Comment by tptacek

No, it's not odd. This isn't a task for which a cryptographically secure random number is needed. In fact, it's closer to the kind of task where you want the opposite thing (a deterministic random number generator, like you'd use for a simulation).

The starting point for finding a curve coefficient is totally arbitrary (so long as the math on the resulting curve equation checks out). Competing curves use mathematical constants like pi and e to do the same thing. It's simply a number everyone has to agree on; it has no other significance.