Every number so far, each with its own permanent page: what went in, the text that was hashed, and a check you can run.
The first number is from the Nov 08 seals. Nights before it have no number.
| NIGHT | NUMBER | DRAND ROUND | LATER SEAL | BOTH UNITS |
|---|
READING BOTH UNITS' FILES
A PUBLIC RANDOM NUMBER EVERY NIGHT. ONCE BOTH UNITS HAVE SEALED THEIR DAY, THEIR TWO FINGERPRINTS ARE MIXED WITH A PUBLIC VALUE FROM DRAND THAT ONLY COMES OUT AFTER THE SEALS. NOBODY CAN STEER THE RESULT, NOT EVEN US, AND ANYONE CAN CHECK IT.
WITNESSED BY DRAND, FROM THE LEAGUE OF ENTROPY.
Nobody can know it yet, us included. Name it in advance: its page already works.
Say in advance which night's number you will use and exactly how you will turn it into a choice. Then nobody, you included, can pick after seeing it.
—MORE WAYS TO USE IT ›
Show that night's number in it. Nobody could know the number before that night, so whatever shows it can't be older. The first 8 characters are plenty: a guess would be right about once in four billion tries.
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The page never calls drand itself: the round, its randomness and signature come from the units' files, and the check runs here, in your browser.
—ABOUT CITING A NIGHT ›
A NEW PAIR EVERY 80 SECONDS, FROM A FRESH DRAND ROUND AND LAST NIGHT'S MIDNIGHT BEACON. NOBODY CAN KNOW A ROLL BEFORE ITS TIME, AND ANYONE CAN CHECK IT.
PICK A DAY AND A ROLL. EVERYTHING IS WORKED OUT HERE, IN YOUR BROWSER, FROM BOTH UNITS' FILES.
APEX-BEACON-DICE-V1 day 2026-11-09 roll 552 beacon 2026-11-08 d6a7449d3d64c9ce37e62dc292991fa0f3e0cc5314df07c7bc45e73d3bd8fb94 round 33813726 randomness 46abcdea4570578e0ce0ca14ca66bae6ba785d83a1d5ab51bd927e7fd81c2dd3
SHA-256 27fd4c8bbba2e81a… · THE FIRST TWO 1–6 ARE 2 AND 4
Why nobody can steer it: last night's number is fixed before the day's first roll, the roll times are set by the clock, and each roll's drand round doesn't exist until the roll's time. Nobody, not even us, can know or pick a roll before it's due.
Looking for the Midnight Roll? That's APEX's once-a-night pair, read straight from the seals, on apexengine.live.
FOR BUILDERS: THE DICE FILES ›One number a night that nobody can steer, us included, and that anyone can check. Here is who does what, the exact recipe, and why it holds.
At midnight ET each unit seals its day: a SHA-256 fingerprint of the day's record, locked in the archive where nobody, us included, can change it.
The League of Entropy's quicknet: many independent members together publish a new signed random value every 3 seconds. Nobody can know a round before it comes out.
On each unit, a small service waits for both seals, takes the first drand round 30 seconds after the later one, hashes the seven lines and publishes. A night counts only when both units agree.
APEX-BEACON-V1 day <YYYY-MM-DD> apex1 <APEX1's fingerprint> apex2 <APEX2's fingerprint> drand quicknet <chain hash> round <R> randomness <round R's randomness>
EACH LINE ENDS WITH A NEWLINE. THE CHAIN HASH IS 52DB9BA70E0CC0F6EAF7803DD07447A1F5477735FD3F661792BA94600C84E971.
THIS RECIPE WAS FIXED ON NOV 8, 2026, BEFORE THE FIRST NIGHT IT WAS USED. A CHANGE WOULD GET A NEW NAME AND A START DATE, AND EARLIER NIGHTS KEEP THEIR RECIPE.
Both fingerprints are locked in the archive before the drand round exists, and that round takes many independent members of the League of Entropy to produce. Choosing when to seal only chooses between rounds nobody has seen yet.
So we can't pick a number we like, and neither can anyone else. Each unit also works the number out on its own: a night only shows when both agree, and a night where they don't is put on hold with both numbers shown.
ABOUT DRAND AND THE LEAGUE OF ENTROPY ›HOW THE SEAL WORKS ›Show that night's number in it. Nobody could know the number before that night, so whatever shows it can't be older. The first 8 characters are plenty: a guess would be right about once in four billion tries.
Say in advance which night's number you will use and exactly how you will turn it into a choice. Then nobody, you included, can pick after seeing it.
Every 80 seconds, a fresh drand round is hashed with last night's Midnight Beacon and the roll's place in the day. The first two characters from 1 to 6 are the dice. For fun, not for stakes.
Plain JSON files, no key, no sign-up. Everything a page shows comes from these files, and everything in them can be checked.
Each unit publishes its own copy. Use a night only when both files have it with the same number. Each night lists both fingerprints and seal times, the drand round, its randomness and signature, the exact text hashed and the number. Where both dice files have a roll, they must agree; an older roll's round comes from drand itself, and its time gives the round number.
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A DAY FILE ITSELF IS AT /DAYS/APEX1-YYYY-MM-DD.JSON (AND APEX2): ITS SHA-256 IS THE FINGERPRINT.
import hashlib, json, urllib.request
def nights(name):
url = "https://midnightbeacon.org/data/" + name
return {n["day"]: n for n in json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(url))["nights"]}
one, two = nights("beacon_apex1.json"), nights("beacon_apex2.json")
day = "2026-11-09"
a, b = one[day], two[day]
assert a["number"] == b["number"] and a["text"] == b["text"]
assert hashlib.sha256(a["text"].encode()).hexdigest() == a["number"]
print(day, a["number"])def dice(day, roll, beacon_day, beacon_number, rnd, randomness):
text = (f"APEX-BEACON-DICE-V1\nday {day}\nroll {roll}\n"
f"beacon {beacon_day} {beacon_number}\n"
f"round {rnd}\nrandomness {randomness}\n")
h = hashlib.sha256(text.encode()).hexdigest()
return [int(c) for c in h if c in "123456"][:2]The round's signature checks against the League of Entropy's public key with any drand client. The night pages do the same check in the browser.
Name the night in your plan, paper or post before it happens, then cite the number once it's out. A night's link works before the night too: it says when the number is due, then shows it.
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Links to beacon.apexengine.live and apexengine.live/beacon keep working for good: they bring you to the same page here.