Hey everyone!

I'm Aleks, a blockchain developer and enthusiast. I'd like to share an idea for a new approach to on-chain entropy and randomness, and I'd love to get your feedback. I'm hoping to find some like-minded people to discuss it with and build it together.

TL;DR: On-chain randomness from oracles (Chainlink, etc.) is often centralized and acts like a black box. I'm proposing a dedicated L1 blockchain (appchain) designed to be a decentralized "Entropy Hub" for all of web3. It would gather randomness from multiple sources (PoW miners, lava lamps, gyroscope), mix it, and allow any dApp or blockchain to pull from it for a small fee. Looking for feedback and collaborators!

Disclaimer: This post is less about academic research and more about the practical engineering and technology.

For some context: if you're building a dApp (like a game) that needs a random number, the standard approach in web3 today is to use oracles with VRF capabilities, like Chainlink, Supra, or Gelato. You send a request in one transaction and get the random number back in a callback transaction.

The problem is, these services are often centralized and act as black boxes. Even when they use strong cryptography like VRF, they aren't fully transparent or decentralized.

So, I thought, why not build a truly decentralized solution? An infrastructure layer that produces verifiable, unbiased entropy and serves as an "Entropy Hub" for all of web3.

The core idea is to create a specialized L1 blockchain (an appchain), likely built with a framework like Substrate, dedicated to generating and distributing entropy. Here’s a high-level overview:

1. Proof-of-Work: Miners use an ASIC-resistant PoW algorithm like RandomX. Instead of just securing the network, their primary job is to find and commit a high-quality Entropy Seed to each block they produce, earning rewards for their work.

2. Collection (External Sources): We could integrate external, real-world entropy sources, similar to how Cloudflare uses lava lamps or how others use atmospheric noise. Lite-clients could help gather and validate the quality of this entropy.

3. Entropy Hub: All these entropy inputs (from miners and external sources) are continuously mixed and stored in the "Entropy Hub" on the appchain.

4. Distribution: Any blockchain, parachain, or dApp can request a chunk of entropy from the Hub by paying a small fee.

5. Incentives: The fees are then distributed among the contributors (miners, external source providers) based on the quality and quantity of the entropy they provided.

I want to make participation in this protocol as open and permissionless as possible.

Thanks for reading this far! I hope the idea is intriguing. I'm open to all feedback, critiques, and suggestions—please share your thoughts in the comments!

Let's build the Entropy Layer for Web3 together.

If you're interested in joining the discussion, I've created a Telegram group:

https://t.me/opentropy

Hey everyone!

I'm Aleks, a blockchain developer and enthusiast. I'd like to share an idea for a new approach to on-chain entropy and randomness, and I'd love to get your feedback. I'm hoping to find some like-minded people to discuss it with and build it together.

TL;DR: On-chain randomness from oracles (Chainlink, etc.) is often centralized and acts like a black box. I'm proposing a dedicated L1 blockchain (appchain) designed to be a decentralized "Entropy Hub" for all of web3. It would gather randomness from multiple sources (PoW miners, lava lamps, gyroscope), mix it, and allow any dApp or blockchain to pull from it for a small fee. Looking for feedback and collaborators!

Disclaimer: This post is less about academic research and more about the practical engineering and technology.

For some context: if you're building a dApp (like a game) that needs a random number, the standard approach in web3 today is to use oracles with VRF capabilities, like Chainlink, Supra, or Gelato. You send a request in one transaction and get the random number back in a callback transaction.

The problem is, these services are often centralized and act as black boxes. Even when they use strong cryptography like VRF, they aren't fully transparent or decentralized.

So, I thought, why not build a truly decentralized solution? An infrastructure layer that produces verifiable, unbiased entropy and serves as an "Entropy Hub" for all of web3.

The core idea is to create a specialized L1 blockchain (an appchain), likely built with a framework like Substrate, dedicated to generating and distributing entropy. Here’s a high-level overview:

1. Proof-of-Work: Miners use an ASIC-resistant PoW algorithm like RandomX. Instead of just securing the network, their primary job is to find and commit a high-quality Entropy Seed to each block they produce, earning rewards for their work.

2. Collection (External Sources): We could integrate external, real-world entropy sources, similar to how Cloudflare uses lava lamps or how others use atmospheric noise. Lite-clients could help gather and validate the quality of this entropy.

3. Entropy Hub: All these entropy inputs (from miners and external sources) are continuously mixed and stored in the "Entropy Hub" on the appchain.

4. Distribution: Any blockchain, parachain, or dApp can request a chunk of entropy from the Hub by paying a small fee.

5. Incentives: The fees are then distributed among the contributors (miners, external source providers) based on the quality and quantity of the entropy they provided.

I want to make participation in this protocol as open and permissionless as possible.

Thanks for reading this far! I hope the idea is intriguing. I'm open to all feedback, critiques, and suggestions—please share your thoughts in the comments!

Let's build the Entropy Layer for Web3 together.

If you're interested in joining the discussion, I've created a Telegram group:

https://t.me/opentropy