How we prove every draw is fair

You shouldn't have to take our word that a draw was fair. Every Nairalot draw can be checked by anyone, using public information, after it happens.

How it works

1. 1

   Before a competition opens, we generate a secret random seed and publish its SHA-256 fingerprint on the competition page. The fingerprint locks the seed in: changing the seed later would change the fingerprint.

2. 2

   When the competition closes, we take the next round of public randomness from drand, a randomness beacon run by independent organisations around the world. Nobody, including us, can predict it in advance.

3. 3

   We combine the secret seed with the public randomness to pick the winning ticket number from the tickets eligible for the draw.

4. 4

   We publish the secret seed, the drand round and the winning ticket. Anyone can confirm the seed matches the fingerprint and recompute the same winning number.

Why this matters

Because the seed is fixed before any tickets are sold and the public randomness arrives only after the competition closes, neither we nor anyone else can steer the result towards a particular ticket.

Live draws

We also stream major draws live, so you can watch the result being produced in real time.