Randomness beacons are decentralized protocols that provide a sequence of random outputs in such a way that it is possible to verify that these values are indeed random and provided by the beacon without trusting third parties. Randomness beacons are fundamental building blocks of Proof-of-Stake blockchain protocols and play an important role in other decentralized applications where publicly verifiable randomness is necessary.

In this talk, we provide an overview of different approaches for constructing randomness beacons with a focus on the ALBATROSS protocol, which is currently the most efficient truly random beacon. Besides the ALBATROSS approach, which is based on publicly verifiable secret sharing, we also discuss randomness beacon constructions based on verifiable random functions and on time based primitives such as time lock puzzles and verifiable delay functions.

About the speaker

Bernardo David
Associate Professor, IT University of Copenhagen

Bernardo David is Associate Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen (ITU) and a member of the Center for Information Security and Trust. From 2017 to 2018 I was an Assistant Professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Bernardo holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Aarhus University obtained under the supervision of Ivan Damgård and Jesper Buus Nielsen. He has also been a long-term visitor at the NTT Secure Plaftorm Laboratories and at the Bar Ilan University Cryptography Group.