As online-facing businesses and entertainment companies seek more ways to be competitive and to appeal to users, many are turning to the inherent appeal of randomisation.
This is particularly in regard to promotions and bonuses where the product itself isn’t wholly randomised. Wheel spins, mystery boxes, and the like all rely on software that gives the perception of randomness that AI and blockchain could help to improve further.
The State of Play of Randomisation
Randomised number generators (RNG) in the digital world are very advanced. They’re not truly random, but they are so close that fairness can be guaranteed. Where this is most important in the world of randomised rewards is in live casino games and slots.
To pass the approvals of regulators and their regular checks, a slot game has to run on an RNG that doesn’t become weighted or predictable, enabling each player to have the same shot at the rewards available per spin.
This is true across all slots, from the classics like Fishin’ Frenzy to Eye of Horus Megaways with its over 100,000 paylines, or to high-volatility games like Extra Chilli.
Powering them all, as well as randomised prize wheels and mystery boxes – to a less regulated degree – is a pseudorandom number generator (PRNG).
They approximate true randomness through an algorithm that is based on distribution. The quality of each PRNG can vary greatly.
Particularly when it comes to the ones used in products that need to be fair to reach customers, PRNGs are very good at presenting randomised results.
However, true random number generators (TRNG) are the next step up. These are very heavy bits of kit that don’t use computer algorithms.
Instead, they draw from natural and unpredictable random occurrences, like the radioactive decay of isotopes. Naturally, TRNGs are quite intensive.
Integrating AI and Blockchains into RNGs
Artificial intelligence and blockchains could be integrated in a couple of different approaches that will greatly improve the experience of randomness for users.
Whether they’re opening a mystery gift box hoping for a discount, or spinning the reels of a slot game, improving randomness and proving said randomness will only make the products and promotions more trusted and enjoyable by all.
As mentioned, TRNGs exist and can offer a better replication of true randomness, but are very intensive. Here, AI can, in theory, be applied to make them more viable.
With the right application, an AI could open ways for the program to be more efficient, validate the data points being taken and used, and offer a better form of real-time adaptability, such as to adjust the results based on a limited supply of potential outcomes.
Randomised products and offerings could also benefit from being built on and self-regulated by a blockchain. The independent verification of the system could allow any RNG product to be provably fair.
Being a public ledger, the results and potential remaining outcomes could all be found and proved to be random. Plus, if smart contracts were built into this, rewards could be automated and transparently distributed.
RNGs are an important element for more and more businesses, and while existing and accessible PRNGs are pretty strong, rising technologies could very well make RNGs as a whole even better.