On May 8th, Nebulas released the version 1.0.2 update to its public blockchain. The key improvement is the addition of Verifiable Random Functions (VRF) to enable random number generation on the Nebulas mainnet. This lays the foundation for a more feature-rich blockchain platform supporting a wider variety of smart contracts, especially in the domain of blockchain-based games.

We know VRF has a wide range of applications in the blockchain world. For example, blockchain projects like Dfinity, Algorand, and Ontology implement VRF for their consensus mechanisms. However, Nebulas takes a different approach. We’ve added VRF to make it easier for blockchain developers to build decentralized apps (DApps) on Nebulas.

Without a built-in VRF system, it could be cumbersome for developers to implement one themselves, which hinders the growth of DApps. Now, blockchain app developers can focus on building what they really want to build.

And the fact that the Nebulas blockchain’s ability to generate random numbers carries at least three advantages:

1. The Nebulas blockchain supports more smart contract development.

The big takeaway from all this is that Nebulas is now a favorable development platform for a much broader set of DApps! After all, there are many use cases for random numbers. Gaming is one of the popular programming areas that uses random numbers. A simple example is lottery-based games, which depend on random numbers for the game to be fair. Broadly speaking, randomness and unpredictability are generally the key to “fun” in any game. With VRF on Nebulas, developing a complex game is easier than ever. The door is now open, and awaits your creativity!

2. It’s incredibly easy to generate random numbers on the Nebulas blockchain.

On Nebulas, developers can easily and immediately plug-and-play into the blockchain’s VRF. This is unlike other blockchains, which require additional work on developers’ when producing random number generator systems (assuming they even support random number generators at all). This means developers often have to write their own smart contracts for random number generation. Not so on Nebulas. With our VRF system, building a DApp that implements random numbers is much more convenient and faster.

3. Randomness generated by the Nebulas blockchain is fair and secure.

Of course, it’s critical that any random number generator stay true to its name and be, well, random. To ensure this randomness and fairness in our system, the Nebulas VRF generates a proof at the same time as the random number is generated. The proof can be used by other users to verify if the random number is correct. This leads to a fair system where the possibility of fraud is virtually eliminated. Moreover, this implementation method cannot be tampered with, creating a more secure development environment.

Nebulas blockchain is a developer-friendly public blockchain dedicated to building a collaborative ecosystem with sustainable upgrades. Random number generation is new highlight of the Nebulas blockchain. The main Nebulas blockchain network went online on March 30th, 2018. It currently supports decentralized applications written in Javascript, and can reach over 2,000 transactions-per-second.

The Nebulas blockchain also features a Developer Incentive Protocol, which provides native incentives to encourage developers to build more and better applications. The First Season of the Nebulas Incentive Program began on May 7 and offers a prize pool of 460,000 NAS coins (equivalent to over $3.5 million, as of May 14 prices). The program has received a warm response from the developer community so far, with more than 600 DApps submitted in the first week.

Learn more about Nebulas:

Official website: Nebulas.io

Github: github.com/nebulasio/go-nebulas

Slack: nebulasio.herokuapp.com

Telegram(EN): t.me/nebulasio

Twitter: @nebulasio