NIST backup random — public random made by NIST
It is fine even if the DRAND server has an outage. Another public random number, made by NIST, is waiting as a backup.
What is NIST?
NIST is a U.S. federal agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It is a highly trusted place that sets the world's "standards" for length, weight, and time — and it also makes a public random number anyone can check and shows it to everyone.
This public random device is called the NIST Randomness Beacon. It is public random that anyone in the world can see the same value of.
It puts out new random on a fixed schedule
NIST puts out a new random number once every 60 seconds. Each one is called a "pulse." Each pulse gets a number in order: 1, 2, 3, …
The raw material for the random number is a natural quantum phenomenon. Because it is drawn from nature, not made by people, nobody can know it in advance.
On top of that, each pulse is chained to the one just before it and stamped with a digital signature. So you cannot secretly change a past value or forge a fake.
Why use DRAND first and NIST as backup?
Both are "public random the whole world watches," so with either one the organizer cannot fix the result in advance. The one difference: how often a new value appears.
| DRAND | NIST | |
|---|---|---|
| New-value interval | Short (seconds to tens of seconds) | Long (60 seconds) |
| Role | 1st choice · everyday use | 2nd choice · emergency backup |
| Why? | Short interval great for committing right before a draw and using it right away | Long interval, a bit slow normally → switch to it if DRAND stops |
Fetch a NIST backup number
Press the button below to fetch the current pulse from a real NIST beacon.