HydRand - Efficient Continuous Distributed Randomness

Explore a 17-minute IEEE conference talk on HydRand, an efficient protocol for continuous distributed randomness. Dive into the importance of reliable randomness in cryptographic, security, and distributed systems protocols, particularly in blockchain proposals. Learn about HydRand's novel approach using publicly-verifiable secret sharing (PVSS) to ensure unpredictability, bias-resistance, and public-verifiability of continuous random beacon values. Discover how this protocol guarantees output delivery of randomness at regular intervals, even in the presence of adversarial behavior, without relying on a trusted dealer for initial setup. Understand HydRand's improved scalability, which reduces communication complexity from O(n^3) to O(n^2) compared to existing PVSS-based approaches. Gain insights into a detailed comparison of recently described schemes and protocols for implementing random beacons.