Verifiable lotteries
summary
Claims that authorities can produce verifiable random outcomes using a cryptographic randomness beacon backed by public blockchains or alternative public data sources. Tools described include a blockchain timestamp plus a sequential delay function (iterate hashes or use modular square root mod P exponentiation) to force unpredictability until reorgs settle. Prototypes exist (Ethereum casino examples, stock‑quote variants), but security relies on the reorg‑unlikely conjecture and careful hardware/parallelism analysis, so the approach is promising but still experimental.
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chapters (19)
- 0:00Intro
- 1:22Physical randomness generation
- 2:29Timeline for a verifiable lottery
- 4:16Physical randomness can be faked
- 5:31Physical randomness can fail quietly
- 7:10The randomness beacon
- 8:04Trusted third-party beacons
- 8:49Natural beacons
- 10:25What is cryptography?
- 11:11Blockchains are close to a perfect beacon!
- 12:21Blockchains subject to short re-orgs
- 13:59Preventing manipulation with a delay function
- 14:55Simple cryptographic delay:iterated hashing
- 15:25Asymmetric delay: modular square roots
- 17:07Using randomness in smart contracts
- 17:39Alternate design: stock market beacons
- 18:11Applications go far beyond "lotteries"
- 18:51New adversaries to reason about
- 19:18It's healthy to ask authorities for verification!
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