Extracting Randomness from Nucleotide Sequencers for use in a Decentralised Randomness Beacon

This paper presents an investigation of nucleotide sequencing based random number generators, refutation of naive approaches to this problem, and a novel random number generator design based on the characteristics of nucleotide sequencers such as the Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) MinION. Common issues include misunderstanding the statistical properties of nucleotide sequences and the provenance of entropy observed in post-processed sequences extracted from such data. We identify that the use of sequences, expressed as base-pair (ATCG) sequences, for random number generation is not possible. The process by which such sequences are observed and reported by scientific instrumentation, provide a means by which entropy associated with nucleotide sequences (or more correctly the act of observing and recording them) can be observed. We report a novel method of extracting entropy from the process of reading nucleotide sequences, as opposed to the nucleotide sequences themselves. We overcome the limitations and inherent bias of nucleotide sequences, to provide a source of randomness decoupled from biological data and records. A novel random number generator drawing on entropy extracted from nucleotide sequencing is presented with validation of its performance and characteristics.