Bitcoin Forum

I've been thinking of putting my regular home poker game on the "bitcoin standard", and thought that it might be fun to make a set of real-world, bitcoin-denominated poker chips. Below you see my design for the chips I'm thinking of making. They will be casino-quality, 10g ceramic, 39mmx3mm chips.

http://ironwolf.dangerousgames.com/Bitcoin-Poker-Chips.jpg

The denominations I've chosen are those I think would be most useful for home games. It's interesting to note that, since bitcoin is likely to deflate over time, then chips that will be issued later will be for tinier fractions of the monetary unit.

I was wondering whether anyone else might be interested in purchasing a set of such chips from me for their own games? (I would, of course, accept payment in BTC.)

I considered poker chips before I considered doing Casascius Coins... my problem was that I couldn't strike a good balance between price, quality, and function (I wanted them to have real BTC value).  But I have never done chips before so I was starting with an average hand.  If you can do well... by all means.

One big drawback is once the novelty has worn off, they will be equivalent to regular poker chips that simply have a decorative bitcoin symbol on them, because that's what they are.  What denominates a chip is what the house says it is, so the printed BTC will serve no functional purpose.

I own some of your coins, and I think they're wonderful! I've shown them off at conferences I've attended. Yes, actually giving them durable BTC value is a problem— and not one I'm really anxious to try to solve. But as a form of educational outreach, I think they might go over pretty well.

If you want to print something that will really sell a ton quickly, now is the time of year to go order some custom chocolate coins and sell the shiz out of them.  You know, for Hanukkah and all.

Being poker chips, do they really need stored value?  Normal casino chips aren't actually worth dollars anywhere but the casino that issued them.

I like the fractional coins. They look really nice.

+1

Yes, one of the defining aspects of poker chips is that they aren't normally considered valuable (except perhaps by collectors) outside of a particular venue— people expect them to be "play money" that is nonetheless imbued with redeemability during the game. Hence bitcoin-denominated chips can help get people used to the value of bitcoin.


Thank you!

"Actual physical bitcoins" might make a good accompaniment for them, so at the end of the evening whoever won the most could be awarded an actual good-anywhere coin as a trophy. Which they could always bring back next week to give others a chance to win back from them etc.

-MarkM-

Simple printed denominations can be very useful. No need to decide each time what each color will mean, even if your house game has a standard it is easier for new players to not have to ask to make sure they aren't making a mistake or getting ripped off. Plus in this case it 'enforces' the bitcoin standard and keeps it from slipping back into a dollar game which is a risk before everyone is used to needing to bring bitcoins.

I think I'd want 1BTC to be my highest denomination. Powers of 10 are a bit far spaced. Quarters?

About how much for a 500 piece set?

The purpose of a poker chip is not to store value as much as it is to make it easy to handle value temporarily in the context of a game. That is why most people don't play poker with physical cash— it's damned inconvenient even though most people show up to a poker game with physical cash in hand. Once the game is over and the chips are put away, they no longer are considered to store value. Thus, I no more worry about my poker chips being stolen, regardless of what's printed on them, than I worry about my Monopoly money being stolen— that is actually a great convenience when dealing with the sums of money that are exchanged in some poker games.

And, the BTC serves the exact same purpose as a $: to help players keep track of what's going on in the game. Unfortunately, poker chips, even ones with no currency symbol on them, don't go down into sub-unit fractions. I suppose you could imagine that every chip has a value that is is actually the reciprocal of what's printed on it, but that poses its own problems.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the day when issuing milli-bitcoin, and eventually micro-bitcoin -denominated poker chips makes sense!

Personally I doubt I'd ever use the BTC10 either, but some people are high-rollers, or may just want them as collectibles.


I thought of that, but I'm reluctant to design quarters between every power of 10, especially with the price of bitcoin still so volatile. If these first chips are sought after and there's demand for quarters in a particular range, then I'll no doubt offer them.


Still determining my manufacturing sources right now, so I'll make an announcement here when I've got that in hand.

I agree! It would also be cool to give players at my games the option to purchase some of Mike's physical bitcoins with their winnings. The remainder would go straight to their wallet address.

If you make 'em, I'm likely to buy a set.

