diff --git a/dgraph/cmd/zero/raft.go b/dgraph/cmd/zero/raft.go
index d03032f2bda..2d8fcfa2f6b 100644
--- a/dgraph/cmd/zero/raft.go
+++ b/dgraph/cmd/zero/raft.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
+	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 
 	farm "github.com/dgryski/go-farm"
@@ -48,6 +49,8 @@ const (
 	raftDefaults = "idx=1; learner=false;"
 )
 
+var proposalKey uint64
+
 type node struct {
 	*conn.Node
 	server *Server
@@ -81,8 +84,19 @@ func (n *node) AmLeader() bool {
 	return time.Since(n.lastQuorum) <= 5*time.Second
 }
 
+// {2 bytes Node ID} {4 bytes for random} {2 bytes zero}
+func (n *node) initProposalKey(id uint64) error {
+	x.AssertTrue(id != 0)
+	var err error
+	proposalKey, err = x.ProposalKey(n.Id)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 func (n *node) uniqueKey() uint64 {
-	return uint64(n.Id)<<32 | uint64(n.Rand.Uint32())
+	return atomic.AddUint64(&proposalKey, 1)
 }
 
 var errInternalRetry = errors.New("Retry Raft proposal internally")
@@ -626,6 +640,7 @@ func (n *node) checkForCIDInEntries() (bool, error) {
 }
 
 func (n *node) initAndStartNode() error {
+	x.Check(n.initProposalKey(n.Id))
 	_, restart, err := n.PastLife()
 	x.Check(err)
 
diff --git a/dgraph/cmd/zero/zero_test.go b/dgraph/cmd/zero/zero_test.go
index 9f4e18f113f..e7a3636f16d 100644
--- a/dgraph/cmd/zero/zero_test.go
+++ b/dgraph/cmd/zero/zero_test.go
@@ -24,8 +24,10 @@ import (
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 	"google.golang.org/grpc"
 
+	"github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/conn"
 	"github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/protos/pb"
 	"github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/testutil"
+	"github.com/dgraph-io/ristretto/z"
 )
 
 func TestRemoveNode(t *testing.T) {
@@ -84,3 +86,27 @@ func TestIdBump(t *testing.T) {
 	_, err = zc.AssignIds(ctx, &pb.Num{Val: 10, Type: pb.Num_UID, Bump: true})
 	require.Contains(t, err.Error(), "Nothing to be leased")
 }
+
+func TestProposalKey(t *testing.T) {
+
+	id := uint64(2)
+	node := &node{Node: &conn.Node{Id: id}, ctx: context.Background(), closer: z.NewCloser(1)}
+	node.initProposalKey(node.Id)
+
+	pkey := proposalKey
+	nodeIdFromKey := proposalKey >> 48
+	require.Equal(t, id, nodeIdFromKey, "id extracted from proposal key is not equal to initial value")
+
+	valueOf48thBit := int(pkey & (1 << 48))
+	require.Equal(t, 0, valueOf48thBit, "48th bit is not set to zero on initialisation")
+
+	node.uniqueKey()
+	require.Equal(t, pkey+1, proposalKey, "proposal key should increment by 1 at each call of unique key")
+
+	uniqueKeys := make(map[uint64]struct{})
+	for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
+		node.uniqueKey()
+		uniqueKeys[proposalKey] = struct{}{}
+	}
+	require.Equal(t, len(uniqueKeys), 10, "each iteration should create unique key")
+}
diff --git a/worker/draft.go b/worker/draft.go
index e2425d5be5d..505917aa6bc 100644
--- a/worker/draft.go
+++ b/worker/draft.go
@@ -1756,7 +1756,7 @@ func (n *node) retryUntilSuccess(fn func() error, pause time.Duration) {
 
 // InitAndStartNode gets called after having at least one membership sync with the cluster.
 func (n *node) InitAndStartNode() {
-	initProposalKey(n.Id)
+	x.Check(initProposalKey(n.Id))
 	_, restart, err := n.PastLife()
 	x.Check(err)
 
diff --git a/worker/proposal.go b/worker/proposal.go
index 96dfedf5738..b2648f5ab1c 100644
--- a/worker/proposal.go
+++ b/worker/proposal.go
@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/protos/pb"
 	"github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/schema"
 	"github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/x"
-	"github.com/dgraph-io/ristretto/z"
 )
 
 const baseTimeout time.Duration = 4 * time.Second
@@ -111,9 +110,14 @@ func (rl *rateLimiter) decr(retry int) {
 var proposalKey uint64
 
 // {2 bytes Node ID} {4 bytes for random} {2 bytes zero}
-func initProposalKey(id uint64) {
+func initProposalKey(id uint64) error {
 	x.AssertTrue(id != 0)
-	proposalKey = uint64(groups().Node.Id)<<48 | uint64(z.FastRand())<<16
+	var err error
+	proposalKey, err = x.ProposalKey(groups().Node.Id)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	return nil
 }
 
 // uniqueKey is meant to be unique across all the replicas.
diff --git a/x/x.go b/x/x.go
index 1646b600182..d8538bd88ab 100644
--- a/x/x.go
+++ b/x/x.go
@@ -21,7 +21,9 @@ import (
 	"bytes"
 	builtinGzip "compress/gzip"
 	"context"
+	cr "crypto/rand"
 	"crypto/tls"
+	"encoding/binary"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
@@ -644,6 +646,21 @@ func RetryUntilSuccess(maxRetries int, waitAfterFailure time.Duration,
 	return err
 }
 
+// {2 bytes Node ID} {4 bytes for random} {2 bytes zero}
+func ProposalKey(id uint64) (uint64, error) {
+	random4Bytes := make([]byte, 4)
+	if _, err := cr.Read(random4Bytes); err != nil {
+		return 0, err
+	}
+	proposalKey := id<<48 | uint64(binary.BigEndian.Uint32(random4Bytes))<<16
+	// We want to avoid spillage to node id in case of overflow. For instance, if the
+	// random bytes end up being [xx,xx, 255, 255, 255, 255, 0 , 0] (xx, xx being the node id)
+	// we would spill to node id after 65535 calls to unique key.
+	// So by setting 48th bit to 0 we ensure that we never spill out to node ids.
+	proposalKey &= ^(uint64(1) << 47)
+	return proposalKey, nil
+}
+
 // HasString returns whether the slice contains the given string.
 func HasString(a []string, b string) bool {
 	for _, k := range a {