I'm having trouble isolating the functions I need out of the bitcoin client.
So what I understand is that there is a built in 100ms delay. If I extract out the piece to unlock it and bypass the rpc I can avoid that or is that because of the algorithm used to encrypt it?
I'm also in the same spot as you and trying to run ruby scripts with bitcoind at about 25 passwords/second.
Where did you find the info about the 100ms delay?
I think I saw some timing when the keys are generated so that the decrypt will not be too slow. This timing sets the nDeriveIterations value for the master key.