As a journalist, I get hundreds of requests for interviews and articles every week. When I came across information on Randcast, I was intrigued. Most pitches for web3 gaming stories are related to new drops, updates, or partnership announcements for games I’ve never heard of. However, the academic curiosity in me perked up 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 back out to ARPA, and I wanted to dig into some tough questions.
Why so random?
Randcast is an on-chain verifiable random number generator that offers a suite of APIs designed for diverse applications, including NFT allocation, game attribute generation, and even determining the outcomes of combat scenarios. Randcast creator ARPA believes Its approach positions Randcast as a potential game-changer in fostering a fairer, more creative metaverse.
Randcast’s model adopts a decentralized approach to randomness; it amasses entropy from a network of nodes spread across numerous regions. This process ensures what ARPA describes as “unparalleled unpredictability and fairness.” In addition, the random numbers generated are designed to be tamper-proof, reducing the likelihood of forgery or manipulation.
Uniqueness and verifiability are also said to be intrinsic to Randcast’s system. A sophisticated cryptographic primitive underpins the generation of random numbers, ensuring they are both unique and verifiable. The numbers are produced specifically for a given signing group and user input, offering an added layer of assurance.
Lastly, Randcast offers an important practicality: fee estimation. It provides accurate approximations of the token amount needed to cover request fees, helping users maintain sufficient funds in their account and avoiding failed requests due to insufficient tokens.
CryptoSlate spoke with founder Felix Xu to discuss why randomness is so important to gaming and how Randcast works.
Felix Xu, Crypto geek, early adopter, and NFT collector. Felix founded two crypto projects ARPA and Bella Protocol, among the global top 500 by market cap. Felix previously worked at Fosun Investment, the Sackler family office, and Vertical Research in New York and Beijing.
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