Creating perfect randomness is surprisingly difficult. Even modern random number generators never generate completely ideal random numbers: small systematic errors can result in some numbers appearing slightly more frequently than others. For many applications, this does not matter. In cryptography, however, even the tiniest deviations can be problematic.

In the long term, this work could play a similar role in digital security as atomic clocks do for timekeeping: a physically certified source of randomness that other systems can rely on. Possible applications range from the encryption of sensitive communications and digital identities to public randomness services for lotteries and blockchain applications.

Such methods could also become crucial for quantum-secure communications systems. This is because even the strongest cryptographic methods are only as secure as the random numbers on which they are based: the better the randomness, the more robust the encryption—if it is weak, the entire system becomes vulnerable.