From: Zachary Vance Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:42:01 +0000 (-0500) Subject: Question Time 2 X-Git-Url: https://git.za3k.com/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=935d767866ee55af7a49ba718bf704e42129b391;p=blog.git Question Time 2 --- diff --git a/posts/question-time2.md b/posts/question-time2.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2553e8e --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/question-time2.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +author: admin +categories: +- Non-Technical +date: 2024-12-16 +tags: +- questions +title: 'Question #2: Verifiably Random Numbers' +--- + +We want to generate some random numbers. For simplicity, we'll assume we want a random number between 1 and 100. We want our random-number generator to be: + +- Public (everyone knows the same random numbers, at roughly the same time) +- Fair (every number has the same odds of coming up) +- Trustable (everyone **knows** it's fair--it should be above doubt) +- Fast (we want to generate as many numbers as possible, as often as possible) +- Unpredictable (you shouldn't be able to guess the result before it's revealed) + +Some security experts suggest that a trustable system should also be: + +- Decentralized (no single person, organization, or computer picking the numbers). This is because a central trusted group requires faith in that group and its security. + +One for this in the real world was the "Numbers Game", a popular illegal lottery in the 1800s, in the USA. The winning numbers were selected at random each day, like most lotteries--by the mob. After complaints about rigged lotteries, the winning numbers started to be picked more transparently. For example, it might be the closing price of the New York Stock Exchange--just the cents value. For a hundred dollar lottery, you would be crazy to worry about someone messing with the New York Stock Exchange. (But if it became a billion- or trillion-dollar lottery, you should worry again.) + +The biggest problem with using a stock exchange that it's slow. You only get one set of numbers a day. + +**Can you come up with a better random-number generator?** +