Muon RNG: Fair & Secure Randomness for Next Gen NFTs

Muon tech is bringing a hybrid randomness solution to the thriving NFT space.

Muon Joel
Muon
4 min readApr 11, 2022

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Randomness plays a vital role in creating value for NFTs according to one of the largest NFT projects (Ether Cards). The NFT space is still very experimental and has its limitations.

With Muon’s proprietary random number generator, NFT projects can gain access to faster and cheaper minting processes, lower gas costs, and most importantly, create a more valuable user experience.

Muon RNG in Action: FEAR Wolf NFT series

Muon’s Random Number Generator is being actively used in a number of upcoming NFT projects, one of which is FEAR Wolf.

“Muon’s verifiable and easy to integrate RNG is allowing FEAR to bestow fair on chain traits into our upcoming flagship NFT — The FEAR Wolf. Not only is the RNG easy to integrate, its gas cost is a lot cheaper vs other competitors — especially important when the RNG component is billed to the NFT minter!” — Patrick, FEAR founder

Muon’s RNG can help with a great number of use-cases besides NFTs, such as providing the mechanism for online gaming, random outputs for security features such as 2FA, mining generative digital collectibles, and many more.

Anything that needs an on-chain, efficient, cheap, and more optimized randomness generator could benefit from Muon’s RNG.

Why provable Randomness is important for NFTs

Many NFTs, especially those that are collected through randomized “drops”, such as in-game items, or digital art, gain a significant amount of their value through their perceived rarity.

The lottery-like process of finding a rare item can be quite alluring for a majority of people, because it means anyone has a chance to own something truly unique.

This lottery-like process of distributing rare objects and assigning unique attributes relies largely on RNG; a functionality that most blockchains cannot provide securely.

While there are projects that are looking to integrate more transparent off-chain RNG Models as well as on-chain models using existing block data, neither of these approaches guarantee the tamper-proof randomness that NFTs need.

For example, a malicious blockchain miner could easily manipulate blockhashes used as randomness to exploit the minting process of NFTs. And if someone were to unfairly win an NFT with the most rare attributes during its initial distribution, it would drastically deter the value of the assets and legitimacy of the underlying protocol.

RNG Oracles: Gaps in the existing Solution

Since on-chain models of generating tamper-proof randomness aren’t very effective, projects are relying on generating that randomness off-chain via oracles.

Several NFT platforms and blockchain-based dApps use Oracle-powered randomness to run on-chain lotteries, distribute unique digital collectibles, and assign rare attributes to increase NFT value.

With verifiable randomness provided by these oracles, NFT owners and game developers can rest easy knowing that each asset is minted and updated in a manner that is provably random and fair.

While oracles are the current existing solution, they aren’t the best.

This is because by involving an off-chain third party, NFT projects open themselves up to a number of problems especially in terms of speed, cost, and most importantly, security. With the inherent issues of increasing gas cost, block complexity, and transaction speeds, oracles may not be the best solution.

The NFT space needs a hybrid on-chain solution that is fast and has lower gas costs.

Muon Random Number Generator: A Hybrid Solution

By closely studying the gaps in the existing solutions for Random Number Generation, and the needs of the NFT space, Muon developed a better solution.

In building a random number generator into the Muon Application, Muon skips the off-chain steps and removes any single point of failure or third party risk such as human collusion or reliance on a consensus.

It does this by sending an on-chain transaction to a smart contract, which triggers the Muon app to generate a random number and return it to the application where the request originated.

With fewer parties needed to complete a contract, Muon’s provides a faster, more efficient, and cheaper Random Number Generator than any existing solution in the space.

Muon Network

Muon is a decentralized node network enabling applications to run on-chain, off-chain & cross-chain. Its technology allows for projects to build customizable web3 solutions that enable possibilities beyond the existing constraints of blockchain.

Learn about Muon here.

Join our Muon Community on Twitter, Telegram, Medium, and Discord.

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