Edit: I found it for $36 elsewhere. :D
this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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I think CloudFlare uses lava lamps because it's a cool story, but there are ways you can get truly random bits from other things, like this. Generally, you want to have some sort of physical process going on that provides random entropy, because CPUs by themselves can only produce pseudorandom numbers. For example, random.org uses atmospheric noise, which is random and unpredictable when you look at very tiny variances. You can also use, e.g. a super sensitive Geiger counter to measure random bits of radiation, or if you shoot photons at a semi-reflective surface, sometimes they go through and sometimes they reflect. For the type shown here, though, the most common kind of noise they use is from quantum effects relating to transistors, as far as I know. This is an actual source of randomness, so if it's done right it can be just as good as lava lamps or Geiger counters or whatever.
It's probably similar to a noise generator in a synthesizer, you can push a transistor until it starts to breakup and get white noise from a relatively simple circuit