Trustworthy public randomness with sloth, unicorn, and trx. (2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lenstra, Arjen K.; Wesolowski, Benjamin
• Is Part Of: International journal of applied cryptography. Volume 3:Number 4(2017)
• Page Start: 330
• Page End: 343
• Publication Date: 2017
• Subjects: public random number generation -- random beacon -- slow-timed hash; Data encryption (Computer science) -- Periodicals; Cryptography -- Periodicals; Computer security -- Periodicals; 652.8
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1753-0563

Abstract

Many applications require trustworthy generation of public random numbers. It is shown how this can be achieved using a hash function that is timed to be as slow as desired ( sloth ), while the correctness of the resulting hash can be verified quickly. It is shown how sloth can be used for uncontestable random number generation ( unicorn ), and how unicorn can be used for a new trustworthy random elliptic curves service ( trx ) and random-sample voting.