from Hacker News

Quantum mechanics to generate truly random numbers

by nonsapreiche on 1/23/21, 10:15 PM with 2 comments

• by PhantomGremlin on 1/24/21, 12:39 AM

  If only there were commercial products that did quantum random number generation. If only those products were readily available. If only those products were readily available for many years.

  Oh wait, that already happened: https://www.idquantique.com/random-number-generation/overvie...

  The interesting thing in this announcement is that the researchers are generating random numbers at a rate of gigabits per second, rather than megabits.

• by Tomte on 1/23/21, 10:44 PM

  > In this new effort, the researchers looked to the quantum world to create a truly random number generator.

  If only there was a use case. I mean, it's cool research, and they should certainly be doing this, but there is zero effect on computer security.

  You don't need "truly random" numbers for, well, anything. That's a philosophical property, not a practical one.