[HN Gopher] CU Randomness Beacon
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CU Randomness Beacon
Author : wello
Score : 55 points
Date : 2025-07-05 09:06 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (random.colorado.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (random.colorado.edu)
| Octokat wrote:
| Skobuffs!
| clncy wrote:
| The beacon to be guarded at all times by Ralphie??
| CaliforniaKarl wrote:
| Ah, another randomness beacon! Although I wish it used the same
| API as NIST's beacon, either the v1 or v2 API.
| eadmund wrote:
| NIST v2: https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/interoperable-
| randomness-beac...
|
| NIST v2: https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/interoperable-
| randomness-beac...
| jebarker wrote:
| Interestingly NIST also has a large campus in Boulder. Maybe
| Boulder is the epi-center of randomness??
| zefhous wrote:
| Then one could dynamically and randomly choose which randomness
| beacon to use! I like it.
| lxgr wrote:
| Ideally you'd use all of them by mixing their outputs
| together.
| ntnsndr wrote:
| A use case for a blockchain?
| DamonHD wrote:
| There are good uses for block-chain like things, even beyond
| sprinking in a mention to help raise grant funding, but the
| headline-grabbers have generally not been those...
| PretzelPirate wrote:
| It must be since they use a blockchain for this to
| decentralized and verify the timestamps.
| tonnydourado wrote:
| _laughs in Brazilian_
| ribcage wrote:
| Things like these are absolutely idiotic. Every single computer,
| be it a laptop or desktop or a phone, are able to produce
| randomness. Why in the hell would you trust a random website?
| svota wrote:
| Because, firstly, this is a university, not some rando self-
| hosting, and secondly, you can't generate randomness from any
| classical computer, only pseudorandomness [0]. This means that
| a dedicated adversary can potentially work out what the outcome
| will be. For something like the use cases they mention - jury
| selection, lottery, etc. - you want actual randomness.
|
| [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudorandomness
| throw0101d wrote:
| > [...] _you can 't generate randomness from any classical
| computer, only pseudorandomness [0]._
|
| Back in 1999 Intel used amplified thermal noise from analog
| circuits on their chips to generate randomness:
|
| * PDF: https://web.archive.org/web/20100714102630/https://www
| .crypt...
|
| This was further refined and in 2011 they published how
| RdRand (formerly "Bull Mountain") works:
|
| * https://spectrum.ieee.org/behind-intels-new-randomnumber-
| gen...
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDRAND
|
| * PDF: https://www.intel.com/content/dam/develop/external/us/
| en/doc...
|
| So classical computers can generate randomness if you have
| the right circuits for it.
| treyd wrote:
| > So classical computers can generate randomness if you
| have the right circuits for it.
|
| That is by definition not a classical computer. It's not a
| _quantum_ computer, but it 's probabilistic in a limited
| sense.
| dekhn wrote:
| I don't think anybody wrote a description of a classical
| computer that excludes components that generate
| harvestable random noise. Effectively all computers are
| probabilistic, it's just that the probabilities for
| instructions, memory fetches, bus transfers, etc, have
| such low error probabilities that you will likely go
| years without directly observing one.
| sidewndr46 wrote:
| I think you could just create something like this and
| sample it with the sound card as well
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chua%27s_circuit
| dekhn wrote:
| A zener diode- standard component- produces random noise. It
| needs to be mildly conditioned to be unbiased.
| ghkbrew wrote:
| From tfa:
|
| Often, randomness is thought of as something you want to keep
| hidden, such as when generating passwords or cryptographic
| keys. However, there are many applications where an independent
| and public source of randomness is useful. For example,
| randomizing public audits, selecting candidates for jury duty,
| or fairly assigning resources through a lottery.
| lxgr wrote:
| Sometimes you need publicly verifiable randomness, and then
| your own hardware (which you might or might not even trust
| privately, depending on how much you trust your vendors) isn't
| much help.
|
| If you still think that's idiotic, I'm happy to bet against you
| in an unbiased* coin flip simulated on my machine which you
| unfortunately can't inspect :)
| dmitrygr wrote:
| Ever taken a stats class? Recall the "table of random values"
| in the back of the book? That's why
| OkayPhysicist wrote:
| The idea here is that it's a _public_ , _traceable_ generation
| of random numbers. So, if the two of us wanted to flip a coin
| to settle a disagreement, we could agree on some future value
| of this beacon (unknowable to us at the moment) to use as the
| source of entropy, then let one of us choose heads or tails,
| telling the other person what we chose. Then we wait until the
| agreed time, check the beacon, and boom, a fair coin toss,
| which we can be fairly certain wasn 't manipulated by either of
| us.
| Cshelton wrote:
| Sorry, can't help myself! The Ralphie running demo on the site is
| hilarious. Some say, you could just use Ralphie's actual runs
| from this past year, true randomness!
| wslh wrote:
| I recommend to also jump to "What is the Twine Protocol" [1]
| where they created a blockchain without a consensus layers
| because they have a level of trust in timestamps.
|
| [1] https://docs.twine.world/twine-protocol-documentation
| spelunker wrote:
| The source of their randomness is interesting, as someone not
| well-versed in physics:
| https://random.colorado.edu/concepts/traceable-randomness
| grokgrok wrote:
| Imagine the terrors of multiple government agencies synchronizing
| ID selection to an identical source of randomness. Congrats, you
| won jury duty, a tax audit AND selective service!
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(page generated 2025-07-08 23:01 UTC)