Mar 19, 2025 07:00:00

Cloudflare Installs Wave Machine to Generate 'True Random Numbers'

In an effort to improve internet security, Cloudflare has revealed that it has installed a random number generating 'wave machine' in its Lisbon office.

Chaos in Cloudflare's Lisbon office: securing the Internet with wave motion

https://blog.cloudflare.com/chaos-in-cloudflare-lisbon-office-securing-the-internet-with-wave-motion/

Chaos Using Waves at Cloudflare's Lisbon Office - YouTube


To prevent data eavesdropping and deliver data to the right recipient, randomness is important when generating the encryption 'key' used in communication. However, computer programs are based on the logic that 'the same input will produce the same output,' so they cannot produce completely random output.

Pseudorandom number generators used in computers are said to produce infinite random output by first inputting a random 'seed'. However, there are problems with this, such as accidentally inputting the same seed and outputting the same thing, and it is difficult to prove that the output is truly infinitely random.

Therefore, Cloudflare has adopted a method of using real-world randomness to generate random seeds and keep updating the seeds of its random number generator. In 2017, they installed lava lights on the walls of their San Francisco offices and introduced a mechanism to use them as part of the seeds by taking pictures of them with a camera.

In our London office we use a double pendulum to ensure randomness.

Additionally, a translucent

mobile has been installed in the company's Austin, Texas, office.

Cloudflare uses real-world data to ensure randomness, and this time a wave machine was installed in the company's Lisbon office as a new 'real-world data source.'

A total of 50 wave machines were installed in the Lisbon office, and it took 15 months from conception to completion. Each wave machine contains about 500 ml of liquid and generates 15 waves per minute to ensure randomness. Cloudflare makes the randomness generated based on the data collected in this way accessible internally as the LavaRand API, and is used in a number of services.

At the time of writing, Cloudflare is looking for names for its wave machines. In addition to options like 'The Surf Board' and 'Chaos Reef,' you can also write your own name, so if you're confident in your naming sense, check out

the form at the bottom of the blog .