a/core/gossip/msg_id.go b/core/gossip/msg_id.go
index a9ef48e..b64d8f9 100644
--- a/core/gossip/msg_id.go
+++ b/core/gossip/msg_id.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package gossip
 
 import (
+	"crypto/md5"
 	"crypto/sha256"
 	"encoding/hex"
 
@@ -8,8 +9,29 @@ import (
 	pubsub_pb "github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-pubsub/pb"
 )
 
-// msgIDSha256 uses sha256 hash of the message content
-func MsgIDSha256(size int) pubsub.MsgIdFunction {
+type MsgIDSize int
+type MsgIDFuncType string
+
+const (
+	MsgIDSha256Type MsgIDFuncType = "sha256"
+	MsgIDMD5Type    MsgIDFuncType = "md5"
+)
+
+var DefaultMsgIDFn = MsgIDSha256(20)
+
+func MsgIDFn(tp MsgIDFuncType, size MsgIDSize) pubsub.MsgIdFunction {
+	switch tp {
+	case MsgIDSha256Type:
+		return MsgIDSha256(size)
+	case MsgIDMD5Type:
+		return MsgIDMD5(size)
+	default:
+		return DefaultMsgIDFn
+	}
+}
+
+// MsgIDSha256 uses sha256 hash of the message content
+func MsgIDSha256(size MsgIDSize) pubsub.MsgIdFunction {
 	return func(pmsg *pubsub_pb.Message) string {
 		msg := pmsg.GetData()
 		if len(msg) == 0 {
@@ -17,6 +39,25 @@ func MsgIDSha256(size int) pubsub.MsgIdFunction {
 		}
 		// TODO: optimize, e.g. by using a pool of hashers
 		h := sha256.Sum256(msg)
+		if msgSize := MsgIDSize(len(h)); size > msgSize {
+			size = msgSize
+		}
+		return hex.EncodeToString(h[:size])
+	}
+}
+
+// MsgIDSMD5 uses md5 hash of the message content
+func MsgIDMD5(size MsgIDSize) pubsub.MsgIdFunction {
+	return func(pmsg *pubsub_pb.Message) string {
+		msg := pmsg.GetData()
+		if len(msg) == 0 {
+			return ""
+		}
+		// TODO: optimize, e.g. by using a pool of hashers
+		h := md5.Sum(msg)
+		if msgSize := MsgIDSize(len(h)); size > msgSize {
+			size = msgSize
+		}
 		return hex.EncodeToString(h[:size])
 	}
 }
diff --git a/core/gossip/msg_id_test.go b/core/gossip/msg_id_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df5c38c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/gossip/msg_id_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+package gossip
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	pubsub_pb "github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-pubsub/pb"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+)
+
+func TestMsgID(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		name  string
+		msgID MsgIDFuncType
+		size  MsgIDSize
+		input []byte
+		want  string
+	}{
+		{
+			name:  "sha256",
+			msgID: MsgIDSha256Type,
+			size:  20,
+			input: []byte("hello world"),
+			want:  "b94d27b9934d3e08a52e52d7da7dabfac484efe3",
+		},
+		{
+			name:  "md5",
+			msgID: MsgIDMD5Type,
+			size:  10,
+			input: []byte("hello world"),
+			want:  "5eb63bbbe01eeed093cb",
+		},
+		{
+			name:  "default",
+			msgID: "",
+			size:  0,
+			input: []byte("hello world"),
+			want:  "b94d27b9934d3e08a52e52d7da7dabfac484efe3",
+		},
+		{
+			name:  "size overflow",
+			msgID: MsgIDMD5Type,
+			size:  100,
+			input: []byte("hello world"),
+			want:  "5eb63bbbe01eeed093cb22bb8f5acdc3",
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tc := range tests {
+		t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			msgIDFn := MsgIDFn(tc.msgID, tc.size)
+			got := msgIDFn(&pubsub_pb.Message{
+				Data: tc.input,
+			})
+			require.Equal(t, tc.want, got)
+		})
+	}
+}
diff --git a/core/pubsub.go b/core/pubsub.go
index f3294a1..bb8fbf4 100644
--- a/core/pubsub.go
+++ b/core/pubsub.go
@@ -21,11 +21,12 @@ var (
 )
 
 func (c *Controller) setupPubsubRouter(ctx context.Context, cfg commons.Config) error {
+	msgID := gossip.MsgIDFn(gossip.MsgIDFuncType(cfg.Pubsub.MsgIDFnConfig.Type), gossip.MsgIDSize(cfg.Pubsub.MsgIDFnConfig.Size))
 	opts := []pubsub.Option{
 		pubsub.WithMessageSigning(false),
 		pubsub.WithMessageSignaturePolicy(pubsub.StrictNoSign),
 		pubsub.WithGossipSubParams(gossip.GossipSubParams(cfg.Pubsub.Overlay)),
-		pubsub.WithMessageIdFn(gossip.MsgIDSha256(20)),
+		pubsub.WithMessageIdFn(msgID),
 	}
 
 	if cfg.Pubsub.Scoring != nil {
diff --git a/core/testutils.go b/core/testutils.go
index b1c552c..df48819 100644
--- a/core/testutils.go
+++ b/core/testutils.go
@@ -64,11 +64,11 @@ func SetupTestControllers(ctx context.Context, t *testing.T, n int, routingFn fu
 		}
 		msgRouter := NewMsgRouter(1024, 4, func(mw *MsgWrapper[error]) {
 			routingFn(mw.Msg)
-		}, gossip.MsgIDSha256(20))
+		}, gossip.DefaultMsgIDFn)
 		valRouter := NewMsgRouter(1024, 4, func(mw *MsgWrapper[pubsub.ValidationResult]) {
 			res := valFn(mw.Peer, mw.Msg)
 			mw.Result = res
-		}, gossip.MsgIDSha256(20))
+		}, gossip.DefaultMsgIDFn)
 		c, err := NewController(ctx, cfg, msgRouter, valRouter, fmt.Sprintf("peer-%d", i+1))
 		require.NoError(t, err)
 		controllers[i] = c