Cool, keep us updated.

The're nice. I'd order a set as long as the price's reasonable. And I don't even play poker :)

I believe the are calling 1/100 BTC a bitcent. 1/1000 is a mBTC.

I think these are great! If you have a poker night you and your friends could play with these chips, then cash out at the end of the night via smartphone.

I know, but I deliberately chose the more formal "ONE HUNDREDTH" for that denomination. For even smaller denominations I would probably use something like "ONE MILLI", "ONE TENTH MILLI", and "ONE HUNDREDTH MILLI" and finally "ONE MICRO".

So who's still interested in this topic?  We may soon have something that you all may like!  :)

It's a pretty cool idea, it may be hard to catch on. Especially since the price fluctuates, though 100k bits will always be 100k bits - its respective US value may have some impact on a poker game. Unless all of your players are hodlers

Yes, it is interesting. Maybe you should take with some gamblers or someone running a casino. They should be able to take this idea to the next level. All the best dude!

I like the product but i dislike the idea  ;D

why we light a candle for the blinds?  ???

maybe i misunderstand your idea, sorry

If I understand correctly these chips are not physical representation of bitcoin in any way. They will be only pieces of ceramic/plastic not associated with any keys?
If we use it in our Poker games we still have to transfer bitcoin to the winner through standard transaction and not by obtaining the chips, right?

Hmmm... https://blockchain.info/block-index/1157438/000000000000000000fde18c6a8654c004d4f4f2bb3206a8b4461847d28706c2

 :D

Ive had this idea too, but have a 2 of 2 key in them.  I ordered some RFID chips from china, and was going to write the public key in the NFC chip

Poker chips and bitcoin is a fine combo.  8)

I wont say this out loud
keep an eye out on this user (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=120837) the upcoming time.

I'm lost, what does the block have to do with the poker chips? Missing the connection. ???

Virgin coins being split into 1/100 BTC denominations? Sounds like a BTCC kind of thing to do. They did the same with physical blocks.

My wallet is ready.

See MyBTT's reply above. This was a mined btcc block funded into the poker chips, IMO. ;D

Ahhhh okay got it... wow, did you find that on your own or ?

Yea, pretty much! You can follow all their blocks they mine on blockchain.info and put the clues together! :D  

We decided to make a range of chips mostly for fun and for collectors.

It started purely as an 'inspired by Satori chip' project but blossomed into something slightly larger as you can see.

There will be another series due that will conform to Poker "standards", such as they are and be slightly cleaner in terms of design in preparation for the first UK based Bitcoin Poker Tourney (more details to follow in coming months). We learned there is quite the desire by Bitcoiners to play poker and to be able to play with bitcoin chips adding an extra dimension. One we hope to bring to a table real soon. Yes, bets WILL be in bitcoin and prizes too.

For now though, here's a peek at the first (collectors) series of Poker Chips by PhysiBit.com

https://i.imgur.com/Aa1HBrhm.jpg  https://i.imgur.com/Zs7DckPm.jpg


EDIT: There were some colour changes made to the final production chips as can be seem below

Chips have arrived, we're just waiting for the Holos

https://i.imgur.com/X2kacPLm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/rSUFyaGm.jpg

Viz

Sure do looks nice...will all the denominations

Those look pretty impressive, keep us up to date on what they look like when they're finished, I'm curious now.

Where?  I used to play at the Western and Gutshot in London, won a few tourneys at the Empire too.  I miss those places!

coming VERY soon...
https://i.imgur.com/ToS5Rt7.jpg

Viz

The PhysiBit Poker Chip Collectors Series have now been released. Check out our threads.

Sales
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1724943.0

Auction
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1726912.0

Cheers
Viz

Absolutely awesome ! They look amazing. The Satori is an absolute beauty of a chip (and idea) so a lot to live up too but I have faith.

solos and stacks now available  8)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1724943.msg17423750#msg17423750

Solos and stacks now available :)

0.008BTC

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https://i.imgur.com/v3o1nYFm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/fFsINcTm.jpg
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Buy one, buy five or even buy 10 of your favourite chip!!

Shipping 0.01BTC 0.02BTC International (up to 20 chips) DM for more info for larger orders

Viz