The Random Number Degenerator

The Random Number Degenerator

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Episode description

Why is a mistake in randomness so hard to catch?

An audio edition of The Random Number Degenerator, based on episode 101 of Bitcoin, Explained with Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost.

COLDCARD’s randomness failure left wallets looking functional while making their seeds easier to guess. This article follows the firmware’s build configuration, fallback generators and reseeding bottleneck, then examines why ordinary output tests can miss predictable randomness.

Sjorsnado, passed through a transformer. AI-assisted article written in Sjors Provoost’s voice, with synthetic narration using ElevenLabs: Sarah for the introduction and an original custom male voice for the body. This is an article narration; the original conversation is linked below.

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No chapters are available for this episode.