Bitcoin Forum

The Bytecoin Emerald
*Notice: Now closed*

You can buy The Bytecoin Emerald (a virtual emerald) with bytecoins. When you buy the emerald, it increases in value, and you get a 10% profit when someone buys it off you. Unfortunately, if no-one else buys it from you within 24 hours, it is reset and you are repaid 40% of the house profit.

(Current stats are on the website, these may not be up to date)

You are also allowed to specify a name and website before you buy the emerald, so that you can show who you are, or advertise a website :)

The emerald currently starts off at the low value of 1 BTE, allowing for everyone to participate!

The website uses a cryptographically secure secret authentication ID stored in the url of the page and a cookie set in your browser (You are recommended to bookmark the page with your user id). It also gives you a temporary account to pay into before you purchase the emerald. (Allowing for much faster purchasing, and helping the website work with the current speed of the blockchain).

Try it out now:

[Closed]

Also try

The Bytecoin Ruby!
*Notice: Now closed*

Lower prices and shorter reset times, so you don't miss out on buying one of these shiny gems :)

[Closed]

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
This is definitely a Ponzi scheme.

It is kind of, but it's more sustainable (with a reset), and not fraudulent (You know how it works) :P. It's the same idea as the bitcoin gem, etc.

I'm the current owner, ok someone buy lol

PS I made it to 100 posts woot  ;D

I wouldn't worry about getting a buyer, people go on these forums at all different times, and you do get 12 hours before a reset :)

Also, congratulations on the 100 posts!

Oh what the hell, I'll buy it!

Looking forward to my huge profit  8)

It wont show me a pay-in address...  ???

The server generates one with Bytecoin RPC when you make an account - try refreshing the page and if that doesn't help just click 'generate new account'

That did it thanks.

How long does it take to receive a payout after you hit the Payout button? It's been 15 minutes so far. I checked the link on blockexplorer and it says this:

Address 8TTe4Lqc7Cf19rC6UzdfQKNbZUMoQgFaUH

Address not seen on the network.

I should have received 8.4 BTE.

EDIT: Ok I just received it, not sure what happened there lol

There is currently quite a high network difficulty with not enough hash power to support it, causing transactions and confirmations to take a while. The hash rate seems to be increasing slightly again, so hopefully blocks begin to be generated faster soon :)

EDIT: If you wanted to know, your incoming payment will show up once it has been confirmed, it hasn't been included in a block so far. The current last block on the network confirmed your payment from the emerald, but not your payment in.

EDIT 2: I manually confirmed your payment in, you refreshed so many times - it looked like you really wanted that confirmation :D

lol yeah I need to go to bed (that's why I was refreshing it so often) so thanks for manually confirming it!

No problem, it's a shame the blockchain isn't going faster, but hopefully the difficulty will adjust soon :)

I just bought it for the lulz

Well, doing something 'for the lulz' is great when you will most probably be paid for it! :D

I would buy it right now if it also included the chance to advertise, like the semi-magnificent bitcoin gem.

I am planning to add that feature, I just wanted to release the site as soon as possible, once I got the framework for the emerald working reliably.

You can expect to see advertising features relatively soon :)

Hmm... it works fine? I don't wanna lose my coins  :P

Yep, people can pay in and out reliably, and are paid when the emerald is bought off them.

You don't have to believe me, ask the other users if you want :D

I just bought it... someone buy it off me purrlease ?  :-\ ::)

I'll buy it, give me a sec

Hey, thanks ! i'm paid out successfully..  ;D

I HOPE SOMEONE BUYS IT NOW :(

Hopefully they do :) the return is starting to get pretty good, so more people may want to buy it. Although, it is a higher risk investment now (as someone has to lose eventually, and there are less people who are willing to risk larger amounts of coins), which may scare off other potential buyers.  :o

ah what the heck, i couldnt leave you hanging Legend... I bought it again !   ;D ;D ;D

 ::) :-\ :'(

This is going to be interesting... People won't want to lose the coins... But they also don't want people they know to lose the coins...

soooomeoooone Heeeeelp meeeeeeeeeee....  :-[

Your current balance (6 confirms) is:
0 BTE
Haven't been paid out either?

AH SHEt, I made a new account.
What could I do about this?

Nevermind, fixed it myself.
Sorry for all the spam!

Just so that people know for reference, if you make another account, you can always find the old one in your history (it's also recommended to bookmark the page of your account).

If you delete your cookies or history, and you don't have the details anywhere else, you're pretty much screwed. (PM me all the account details you remember and your IP).

Legend !!  ;D :D ;)

Anyone want to buy it? :(

Bought it :) Waiting on confirms.

Confirmed! You should be able to buy it now :)

EDIT: Looks like someone got there before you, it now costs 202.61 BTE :P

Digigami! Adding more so I can try to buy in again!

Your payment has been confirmed :)

Got it. This feels like a game of hot potato.

