Provably Fair, Game by Game: How ZanoX Results Are Verified
Every ZanoX game publishes a commitment before you play and a proof after. This page explains the exact mechanism for slots, poker, Georgia Skin and the lottery, and where to run the check yourself.
The idea: commit first, reveal after
A provably fair game fixes the randomness before you act and discloses it after. ZanoX generates a secret server seed and publishes its SHA-256 hash — the commitment — before a spin, a deal or a draw. A hash cannot be reversed, so you learn nothing about the seed, but it also cannot be changed: once your bet is in, the seed that decides it is already locked. After the round the seed is revealed. You hash it, confirm the commitment matches, and re-run the public algorithm to reproduce the result. If it does not reproduce, the operator cheated and you hold the evidence. That is different from an “audited RNG”, which asks you to trust a report about a process you never see.
Slots: server seed, client seed, nonce
ZanoX Slots works in epochs. For each epoch the server commits to one seed (its SHA-256 hash is shown before every spin under it) and you can set your own client seed, so the unpredictable half of each spin is yours. Spin number n derives its reel stops by running HMAC over the server seed, the client seed and the nonce n, consuming the output as floats that index into the published reel strips. Because the strips, paylines and paytable are public at /api/slots/machines, mapping stops back to symbols and payouts is mechanical. When an epoch is retired the server seed is published and /api/slots/verify replays any spin or whole session from it.
Poker: a hash plus a block nobody has seen yet
Before a hand, the room generates a 32-byte server seed and publishes two things: the seed’s SHA-256 hash and a target Zano block height that has not been mined. When the chain reaches that height, the block’s hash is combined with the server seed into a single combined seed that drives a deterministic shuffle of the 52-card deck. Neither the room nor any player can know the block hash at commitment time, and the room cannot swap its seed afterwards without breaking the hash. After the hand the proof — server seed, hash, block height, block hash, combined seed — is available at the table, and the deck can be re-derived by anyone with a Zano node or explorer.
Georgia Skin: one pure function per round
A Georgia Skin round is a deterministic function of the shuffled deck plus the players’ bets and decisions; there are no choices during the draw, so the whole outcome is computed in one pass and then revealed card by card. The game engine is kept pure — no database, no sockets, no clock — precisely so the round can be re-run. /api/skin/verify?roundId=… returns the proof for any completed round so you can confirm the deal was fair.
Lottery: on-chain draws you can recompute
Zano Lottery draws take their randomness from Zano block hashes, which are produced by the network rather than by ZanoX and are visible to everyone. The provably-fair verifier tool recomputes a draw from those hashes so you can check that the published winning number is the one the chain implies.
What provably fair does not mean
It does not mean the odds favour you. Slots publish a return-to-player below 100%, poker takes a rake, Skin and the lottery pay a house share; over time the house edge wins. It does not make ZanoX a licensed casino — no regulator stands behind the service. And it does not verify anything by itself: the proofs are only worth something if you, or someone you trust, actually runs them. That is why every endpoint above is public and read-only.
Play the games this describes: ZanoX Slots (free demo), poker, Georgia Skin and the Zano Lottery.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “provably fair” mean?
The operator commits to the randomness (by publishing a hash of a secret seed) before you play, and reveals the seed after, so you can re-derive the result and prove it was not altered. It replaces “trust our audit” with “check this round yourself”.
How do I verify a ZanoX slots spin?
Note the server-seed hash shown before the spin and your client seed. After the epoch is retired, call /api/slots/verify with your spin id or session id and epoch; it replays the spin from the revealed seed and shows the result alongside what was paid. You can also confirm the revealed seed hashes to the commitment yourself.
How do I verify a poker hand?
Each hand shows its commitment (seed hash and target block height). After the hand, compare the revealed seed’s SHA-256 to the commitment, look up the block hash at that height on any Zano explorer, combine them as the published algorithm does, and run the deterministic shuffle to reproduce the deck.
Can ZanoX see the outcome before I bet?
For slots, not without your client seed, which it does not control. For poker and the lottery, not without the future Zano block hash, which no one knows until the block is mined. In every game the server seed is locked by its hash before the round starts.
Is a provably fair casino the same as a licensed casino?
No. Provably fair is a cryptographic guarantee about each result. A licence is a legal relationship with a regulator who can hear disputes and enforce payouts. ZanoX offers the first and not the second, and says so.