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by rtkwe 604 days ago
I think the cloudflare video wall is a more practical way to mass generate entropy but this is suitably madcap I enjoy it. There are also other existing methods but they're not as... clearly demonstrable... as this like is used in existing hardware TRNGs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_random_number_generat...

2 comments

The case I would make for the Satoshi9000 is that its method of generating randomness is intuitively understood by anyone from five years old to ninety-five years old, technical or non-technical.

I think it would be a stretch to think you could pull a random person off the street, point to a wall of lava lamps, and ask "do you see the randomness, how does it work?" Whereas, I think if you pull a random person off the street, let them watch the Satoshi9000 do its thing, and ask "do you see the randomness, how does it work?" you might get an answer that makes sense.

That, in a nutshell, is the value proposition behind the Satoshi9000.

The Cloudflare lava lamp wall isn't actually that practical. You get more randomness with the lens caps on the cameras (i.e. where the whole frame is just thermal noise).
It's not the simplest possible but it's more practical than this by miles. It's a continuum.