A random zoo: sloth, unicorn, and trx

Arjen K.  Lenstra; Benjamin Wesolowski

Paper 2015/366

A random zoo: sloth, unicorn, and trx

Arjen K. Lenstra and Benjamin Wesolowski

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.

Note: Some additional details and explanations.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Publication info: Preprint. MINOR revision.
Keywords: slow-times hash uncontestable random numbers trustworthy random elliptic curves service random-sample voting
Contact author(s): benjamin wesolowski @ epfl ch
History: 2017-08-25: last of 2 revisions; 2015-04-23: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2015/366
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2015/366,
      author = {Arjen K.  Lenstra and Benjamin Wesolowski},
      title = {A random zoo: sloth, unicorn, and trx},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2015/366},
      year = {2015},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/366}
}