Handcrafted Integers

Have you ever wanted your own integer, one that is uniquely yours and can't be taken away?

Oh sure, you could generate a random integer with your device now, but no one will respect that it's yours until you publish it somewhere - somewhere that everyone can agree on.

Brooklyn Integers!

This is surely a joke, right?

According to their FAQ: Yeah kind of, but also not.

Its literally a number server. It gives you an available number from 0 to infinity and you can use that number as global identifier for something/anything.

If someone tries to register that number for something else, the database will say no.

Just one database then?

Initially yes, serving numbers from 0 to Infinity, but people on the West Coast thought that it was a bit mean that the East Coast was dominating the numbers game, so they opened up their own database in San Francisco:

Mission Integers!

Wait a second, two databases?

Do they share keys, so that one knows what nunbers the other doesn't? How can they ensure that the same number isn't registered twice?

Infinity is big, so one server issues only even numbers, and the other issues only odd numbers, ensuring they'll never give the same number out without having to communicate. "Spooooky action at a distance!" (not really)

Okay, just two then? Well...

People on the otherside of the pond thought that the ownership of integers was a bit too US-centric, so someone then invented:

London Integers!

Now hang on a second

How can the London server ensure it never gives out a number that the US servers have? They own the Odd and Even numbers for christsake!

Well, with a bit of aggressive negotiating it was agreed that the US server serving Odd numbers wouldn't give out multiples of 9.

Summary

Three number servers exist to give out unique integers to anyone who asks, all without checking each other:

1. Serves Even Numbers

2. Serves Odd Numbers (not multiples of 9]

3. Serves Multiples of 9

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Replies

~johano wrote (thread):

Badly designed from the get-go... each server should only serve multiples of different primes...

~moonsheep wrote (thread):

> Have you ever wanted your own integer, one that is uniquely yours and can't be taken away?

Well, there's an easy way to do that! Just generate a random 256-bit number, and derive an ed25519 public key. That public key is your number. Anyone can verify that it's yours (since only you have the secret key with which you can sign messages), but as long as the secret number stays secret no one can take it away!

~the_bebop_cowboy wrote:

Love this. So nifty.

~zampano wrote (thread):

This is the kind of weird, niche quasi-silliness that I love finding on the internet.