Ask HN: Idea of a little simple lottery system with hash

#1

Post by keepworking » Thu, May 09, 2024, 2:34 AM UTC

I just came up with the idea of a little simple lottery system with hash.

{Time of purchase of lottery } + {lottery number} + {buyer id} +...

The above form is listed each time the buyer continues to be added, and the winner's lottery number is derived from the hashing value of the data.

I think it is difficult to manipulate because it does not require the reliability of any random number generator and because the participants provide random numbers.

I don't think the hardware resources will be big, and I think it's a pretty easy way to implement and for participants to verify, so can you give me some advice?

Re: Ask HN: Idea of a little simple lottery system with hash

#2

Post by a_tartaruga » Thu, May 09, 2024, 4:17 AM UTC

This isn't specified well enough to get detailed criticism. I don't know what you're hashing exactly but I think it includes purchase time. Depending on resolution of {Time of purchase of lottery} it might be very easy to manipulate.

Re: Ask HN: Idea of a little simple lottery system with hash

#3

Post by keepworking » Thu, May 09, 2024, 4:33 AM UTC

a_tartaruga wrote: post #2

This isn't specified well enough to get detailed criticism. I don't know what you're hashing exactly but I think it includes purchase time. Depending on resolution of {Time of purchase of lottery} it might be very easy to manipulate.

The idea was to list participants' purchase information in a byte array and hash them. I thought that the more participants there were, the more difficult it would be to induce the desired hash value to come out.