Server Seeds

What a server seed is

A server seed is operator-held secret material used as an input to CSGOEmpire’s documented fairness recipes. Players are not supposed to see the raw value while it can still predict unpaid or unissued results. They are supposed to see a hash of it, or a related commitment, so that a later reveal can be checked.

Official help does not use one byte format for every mode. Roulette’s article describes a SHA-256 hash of 16 cryptographically secure random bytes. Case-opening help describes a longer cryptographically secure pseudo-random string. Battle help describes a randomly generated string assigned when a battle is created. Coinflip help talks about a private seed generated when the round is created, with a published SHA-256 of that private seed for later comparison.

The shared job is the same: fix operator entropy before the outcome is consumed, without handing that entropy to anyone who could cash it in as a prediction.

Roulette: daily hashed seed

Roulette fairness is organised around the UTC day. At 00:00 UTC, CSGOEmpire documents that it generates the server seed and a public seed, then pre-generates the rolls that will be issued over the next 24 hours. While those rolls are going out, the server seed is hashed. Help says it appears red on the fairness page as a reminder that it is still committed, not revealed.

At the next 00:00 UTC the previous day’s server seed is unhashed. Anyone can SHA-256 the revealed seed and compare it to the hash that sat on the fairness page all day. Then each round’s roll is derived from the revealed seed, the public seed and the round number. Details belong on the roulette fairness page; the seed’s role here is the daily lock.

If the operator could change the server seed after seeing a large dice bet, yesterday’s published hash would no longer match today’s reveal. That is the accusation the daily hash is designed to make expensive.

Cases: hashed until you rotate

For case openings, bonus cases and daily cases, official help says the server seed remains hashed until the customer regenerates a new one on csgoempire.com/fairness under the Info tab. Rotation is how you obtain an unhashed seed that can be plugged into the operator’s verification method for prior opens that used it.

Until you rotate, the same server seed is reused with a rising nonce so each click still produces a different ticket. The hash you see beforehand is the commitment that the string you later reveal is the one that was in force.

Coinflip and battles

Coinflip’s private seed is generated when the round is created — before a challenger joins, and before the future EOS block exists. Help’s verification outline hashes the revealed private seed and compares it to the published private-seed hash, then combines private seed, public (block) seed and round id.

Case battles assign a server seed when the battle is created, again before the lobby is full. After every player or bot has joined, an EOS block index is chosen. The server seed stays as the HMAC key in the documented battle recipe; the block id is mixed into the message with round number and player position. See coinflip fairness and case battle fairness for those pipelines.

Reveal and hash check

The mechanical test is always: hash(revealed secret) equals the fingerprint that was public while the secret was live. If that fails, stop. Further arithmetic on a seed that does not match its commitment does not salvage the round.

If the hash matches, you have evidence that the revealed string is the committed one. You still have to run the rest of the mode’s function (modulo 15, ticket float, coin face) to see whether the resultmatches. A correct seed with the wrong round number will not reproduce history.

What a matching seed proves

A matching server-seed hash proves consistency with the published commitment for that seed’s lifetime. It does not prove you will profit. It does not pull match betting into the system. It does not mean CSGOEmpire.help watched the generator or certified the round. We explain the vocabulary; we do not verify results.

Client-side input is separate: client seeds exist on case-style games. Roulette’s second daily input is a public seed, not a player-editable client seed. Keep those terms distinct when you read fairness history.