diff --git a/internal/cli/mfer.go b/internal/cli/mfer.go
index 2277e8c..f1ef518 100644
--- a/internal/cli/mfer.go
+++ b/internal/cli/mfer.go
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ func (mfa *CLIApp) run(args []string) {
 					},
 					&cli.StringFlag{
 						Name:    "seed",
-						Usage:   "Seed value for deterministic manifest UUID (hashed 150M times with SHA-256, ~5-10s)",
+						Usage:   "Seed value for deterministic manifest UUID",
 						EnvVars: []string{"MFER_SEED"},
 					},
 				),
diff --git a/mfer/builder.go b/mfer/builder.go
index 2696744..0e2beb2 100644
--- a/mfer/builder.go
+++ b/mfer/builder.go
@@ -92,25 +92,12 @@ type Builder struct {
 	fixedUUID      []byte // if set, use this UUID instead of generating one
 }
 
-// seedIterations is the number of SHA-256 rounds used to derive a UUID from a seed.
-// Tuned to take approximately 5-10 seconds on modern hardware.
-const seedIterations = 150_000_000
-
 // SetSeed derives a deterministic UUID from the given seed string.
-// The seed is hashed 150,000,000 times with SHA-256 to produce
-// 16 bytes used as a fixed UUID for the manifest (~5-10s on modern hardware).
+// The seed is hashed once with SHA-256 and the first 16 bytes are used
+// as a fixed UUID for the manifest.
 func (b *Builder) SetSeed(seed string) {
-	b.fixedUUID = deriveSeedUUID(seed, seedIterations)
-}
-
-// deriveSeedUUID hashes the seed string n times with SHA-256
-// and returns the first 16 bytes as a UUID.
-func deriveSeedUUID(seed string, iterations int) []byte {
 	hash := sha256.Sum256([]byte(seed))
-	for i := 1; i < iterations; i++ {
-		hash = sha256.Sum256(hash[:])
-	}
-	return hash[:16]
+	b.fixedUUID = hash[:16]
 }
 
 // NewBuilder creates a new Builder.
diff --git a/mfer/builder_test.go b/mfer/builder_test.go
index 5c1fb11..5f96406 100644
--- a/mfer/builder_test.go
+++ b/mfer/builder_test.go
@@ -150,15 +150,17 @@ func TestBuilderDeterministicOutput(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(t, out1, out2, "two builds with same input should produce byte-identical output")
 }
 
-func TestDeriveSeedUUID(t *testing.T) {
-	// Use a small iteration count for testing (production uses 1B)
-	uuid1 := deriveSeedUUID("test-seed-value", 1000)
-	uuid2 := deriveSeedUUID("test-seed-value", 1000)
-	assert.Equal(t, uuid1, uuid2, "same seed should produce same UUID")
-	assert.Len(t, uuid1, 16, "UUID should be 16 bytes")
+func TestSetSeedDeterministic(t *testing.T) {
+	b1 := NewBuilder()
+	b1.SetSeed("test-seed-value")
+	b2 := NewBuilder()
+	b2.SetSeed("test-seed-value")
+	assert.Equal(t, b1.fixedUUID, b2.fixedUUID, "same seed should produce same UUID")
+	assert.Len(t, b1.fixedUUID, 16, "UUID should be 16 bytes")
 
-	uuid3 := deriveSeedUUID("different-seed", 1000)
-	assert.NotEqual(t, uuid1, uuid3, "different seeds should produce different UUIDs")
+	b3 := NewBuilder()
+	b3.SetSeed("different-seed")
+	assert.NotEqual(t, b1.fixedUUID, b3.fixedUUID, "different seeds should produce different UUIDs")
 }
 
 func TestBuilderBuildEmpty(t *testing.T) {