I am still not clear as to what the hard issues are. Let me try another
tack. Suppose each interested group is allowed to send in whatever seed
material they like in text form, in a signed document, paper or
electronic. They could have a representative deliver a sealed envelope just
before the hands are generated if they like.
All the seed material is then assembled into a single text file in
alphabetical order by the submitting groups' names. The organizers then
append to this text file the name and date of the tournament and some
pre-agreed material published on the morning of the tournament in a
newspaper of record (e.g. financial data, sports scores, lottery results).
This master file is then hashed with SHA1. The output seeds a
pseudo-random number generator also based on SHA1 that generates all the
deals. After the tournament is over, the master text file is published on
the Internet and anyone can verify that the deals produced were indeed
determined by the master text file. Also all the submitters can verify that
their data was included. (A Java applet that does all this would be pretty
easy to write.)
Besides the fact that this scheme only carries 160 bits of state (a 256 bit
hash would be better, but SHA1 is widely available and has a lot of
credibility) what problems does this approach fail to solve?
Arnold Reinhold
