Distributed Randomness Beacons

Distributed randomness beacons enable a group of participants to create a common, public, random value, even in the presence of some dishonest participants. Applications include lotteries and gaming, consensus protocols, fair transaction ordering, election audits, and even zero-knowledge proofs. They have attracted particular attention in the cryptocurrency space. Joe Bonneau (a16z crypto) presents a high-level survey of approaches to building distributed randomness beacon protocols, based on the Systematization of Knowledge (SoK) published at IEEE Security and Privacy 2023.

About the speaker

Joe is a Research Partner at a16z crypto and an Assistant Professor of computer science at NYU. His work focuses on applied cryptography and security, including cryptocurrencies, encrypted messaging protocols and transparency systems. He is a co-author of the textbook “Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies.” Prior to joining a16z he was an advisor at Zcash, Algorand, Chia, and Mina. He received a PhD from Cambridge and BS/MS degrees from Stanford. More: https://jbonneau.com/

About a16z crypto research

a16z crypto research is a multidisciplinary lab that works closely with our portfolio companies and others toward solving the important problems in the space, and toward advancing the science and technology of the next generation of the internet. More about us: a16z.com/2022/04/21/announcing-a16z-crypto-research