The Onchain Randomness Problem
· 2 min read
“There is no truly random. There is only unpredictable.”
In the world of blockchain, randomness isn’t just hard — it’s inherently compromised by the very properties that make blockchains powerful: transparency and determinism.
Randomness in a blockchain context has to be unpredictable — and more importantly, equally unpredictable to all participants. That means no party should have privileged access to influence or predict the outcome of a random event. This is fundamentally at odds with trustless, permissionless systems.
Random numbers are vital: from cryptographic keys to fair games of chance, and even to video game mechanics like loot boxes. But onchain, randomness becomes a minefield of trust assumptions and attack vectors.