Bitcoin Forum

This is the Micro Edition of HungerCoins 199K

To celebrate the upcoming 199,000th block which will occur in less than 24 hours, we will run a bidding contest.
Send any amount which is a multiple of 0.01 BTC to this address:

199ksCftm74LqHTZv34wy3sAXvdXPa3mUN

and when the 199,000th block is published, we will choose one winner, the lowest unique bid. The prize will be the total bids sent less 3% as our rake.

All entries must be a multiple of 0.01 BTC. An entry of 0.320001 or 0.32999999 will still be considered as 0.32. Only two digits after the decimal point will be considered.

All entries sent after the 199,000th block will be considered as invalid and will be treated as a donation. It will not be included in the prize pool.

The minimum bid is 0.01 BTC, there is no maximum bid.
If there are two bids of the same amount, neither bids can win.
Example: if we receive bids of 0.21, 0.22, 0.25, 1.30, 0.22,  0.21, and 1.22 then the bid of 0.25 wins. 0.21 and 0.22 are lower, but both occur multiple times. 0.25, 1.30, 1.22 are all unique but the lowest is 0.25 so it wins.
The winning bid must be the lowest unique bid up to and including the 199,000th block.

If the total prize pool is less than 19.9BTC, we will add coins so that the winner will get 19.9BTC.

Please post your questions or clarifications. Good luck. Remember this is a strategy game.

We don't have time to automate this so the winner will be verified manually and will be sent the winnings shortly after the 199,000th block is published. Our official data source will still be blockexplorer.com.

The first input address of the send transaction will be used to send the winnings.
You can make multiple sends in one transaction. Each send/output will be treated as a single bet.

This is a clever one, as, in order to win, one has not only to place a bet in the smallest available slot, but also must cancel the smaller ones.

That said, this game is flawed as the game operator has an easy way of winning the game with a very high probability. By investing 201 BTC, it can bet on 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, …, 1.98, 1.99, 2.00, and collect every bets including its own.

Another player could do that too, but would have to make sure that other players have bet at least 7.22 BTC. Otherwise, the 3% taken by the bet operator would be larger than what could be gained, and the winning player will lose money.

Even if a player choses to take that risk, it is always possible for the bet operator to top that, unless this is done at the very last moment, with the risk of having bets sent past the 199k block lost if they were not included in the last block.

So I'm not saying that the game operator will cheat, but that the 3% fees are much more than fees, in that they change the game dynamic and allow the operator to get everyone else bets if it choses to do so. The operator may be honest and let a player win, but there is no guarantee it won't abuse its dominant position there.

Am I right?

This is going to be fun. I plan to make this a regular automated auction game where every block is a game with a smaller guarantee like 1btc or something.

Let's see what happens as it nears block 199k.

I don't think it's flawed. And I have no plans to play, that would be unethical. I plan to make it a regular game. I just want to host it.

Less than 100 blocks to go. This is going to be fun.

I've put a few bets on this one, but I think the bigger prize will get too pricey for my liking... although 199BTC is a nice jackpot!

Good luck! :)

So, how did it go?

I didn't win, I was sleeping when the 199k block was done... by my reckoning the winning account is:

https://blockchain.info/address/1JAGkuBnGbNZHBwzpoY12ryvf3nCGoR1W7

Who it belongs to, and whether they will get paid 19.9BTC is anyones guess... the payment account only received 5.07 BTC, so about 14BTC short...

Scam accusation sent.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=109925.msg1195316#msg1195316 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=109925.msg1195316#msg1195316)