

Ask HN: Do you need a true random number API? - philippnagel

I am currently playing around with some learning project ideas and this is one of them. 
Is there a need for a cryptographically secure true random number API?
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ShaneCurran
Is that not what [https://www.random.org/](https://www.random.org/) does?

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dalke
Agreed. Or
[https://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/](https://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/) , which
I believe is a year older than random.org (based on archive.org's logs).

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MichaelCrawford
My understanding is that you cannot use mathematics to generate random
numbers. Somewhere in there you need a quantum process. However that is not
hard, just point your camera phone out the window at the clouds.

The problem I see with this is, suppose I hash a picture of the sky down to
just one bit. Can I count on my hash evenly dividing between one and zero,
without any bias?

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philippnagel
Exactly. That's why I was thinking of building a service that allows every
developer, scientist, person in need of true random numbers, to fulfill their
need.

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gus_massa
Most people can get random enough numbers from dev/random or dev/urandom for
free.

The people that need more secure random number will not thrust you to generate
their random numbers. Are you storing the numbers? Are they truly random or
pseudorandom? Are you sending a copy to the NSA?

Do you have one use case of someone that will pay to get random numbers?

