
Chancecoin: a decentralized casino built on top of Bitcoin - capricoin
http://chancecoin.com
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throwaway_yy2Di
These aren't games, they're just random number generators. Things that hold
peoples attention give the illusion of more depth than P(payoff).

The Bitcoin protocol already has a blockchain-validated (non-Turing) scripting
language. You could probably write genuinely interesting games in it, that are
financially self-enforcing, without any new protocol needed.

[https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script)

(Digression: are there any technically-interesting protocols built on top of
BTC script validation?)

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wfn
This is BIP-level stuff only, but fwiw BIP 0011
([https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0011.mediawi...](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0011.mediawiki))
is kind of interesting.

It would thence (uh, can i use that word this way?) be possible to e.g.
implement three-party escrow using 2-of-3 signatures (second bullet point
under Motivation, etc.) Two signatures would be enough to conduct a fund
transfer from buyer to seller. If either buyer or seller defects (or there's
some kind of a problem), there'll be <=1 signature present. The third
mediating/escrow party would then choose whether to place their own signature
or not (thereby validating or nullifying the transaction, accordingly.)

iirc there's also some BIP-level stuff (or an idea to implement it using
bitcoin Script, anyway) to have things like NashX[1] work within bitcoin.
Basically a Nash equilibrium based transaction scheme with no human 'escrow'
party required - everything is formalized. If either the buyer or the seller
fails (i.e.: if any of the two report 'failure'), all funds are burnt (e.g.
sent to some provably bogus bitcoin address, whatnot.) _Both_ parties have to
chime in so that the risk is distributed accordingly/appropriately. There are
nuances and gotchas here to be had, of course.

[1]: [http://nashx.com/HowItWorks](http://nashx.com/HowItWorks)

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TaulantRamabaja
Our for-contract bitcoin dev team already uses 2 of 3 multisig escrow for all
bitcoin payments.

Its better than anything else I've ever used cross border. The weekly price
volatility is currently lower than the cut any good professional escrow
service would take. Furthermore the transaction goes through in an instant.

Once crypto assets which track USD, Euro, Yen, RMB pop up with turing complete
scripting build in... man that's going to be a different world.

~~~
wfn
> _Our for-contract bitcoin dev team already uses 2 of 3 multisig escrow for
> all bitcoin payments._

Nice!

> _Once crypto assets which track USD, Euro, Yen, RMB pop up with turing
> complete scripting build in... man that 's going to be a different world._

Gonna be quite a ride. Generalized financial derivatives? oof.

~~~
TaulantRamabaja
The crazy thing is that nobody really knows what team/technology will win the
race. There several blockchain 2.0 projects out there, all with different
technological inovations. Bitcoin itself will almost certainly be eclipsed in
a few months/years.

I have a hunch that we'll see Bitshares DPOS consensus algorithm partnered
with Ethereum's turing completeness combined in one DAC. Open Transactions
will most likely become the equivalent of the web browser to TCPIP.

We're still at the veeery early stages of the blockchain development. Our team
is extremely excited to have caught the wave so early and to work with such
great startups and people.

~~~
wfn
(If it's not a total secret, would be interesting to hear what your team is
doing / up to!)

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chuckup
This is just another scam coin. Not decentralized at all: "Chancecoin uses New
York Lottery Quick Draw numbers to resolve bets."

There's no reason you couldn't get randomness from the blockchain itself - the
act of finding blocks is itself a random number generator. Using an external
source is incredibly centralized, and advertising this as decentralized is
scammy.

All the alt-coins - even the most legit sounding ones - have this incredibly
scammy side to them. Dishonest claims, premines, etc. Yet people pump their
money into them anyway. Apparently this coin raised $265,000. All you need to
do to get rich in alt-coin land, is come up with a half baked, poorly
implemented idea, and ... duck! because people are going to THROW money at
you.

edit: their homepage states "There is no central point of failure." \-- Uhm,
how about violating the NY Lotto's terms of service? The client is just
getting a http (not https) feed from nylottery.ny.gov, I wonder how long until
they add a captcha? What happens to the value of your chancecoins then? :)

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jonnybgood
> The government can't shut it down. It's owned by the people.

So noble. A societal ill that's owned by people.

