diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 801f8eb34d..7c0d16073f 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -10506,6 +10506,8 @@ dependencies = [
  "pallet-transaction-payment-rpc-runtime-api",
  "parity-scale-codec",
  "parking_lot 0.12.1",
+ "rand 0.8.5",
+ "rand_chacha 0.3.1",
  "sc-basic-authorship",
  "sc-chain-spec",
  "sc-client-api",
diff --git a/crates/subspace-service/Cargo.toml b/crates/subspace-service/Cargo.toml
index ccf6aa97b3..89b6982991 100644
--- a/crates/subspace-service/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/subspace-service/Cargo.toml
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ jsonrpsee = { version = "0.16.2", features = ["server"] }
 pallet-transaction-payment-rpc = { version = "4.0.0-dev", git = "https://github.com/subspace/substrate", rev = "28e33f78a3aa8ac4c6753108bc0471273ff6bf6f" }
 parity-scale-codec = "3.6.1"
 parking_lot = "0.12.1"
+rand = "0.8.5"
+rand_chacha = "0.3.1"
 sc-basic-authorship = { version = "0.10.0-dev", git = "https://github.com/subspace/substrate", rev = "28e33f78a3aa8ac4c6753108bc0471273ff6bf6f" }
 sc-chain-spec = { version = "4.0.0-dev", git = "https://github.com/subspace/substrate", rev = "28e33f78a3aa8ac4c6753108bc0471273ff6bf6f" }
 sc-client-api = { version = "4.0.0-dev", git = "https://github.com/subspace/substrate", rev = "28e33f78a3aa8ac4c6753108bc0471273ff6bf6f" }
diff --git a/crates/subspace-service/src/genesis_block_builder.rs b/crates/subspace-service/src/genesis_block_builder.rs
index 3d4ab89746..676bbf7cf3 100644
--- a/crates/subspace-service/src/genesis_block_builder.rs
+++ b/crates/subspace-service/src/genesis_block_builder.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+use rand::prelude::*;
+use rand_chacha::ChaCha8Rng;
 use sc_client_api::backend::Backend;
 use sc_client_api::BlockImportOperation;
 use sc_executor::RuntimeVersionOf;
@@ -67,7 +69,7 @@ impl<Block: BlockT, B: Backend<Block>, E: RuntimeVersionOf> BuildGenesisBlock<Bl
 
 /// Create a custom Subspace genesis block, given the initial storage.
 ///
-/// We have a non-empty digest in comparision to the default Substrate genesis block.
+/// We have a non-empty digest in comparison to the default Substrate genesis block.
 fn construct_genesis_block<Block: BlockT>(
     state_root: Block::Hash,
     state_version: StateVersion,
@@ -79,7 +81,14 @@ fn construct_genesis_block<Block: BlockT>(
 
     // We fill genesis block with extra data such that the very first archived
     // segment can be produced right away, bootstrapping the farming process.
-    let ballast = vec![0; RecordedHistorySegment::SIZE];
+    let mut ballast = vec![0; RecordedHistorySegment::SIZE];
+    let mut rng = ChaCha8Rng::from_seed(
+        state_root
+            .as_ref()
+            .try_into()
+            .expect("State root in Subspace must be 32 bytes, panic otherwise; qed"),
+    );
+    rng.fill(ballast.as_mut_slice());
     let digest = Digest {
         logs: vec![DigestItem::Other(ballast)],
     };