diff --git a/RECIPE-API-CHANGELOG.md b/RECIPE-API-CHANGELOG.md
index 4711fb72..f606ecaa 100644
--- a/RECIPE-API-CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/RECIPE-API-CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1239,3 +1239,14 @@ runnable, the variant itself does not need to build to completion. In addition,
 the name and the content of the source package must be derived from `${BPN}`
 alone, never from `${PN}`. If a source package depends on the architecture,
 set `SRCPKG_PROVIDER = "${BPN}"` after `inherit dpkg` (or alike).
+
+### Default sstate signature handler changed to OEEquivHash
+
+The default `BB_SIGNATURE_HANDLER` is now `OEEquivHash` (instead of `OEBasicHash`),
+and `BB_HASHSERVE` defaults to `auto`. Using BitBake's hash equivalence drastically
+reduces build times on repeated builds by reusing sstate artifacts across signature
+changes, provided that the artifacts are reproducible.
+
+To preserve the hash equivalence database across `TMPDIR` cleanups, set the
+`BB_HASHSERVE_DB_DIR` environment variable to a persistent location, ideally
+managed together with the `SSTATE_DIR`.
diff --git a/meta/conf/bitbake.conf b/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
index c31719b8..cbe284df 100644
--- a/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
+++ b/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
@@ -98,7 +98,8 @@ REPO_BASE_DIR = "${DEPLOY_DIR}/base-apt/${DISTRO}/apt"
 REPO_BASE_DB_DIR = "${DEPLOY_DIR}/base-apt/${DISTRO}/db"
 
 # Setup our default hash policy
-BB_SIGNATURE_HANDLER ?= "OEBasicHash"
+BB_SIGNATURE_HANDLER ?= "OEEquivHash"
+BB_HASHSERVE ??= "auto"
 BB_HASHEXCLUDE_ISAR ?= "CCACHE_DEBUG LAYERDIR_core SCRIPTSDIR TOPDIR ISAR_BUILD_UUID \
     RUN_PRIVILEGED_CMD UNSHARE_SUBUID_BASE GNUPGHOME"
 BB_HASHEXCLUDE_COMMON ?= "TMPDIR FILE PATH PWD BB_TASKHASH BBPATH BBSERVER DL_DIR \