~~~
reitzensteinm
There's no question that gambling addictions are very destructive.

But that applies also to: alcohol, smoking, drug use, eating, sex, extreme
sports, working out, investing in the stock market, climbing mountains,
entrepreneurship, there are probably even a few people so addicted to HN it's
ruining their lives.

If you seek to eliminate sources of destructive behavior, you're also going to
eliminate a ton of genuine life experiences for those who are capable of
moderation, maybe even until there's nothing left. Lives are ruined when
people die climbing Everest after all.

I'm not interested at all in gambling, but I'm very concerned with where the
slippery slope is headed.

~~~
MarkMc
It's not just that gambling is very destructive to some people, it is that the
costs are deemed to far outweigh the benefits. This is the approach society
takes to banning any activity.

And a ban is only the most extreme form of regulation. For example I would
like to see a trial where gamblers must register and would be blocked from
betting after losing more than 50% of their salary. Perhaps such a system
would best weigh the pleasure of responsible gamblers against the pain of
compulsive gamblers?

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ForHackernews
Isn't holding bitcoin already gambling?

~~~
nkuttler
Speculating is more accurate.

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arfliw
Do it for online poker and take over the (poker) world.

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downandout
Not so. I tried something similar to this with poker and it flopped. 4 months
of coding down the drain. Turns out, gamblers are generally addicted to
action, not profit. They don't really care about whether or not they have an
opportunity to run a table and profit.

~~~
izx
poker is more difficult, because everyone has to trust that the game isn't
rigged. Until someone figures out a way to do a decentralized poker game, it
will be difficult to get people to play your cryptocoin poker game. Even if it
is run fairly, how can you tell a fair game from an unfair one? I think it
flopped because it seems like a scam and you can't provide assurances
otherwise.. with the simple random dice games happening on the blockchain, at
least everyone can see the game is fair.. (which is why people play it)

~~~
pavel_lishin
Work on it has been done:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_poker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_poker)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/16sue5/decentralise...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/16sue5/decentralised_poker_site_that_guarantees_player/c7z30zt)

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Atroxide
I would be very careful about hosting that website as the website itself is
illegal. Sure it isn't a gambling website, but in the eye of the law, a
website used to download a gambling application would be just as illegal as a
gambling website. I hope you took the precautions necessary to ensure that you
won't have legal issues incase of Chancecoin becoming popular.

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EGreg
Is it legal for US residents to play at sites like
[http://www.betcoinpoker.com](http://www.betcoinpoker.com) ?

I think the laws that banned online poker were mainly against Casinos, and now
that they can be funded in btcoin, what prevents US residents from playing?

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TylerE
No. The laws actually target intermediaries processing the financial deposits.

~~~
EGreg
So it's completely legal for us to play bitcoin poker?

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jds375
It actually looks pretty interesting and potentially fun. Only criticism would
be to improve the site design and functionality. It could use a cleaner look
and a more fun atmosphere.

~~~
sejje
And the ability to minimize the awful chat in the bottom right that's blocking
most of the interesting statistics I'd like to see.

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freerobby
Pretty generous house to provide even wagers:

> 0.01 CHA 1% 99X -0.01 CHA

~~~
tromp
Except that 99X means that if you win, you get a 0.99CHA payout, for a gain of
only 0.98CHA, making it worse than even.

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bhaumik
Blackjack, Roulette, Video Poker, Hi-LO & Sports betting:

[http://casinobitco.in/index.php](http://casinobitco.in/index.php)

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wwdz99
The first decentralized casino crypto coin,no cheat,control by yourself,great
Innovation.

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MatthewWilkes
Such gamble. Wow.

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djyaz1200
All crypto currencies area form of gambling. This just allows people to gamble
while they gamble.

~~~
djyaz1200
Very clever though.

