quotingIf you don't use entropy you collected on your own from pulsar timing arrays, please, lose my number.... Just kidding, here's a beginner friendly guide to take you through each step while holding your hand.
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Ok, so first you need a large dish (≥15m), a cryogenic low-noise amplifier (LNA), and a Software Defined Radio (SDR) with high bandwidth (tens of MHz).
Now, your local clock must be synchronized to UTC via GPS. If your clock drifts, the "randomness" you record is just your clock's error, which is predictable. SO DONT OVERCLOCK YOUR CPU. Sync the clock over a fiber internet connection first before turning it into a permanently offline computer. And also download PINT or TEMPO2. These are the standard open source tools used by astronomers. Now you need to turn your hardened Linux computer into a permanently offline machine where you desolder the WiFi adapter from the motherboard. Simple. 5 minutes at most if you're not braindead.
Ok now, point your dish at bright millisecond pulsars like PSR J0030+0451 or PSR B0329+54.
Now record your data for a while. The raw data contains a predictable "model" (the pulsar's steady spin) and the "residuals" (the random variations you want).
Ok sweet. Put in the raw TOAs and the pulsar's "ephemeris" (its known position, spin rate, and orbital parameters).
The software subtracts the predicted arrival time from the actual arrival time.
Now you will have A list of Timing Residuals. These are the tiny deviations (nanoseconds to microseconds) caused by gravitational waves, interstellar medium turbulence, and intrinsic pulsar noise.
The residuals are not yet uniform random bits; they have statistical bias. You must "distill" them in order to extract the entropy you want.
First we need to scale the residual values so they fall between 0 and 1.
Quantization:
Simple Method for beginners to self custody: If a residual is above the median, output 1; if below, output 0.
Advanced Method for experienced plebs that have seen a thing or two 😏: Use Gray coding on the decimal expansion of the residuals to capture more bits per measurement.
Extraction (Crucial Step): Pass the raw bits through a cryptographic extractor.
This step mathematically guarantees that even if your measurement has some bias or correlation, the final output is indistinguishable from perfect randomness.
Copy this data to a USB drive and transfer it to another internet connected device. Compare your extracted residuals against a second independent dataset (e.g., compare your observation against the EPTA public release for the same timeframe on that same pulsar). If they match in their statistical properties (but not exact values, due to different noise floors), your source is genuine. Ask AI for help if you're new to bitcoin. Don't be embarrassed. We all started somewhere.
Statistical Testing: Run the final bitstream through the NIST SP 800-22 test suite. Pulsar-derived random numbers have been proven to pass these tests, confirming the entropy is a high enough grade to hold your 2 million sats so that one day you can have all the chairs and lambos you could ever want.
Once you finish this step repeat the process on a new pulsar since you sent the last data you collected over the internet and it is now ABSOLUTELY USELESS.
See? Easy peasy. Now you have your first private key for your new 3 of 5 multisig that you will eventually add a 200 (minimum, best not to mess up your security now that you've put the work in) character passphrase to. You still need to convert this key into a seedphrase but now you know how to get started.
Once you have done this 4 more times without ever revealing the data to anyone else, boom, you're ready to whip out sparrow on your offline machine and start constructing your secure 3 of 5 multisig wallet.
Make sure to now stamp everything into steel and spread it out to the far corners of the earth. Good luck! You got this! 💪
Oh! One last thing. If you really value security. You need multiple dishes because you need to record data for 6-12 months per pulsar. So grab a big UPS for making sure you don't lose power to your machines for the next year. Maybe even a whole house battery system you link to your computer and dishes only. Make sure it kicks on in under 3ms to avoid total loss.
For the extra paranoid I recommend discovering new pulsars so that no data exists on it for years to come. Do this 5 times and your golden.
Feel free to comment and let me know how it worked out for you!!
utxo the webmaster 🧑💻 (nprofile…jejf) You're much more technical than I am. How did I do? Can you rate my setup? 🙏
Bond008 on Nostr: Have you considered generating it from pulsar timing arrays? ...
Have you considered generating it from pulsar timing arrays?