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A comment on Ask HN: We just had an actual UUID v4 collision.... Parent comment
If the RNG is bad, you'll get more benefit from adding non-random bits than you would from additional badly RNG'd bits.
The probability of future collisions also rises the more IDs you generate. If you incorporate non-random bits, you can alleviate that:
- timestamps make the collision probability not grow over time as you accumulate more existing UUIDs that could collide
- known-distinct machine IDs make the collision probability not grow as you add more machines
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If the RNG is bad, you'll get more benefit from adding non-random bits than you would from additional badly RNG'd bits.
The probability of future collisions also rises the more IDs you generate. If you incorporate non-random bits, you can alleviate that:
- timestamps make the collision probability not grow over time as you accumulate more existing UUIDs that could collide
- known-distinct machine IDs make the collision probability not grow as you add more machines