NIST SP800-22 Verification
Every response from TrueEntropy is verified against the NIST SP800-22 Statistical Test Suite - the industry standard for evaluating random number generators. All 15 tests must pass before entropy is delivered.
What is NIST SP800-22?
NIST Special Publication 800-22 defines a battery of 15 statistical tests designed to detect non-randomness in binary sequences. It is the most widely used standard for certifying RNG quality, required by gaming regulators, financial institutions, and cryptographic applications worldwide.
Test Suite Results
TrueEntropy quantum entropy passes all 15 NIST SP800-22 tests on every request:
| # | Test Name | Purpose | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frequency (Monobit) | Proportion of 0s and 1s is approximately equal | Pass |
| 2 | Block Frequency | Frequency within M-bit blocks is approximately equal | Pass |
| 3 | Runs | Total number of uninterrupted runs of identical bits | Pass |
| 4 | Longest Run of Ones | Longest run of ones within M-bit blocks | Pass |
| 5 | Binary Matrix Rank | Rank of disjoint sub-matrices of the sequence | Pass |
| 6 | Discrete Fourier Transform | Peak heights in spectral domain | Pass |
| 7 | Non-overlapping Template | Occurrences of aperiodic patterns | Pass |
| 8 | Overlapping Template | Occurrences of m-bit runs of ones | Pass |
| 9 | Maurer's Universal | Compressibility - detectable patterns | Pass |
| 10 | Linear Complexity | Length of LFSR needed to generate the sequence | Pass |
| 11 | Serial | Frequency of all possible overlapping m-bit patterns | Pass |
| 12 | Approximate Entropy | Frequency of all overlapping patterns across sequence | Pass |
| 13 | Cumulative Sums | Maximal excursion of the random walk | Pass |
| 14 | Random Excursions | Number of cycles in a random walk | Pass |
| 15 | Random Excursions Variant | Deviations from expected state visits in random walk | Pass |
How Verification Works
TrueEntropy runs NIST SP800-22 verification as part of the entropy pipeline - not as a periodic batch test. Every API response has been individually verified.
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Raw quantum bits are extracted from IBM quantum hardware via QuBitLang |
| 2 | Von Neumann debiasing removes any hardware bias |
| 3 | NIST SP800-22 suite runs against the processed output |
| 4 | If all 15 tests pass, nist_verified: true is set in the response |
| 5 | If any test fails, the output is discarded and regenerated |
Checking Verification Status
Every API response confirms NIST verification in two places:
JSON metadata
Response header
Additional Testing: Dieharder
In addition to NIST SP800-22, TrueEntropy output is also validated against the Dieharder test suite (114 tests), providing an even more rigorous statistical verification. Results are included in provenance certificates.
Provenance Certificates
Full NIST test results are included in every provenance certificate. Retrieve a certificate
using the certificate_id from any API response: