Bitcoin Forum

Why do people play satoshidice?

The odds are 98%.. so if you start with 1 BTC you should expect to end up with 0.98 BTC..

Because they like to gamble and hope that they beat the odds.  Also they think they can stop once they are ahead.

Odds do not reflect "possibility".  While the probability is 98%, the possibility is incalculable.

Why do people play any gambling games? For the thrill of trying to beat the odds.

98.1%   and when they started out they were 98.5%.

Odds at a vegas casino for slot machines, etc, are much lower, maybe 96% and down, even 92%.

State run lotteries payout about in the 70% range or less.

Blackjack at a casino table might have better odds, depending on how you play and how many hands.

Now because what SatoshiDICE does can be relatively easily replicated, a competitor will probably undercut SatoshiDICE by offering better odds, maybe 99%.  An ad-supported service might even be able to beat that, giving even higher odds.

But for now, SatoshiDICE provides something of value (a way to gamble knowing you won't get cheated, and without paying the house a ton for the privilege of *usually* giving them your money). 

Its the same as any gambling.  You will lose in the end, its just a question of how long it takes you.  The house always wins, (otherwise the % edge would be meaningless).

Sure, but gambling is still exciting for many people.
Its their cheap (or expensive) thrill.

Thinking about wining a lot of BTC for just a few mBTC is seducing.

Of course in al gambling games the more likely to ocurr is to
lose your bet, so it sounds like a waste of money.

But, what about the other things for which we waste money?
Cigarrettes, caffeine, sugar, salt, products with expensive packaging,
trade mark products of unproven quality...

It seems that the human being needs to waste a bit to feel happy.

If that's true, then the better strategy to take on
sadly turns to be a kind of "mimimize the worst".
But that's not necessarily bad. A good and healthy reasoning that fits in that
strategy could be "- I've gived up smoking and from my savings
I have 50mBTC spare. I'll bet them on a lotto site".

 

Also: BTC laundering.

 ??? BTC laundering? As a newbie, I need an example please.

You can also play HungerCoins.
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104630.0

Interesting idea.
I've just opened SatómBTCola (http://munofar.com/satombola) as an starting point,
but plan to do more games on the (far?) future and something based in block hashes sounds
good for a future game.

Because they are such a large site you can deposit coins and get back different coins than you sent them which means you have effectively "laundered them".

Except that:

• SatoshiDice transactions are obvious
• The receiving address is linked to the sending one

Some people try to game the system, using martingale method etc. Other than that some people just love to gamble!

Sometimes gambling is just a bit of fun, especially if its profit you otherwise wouldn't have earned (i.e. from bit mining)... at least thats my POV

But I was told that such a single traceable coin doesn't exists! They're only values linked to transactions. You can't get different coins because you din't send coins. You can track transactions, not coins.

That's understood, by coins one means balances linked to accounts.

Sorry, I don't get the "money laundering" concept applied to bitcoin.
It has negative connotations as in non-bitcoin contexts? Because
I don't care sending from a path and receiving from another. I was
thinking that's the usual way.

The best thing about SatoshiDice is the fact that it brings gambling to everyone. All one needs to be capable of is knowing how to send Bitcoins and SatoshiDice takes care of the rest. No special applications required (standard wallet app only), no advanced knowledge of Bitcoin required (only the basic fundamentals) and most of all - It's fun.

~DonShrents

Untrue. The variance is calculable.

I don't give it any nuances but the fact is that some exchanges like MtGox (single biggest exchange) can just seize your shit indefinitely if they think you obtained the coins illegally, so it does make a difference in practice.

I think that 3would be a very slippery slope, if Mt.Gox were to officially make themselves the tainted bitcoin police. A few users might feel a certain bit of retribution, knowing that tainted coins were apprehanded, but most others would simply lose faith in Mt.Gox and become unsure of their services and not want to risk transfering funds to Mt.Gox, in fear of losing all or a portion of their Bitcoins.

I can't see it working out in anyone's favor if there were to be a tainted coin police force on the network. It essentially goes against everything that bitcoin intends or intended to be and that is a completely decentralized form of online currency. Police with the ability to size coins = not decentralized.

~DonShrents

I don't know why are you talking in conditional tense, this has already happened several times and it continues to happen. In their ToS they're fully covered about it.

I wasn't aware of coins actually being subject to this yet. My mistake.
Has there been a situation recently where a user at Mt.Gox has completely lost all of the tainted coins ? or were the coins simply frozen (or account frozen) for an investigation ?
If frozen, were coins ever returned back to rightful owners ? or returned to anyone ?

~DonShrents

A few threads about it (there are many many more):

Mt Gox thinks it's the Fed. Freezes acc based on "tainted" coins.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=73385.0
(this only stopped because Bitcoinica decided not to pursue the case)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3712.0

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=105638.0

General discussion (about using stolen coins):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=82592.0;all

As the threads are extremely long, can you tell me WHO ended up getting the frozen coins in the end ? (if anyone) or did the exchange simply keep them all ?

~DonShrents

There have been many cases, and I guess many more haven't been made public here. At least a couple accounts lost their funds to MtGox because of failing to provide information. Same with old Bitcoinica.

Well, something tells me that there should be a sticky somewhere that lists "High Risk" Exchanges, in terms of getting coins back, if the Taint Police deem that a user has too much taint in their deposit.
This is very sad and doesn't do a whole lot for faith in the exchange, especially since there is no authority to help a user fight a decision such as this.

It seems that whomever holds the coins at any given time, is the one with the power. Not a good sign for the future of Bitcoin.

~DonShrents

I agree. That sticky post would be valuable to unexperienced users like me who has to dig deep to find info.

Also -= SatómBTCola =- (http://munofar.com/satombola) is noob-friendly. Even the amount to participate is noob-friendly. It can be earned in a couple of days with faucets and by paid clicking.

Anyone can participate for just 10 mBTC!

any write ups on this? Itwould be fun to read .

what else are you gonna do withbitcoins

The transaction trail is you-->satoshi dice-->you and anyone knows it because they know all the satoshi dice addresses.

Exactly why it cannot be used for money laundering! It is equivalent to leaving the coins in the address, money-laundering wise, and equivalent to losing ~2% of your coins, expected value wise.

lost some coins. very addictive. I'm off of it now

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.