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As a journalist, I get hundreds of interview and article requests every week. When I found information about Randcast, I was interested. Most of the offers for web3 game stories are related to new launches, updates, or partnership announcements for games I’ve never heard of. However, my academic curiosity was piqued when I started reading about ARPA’s approach to randomness.
My first thought was to pray to ‘RNGesus’, then I considered whether random number generation (RNG) was more important in web3 than in web2. I reached out to ARPA again and wanted to dig into some tough questions.
Randcast is a verifiable on-chain random number generator that offers a set of APIs designed for a wide variety of applications, including NFT allocation, game attribute generation, and even determining the outcome of battle scenarios. Randcast’s creator, ARPA, believes that its approach positions Randcast as a potential game changer in developing a more equitable and creative metaverse.
The Randcast model adopts a decentralized approach to randomness; it collects entropy from a network of nodes spread across different regions. This process ensures what ARPA describes as “unparalleled uncertainty and fairness.” Additionally, the random numbers generated are designed to be tamper-proof, reducing the possibility of forgery or manipulation.
Uniqueness and verifiability are also said to be intrinsic to the Randcast system. Sophisticated cryptographic primitives underlie the generation of random numbers, ensuring they are unique and verifiable. These numbers are generated specifically for specific signing and user input groups, offering an additional layer of assurance.
Finally, Randcast offers an important practicality: cost estimation. This provides an accurate estimate of the number of tokens required to cover request costs, helping users maintain sufficient funds in their accounts and avoid failed requests due to insufficient tokens.
CryptoSlate spoke with founder Felix Xu to discuss why randomness is so important in gaming and how Randcast works.
Felix Xu, Crypto expert, early adopter, and NFT collector. Felix founded two crypto projects ARPA And Bella Protocol, is in the global top 500 by market capitalization. Felix previously worked at Fosun Investment, a Sackler family office, and Vertical Research in New York and Beijing.
How does Randcast ARPA maintain decentralization while keeping the security of the generated random numbers intact?
Randcast ARPA achieves decentralization and generates secure random numbers by leveraging a decentralized approach to collect entropy from a group of nodes distributed across regions. These nodes use the BLS threshold signature process, ensuring that the generated random numbers are tamper-proof and resistant to manipulation. Since no single node can influence the final randomness result, this method ensures uncertainty, fairness and cryptographic security of the generated numbers, while simultaneously upholding the principles of decentralization and security.
Can you share more about the BLS threshold signature tasks that ARPA Network nodes perform? What makes them uniquely suited to generating verifiable random numbers?
The BLS threshold signature task that ARPA Network nodes perform involves a cryptographic process in which multiple nodes work together to produce a single signature on a message without revealing each other’s private keys. This mechanism guarantees that the resulting signature remains intact and secure as long as a predetermined number (or threshold) of nodes operate honestly. The intrinsic randomness of the BLS threshold signatures offers a powerful source of entropy. When this inherent randomness is combined with the verifiable nature of BLS signatures, it creates a system that is optimally designed to generate random numbers on-chain that are verifiable and resistant to manipulation by any participant in the network.
Read this article to learn what efforts we made to adapt TSS-BLS for blockchain: https://arpa.medium.com/behind-the-arpa-network-a-threshold-signature-system-putting-tss-bls-to-work-ab20d61f6a34
What are some practical applications of your technology in the gaming industry? Can you share any use cases or examples?
Randcast offers a verifiable and customizable on-chain random number generation service for the gaming industry. Its suite of APIs allows developers to enhance the gaming experience with dynamic random elements, such as assigning random attributes to characters and items, determining matchmaking, randomly generating in-game maps or dungeons, and determining the probability outcomes of various in-game events. For example, a Web3 game might use Randcast to generate random dungeon layouts for players to explore, or to assign rarity levels to in-game loot, ensuring each player’s experience is unique, fair, and verifiable.
How does the subscription model work for Randcast? And how does funding with ETH come into play?
That subscription model for Randcast allows users to manage payments for the randomness generation fulfillment phase. Users create subscriptions by interacting with certain functions in the Randcast Adapter contract, which assigns them a unique subscription ID. This ID helps track the status and manage various consumer contracts related to their DApp or Web3 game. To facilitate transactions in this system, users fund their subscriptions using ETH. In the current version, Randcast v0.1.0, the service itself is free, but users are required to cover Gas fees, which are transaction fees on the Ethereum network, using funded ETH.
Can you explain more about the automatic fuel estimation feature? How does it help users manage their costs?
Of course. Automatic gas estimation feature in random broadcast designed to predict the gas costs required for operations, especially during the randomness generation process. This feature calculates and sets the required gas parameters, ensuring the randomness generation process completes without a hitch due to gas limitations. By offering this estimation mechanism, Randcast takes the guesswork out of users, allowing them to adequately fund their subscriptions and avoid unexpected expenses or failed transactions due to lack of gas. This not only simplifies the user experience but also provides a more predictable cost structure.
How does Randcast ensure that random number generation cannot be biased or manipulated, even by those operating the service?
random broadcast uses a decentralized approach to generating random numbers, drawing entropy from a distributed network of nodes spread across regions, making it resistant to unilateral manipulation. Additionally, the platform leverages the ARPA Network, where multiple nodes collaboratively perform BLS threshold signature tasks to generate randomness. Because BLS threshold signatures are intrinsically verifiable and random, no single node or entity has the ability to influence the final randomness outcome. This distributed and cryptographic method ensures that the numbers generated are tamper-proof, unbiased, and verifiable, thus protecting against potential bias or manipulation, even by those operating the service.
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