The unpredictability of random numbers is fundamental to both digital security1,2 and applications that fairly distribute resources3,4. However, existing random number generators have limitations—the generation processes cannot be fully traced, audited and certified to be unpredictable. The algorithmic steps used in pseudorandom number generators5 are auditable, but they cannot guarantee that their outputs were a priori unpredictable given knowledge of the initial seed. Device-independent quantum random number generators6,7,8,9 can ensure that the source of randomness was unknown beforehand, but the steps used to extract the randomness are vulnerable to tampering. Here we demonstrate a fully traceable random number generation protocol based on device-independent techniques. Our protocol extracts randomness from unpredictable non-local quantum correlations, and uses distributed intertwined hash chains to cryptographically trace and verify the extraction process. This protocol forms the basis for a public traceable and certifiable quantum randomness beacon that we have launched10. Over the first 40 days of operation, we completed the protocol 7,434 out of 7,454 attempts—a success rate of 99.7%. Each time the protocol succeeded, the beacon emitted a pulse of 512 bits of traceable randomness. The bits are certified to be uniform with error multiplied by actual success probability bounded by 2−64. The generation of certifiable and traceable randomness represents a public service that operates with an entanglement-derived advantage over comparable classical approaches.

This work includes contributions of the NIST, which are not subject to US copyright. The use of trade names does not imply endorsement by the US Government. The work is supported by the National Science Foundation RAISE-TAQS programme (award 1840223), the CU through the ‘QuEST Seed Award: A Quantum Randomness Beacon’, the Colorado Office of Economic Impact (award number DO 2023-0335), in part by the European Union ‘NextGenerationEU/PRTR’. Spanish Ministry of Science MCIN: project SAPONARIA (PID2021-123813NB-I00) and ‘Severo Ochoa’ Center of Excellence CEX2019-000910-S. Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA programme and grant number 2021 SGR 01453; Fundació Privada Cellex; Fundació Mir-Puig. This work was performed in part at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, operated by UT-Battelle for the US Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC05-00OR22725. We thank S. Glancy, B. Chen, L. Norton, E. Some and R. Snyder for discussions regarding the project, and J. G. Price for providing the image used in Fig. 2.