Can I Prove That I Have Used A Random Number Generator?
Meet Verifiable Random Functions (VRFs)
Okay, let’s say you have a lottery, and I think you are cheating. I believe that the numbers you are generating are not random. So can I get you to prove that you are truly generated random numbers? For this, we take the seed of a random number and a private key, and feed these into a hash function. With the random value, a proof and a public key, we can then prove that we have used the hash function correctly, without revealing the original seed value.
Verifiable Random Function (VRF)
Two of the greats of cryptography are Silvio Micali (creator of the Algorand blockchain) and Michael Rabin, and when they get together, magic can happen [2]:
The paper outlined how we can create a random function, of which we can prove its operation — a Verifiable Random Function (VRF). Basically, it allows us to prove that
Overall, a VRF allows the owner of a private key the ability to create a hashed value of data, while anyone with the associated public key can prove the validity of the hash. Thus the owner of…
