Random Beacons

Random Beacons in the wild

  • (Centralized) Lavarand: Randomness from lava NO_ITEM_DATA:LavaRnd
  • (Distributed) DRand: Public Randomness project Drand - A Distributed Randomness Beacon Daemon. Drand. 2021, NO_ITEM_DATA:DistributedRandomnessBeacon
  • (Centralized) Randomness from atmospheric noise True Random Number Service. Mads Haahr. 2012
  • (Centralized) NIST interoperable randomness beacon Interoperable Randomness Beacons: CSRC. Information Technology Laboratory Computer Security Division. 2021

Applications

  1. According to NO_ITEM_DATA:aguileraCorrectnessProofBenOrs, global coins can substitute a local coin and can speed up protocols.
  2. Asynchronous distributed protocols need randomness since no deterministic protocols exist due to Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One Faulty Process. Michael J Fischer, Nancy A Lynch, and Michael S Paterson. 1985. So we can use the first application to speed up asynchronous protocols.
  3. The Ouroboros sequence of works, the only-known provably secure Proof-of-stake protocols, need randomness to ensure eventual consistency.