An Interview with Felix Xu
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.
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.
How does ARPA’s Randcast maintain its decentralization while keeping the security of generated random numbers intact?
ARPA’s Randcast achieves decentralization and secure random number generation by leveraging a decentralized approach to gather entropy from a group of nodes distributed across multiple regions. These nodes utilize the BLS threshold signature process, ensuring that the generated random numbers are both tamper-proof and resistant to manipulation. As no single node can influence the final randomness result, this method ensures the unpredictability, fairness, and cryptographic security of the numbers generated, upholding the principles of decentralization and security concurrently.
Can you share more about the BLS threshold signature tasks that ARPA Network nodes perform? What makes them uniquely suited for verifiable random number generation?
The BLS threshold signature tasks that ARPA Network nodes perform involve a cryptographic process where multiple nodes cooperate to produce a single signature on a message without revealing their individual private keys. This mechanism guarantees that the resulting signature remains intact and secure as long as a predetermined number (or threshold) of these nodes operate honestly. The intrinsic randomness of BLS threshold signatures offers a robust entropy source. When this inherent randomness is paired with the verifiable nature of BLS signatures, it crafts a system optimally designed for generating random numbers on-chain that are both verifiable and resistant to manipulation by any single participant in the network.
Read this article to learn what efforts did we make to adapt the TSS-BLS for blockchains: https://arpa.medium.com/behind-the-arpa-network-a-threshold-signature-system-putting-tss-bls-to-work-ab20d61f6a34
What are some of the practical applications of your technology in the gaming industry? Can you share any use-cases or examples?
Randcast offers a verifiable on-chain random number generation service tailored for the gaming industry. Its suite of APIs enables developers to enhance gaming experiences with dynamic random elements, such as assigning random attributes to characters and items, determining matchmaking, generating random in-game maps or dungeons, and deciding the probability outcomes of various in-game events. For instance, a Web3 game might use Randcast to generate a random dungeon layout for players to explore, or to assign rarity tiers to in-game loot, ensuring each player’s experience is unique, fair, and verifiable.
How does the subscription model work for Randcast? And how does the funding with ETH come into play?
The subscription model for Randcast allows users to manage payments for the randomness generation’s fulfillment phase. Users create a subscription by interacting with specific functions in the Randcast Adapter contract, which provides them with a unique subscription ID. This ID helps track the status and manage various consumer contracts associated with their DApp or Web3 game. To facilitate transactions within this system, users fund their subscriptions using ETH. In the current version, Randcast v0.1.0, the service itself is free, but users are required to cover Gas fees, which are transaction costs on the Ethereum network, using their funded ETH.
Could you elaborate on the automatic gas estimation feature? How does it help users in managing their costs?
Certainly. The automatic gas estimation feature in Randcast is designed to predict the gas costs required for operations, particularly during the randomness generation process. This feature calculates and sets the necessary gas parameters, ensuring that the randomness generation process completes without hindrance due to gas limitations. By offering this estimation mechanism, Randcast eliminates the guesswork for users, allowing them to fund their subscriptions adequately and avoid unexpected expenses or failed transactions due to insufficient gas. This not only streamlines the user experience but also provides a more predictable cost structure.
How does Randcast ensure that the random number generation can’t be biased or manipulated, even by those who operate the service?
Randcast employs a decentralized approach to random number generation, sourcing entropy from a distributed network of nodes spanning various regions, making it resistant to unilateral manipulation. Furthermore, the platform leverages the ARPA Network, wherein multiple nodes collaboratively perform BLS threshold signature tasks to generate randomness. As BLS threshold signatures are intrinsically verifiable and random, no single node or entity has the capability to influence the final randomness result. This distributed and cryptographic method ensures that the generated numbers are tamper-proof, unbiased, and verifiable, safeguarding against any potential bias or manipulation, even by those operating the service.
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