Going to buy at next reset.. Not risking it :)

Yep, I'm out too. Maybe once we see more people playing I'll take more risk. Good luck Digigami.

It is only the first day :) We'll probably start to see even more people use this soon.

I hope that there are still some people who will buy it at this high-stake high-profit price, if not, the reset isn't that far away.

I know if Digigami gets stuck with it in the end, the next time I have it at high stakes I probably shouldn't be expecting help from him. I've never played this game before, but now I realize how mean it is :(

Yeah, it can be pretty mean sometimes, but the more you can gain, the more you can lose. For example, playing at 5 BTE Stakes wouldn't be that risky, as buyers would be plentiful and you wouldn't lose too much if it was reset, but you would only earn 1 BTE, so the game is a tradeoff between stakes and wins, it's the person who is playing's call.

(At least I didn't add a random reset, those are really annoying if you get hit by one)

You can choose a name and add a link now! Only 397.13 BTE :P

That's fine :)

It can be quite risky sometimes

I think there should be more profit to the buyers, and less profit and a little more risk to the host of the game. If I understand it correctly there is no lose ever to the 'house' but all win...doesn't seem right.. but maybe i'm misunderstanding some aspect of it...?

The point is that the house doesn't lose in this sort of game, all of the funds paid out come from another person. They have to judge if anyone else is going to buy it or not, for example at this stage, it seems less likely. The loss pays to the last person who bought the emerald, not to the house. The house takes it's cut when the emerald is transferred between people.

There are quite a few other sites like this (for bitcoin), and they also use a 'random reset' to ensure that the price doesn't rise too high. I could implement this if people wanted, or just keep it the same, we'll have to see.

I may create some other website with house loss later, just at the moment I don't have the funds to do so, which is why I chose to make this sort of website instead, with only house gain (to raise any capital required for a real gambling site).

Was just thinking of a variation, where as the emerald is passed around and each time, bought, the BTE goes into a central payout pool, so by buying the emerald, you are putting BTE in the pool.

As the 24hour runs down, and the reset occurs, the BTE is paid out to all the previous owners, but, perhaps larger corresponding share the earlier you owned the emerald, and maybe limit ownership to just once per reset period. The later owners in the chain get back less than they put in, but perhaps only slightly less.

Maybe this system would encourage many people to try and buy in early, and would create momentum.

Yes, I think its a Ponzi idea, but if you dont increase the cost of ownership so quickly, and keep the cost of ownership relatively small, people do not end up losing a large sum, and it keeps it more on the 'fun to play' side of things, but with the early buyers still perhaps able to make a larger gain.

You could also add a twist to this game, and allow people to 'buy' a 24 hour ( or maybe on a per hour basis ) extension, again the BTE from that time purchase going to the pool. The early buyers may think it a good tactic to buy a time extension to try to increase the pool size by allowing more time for people to play.  As might someone on the border line of making or slightly losing BTE if the reset occurred.

I think you'd need a webpage with a table showing how much each person in the chain would make or lose if the reset were to occur at that point in time, and how much at the next reset if no more buyers.

The house could take say 1% of the final pool total, for the trouble of running the game.

Lets call this game the 'The Great Bytecoin Ponzi Pool'  - so no one is under any illusions as to what it is ;)

Another idea would be to do it like litecointreasure, the one that is left hanging loses everything but is paid 10% of the house profits for that round. That way they don't lose so much.

Then they technically don't 'lose everything', why not just give them some of their money back?

Thanks for your detailed reply, I've decreased the increase slightly, and I'll read your post properly tomorrow (It's 3AM where I am  :o).

Ok maybe I didn't frame my words correctly but I think you get the meaning of what I was trying to say lol

heh, 11 am here !  ;D 

I have a nice shiny emerald to buy, still cheap price !!  ::)  :D  ;D

http://bytecoin.us.to:9000

Anyone want to buy from me? :D

I would, it still looks very cheap, but I got my butt out in the wind elsewhere right now  :o

I've updated the site so that you are paid 40% of the house profit

PS: Digigami, I will refund you some of your loss if you want.

EDIT: I changed it to refund house profit, like iamrickrock suggested :)

Nice change ! ( I felt bad for Digi - ouch ! )

That sounds like a great idea! I might consider making a separate website like this :)

Please do, it'll be great to play !

I think perhaps, you could make the first 50% of buyers make profit and the last 50% of buyers lose. The first to buy makes the most, the last to buy loses the most. You'd need to create a formula to apply to the list to distribute the pool across the players in the same manner every game.

Alright people. First person to buy from me, I promise to buy back from them ;P

Edit: I am appalled by the lack of trust on these forums, this is taking way too long. I rescind my offer.

Haha! You saved Legend :-)

Hey can you buy this one too - http://highroller.litecointreasure.com/ ?  ::)

BTE FTW.

Trolls of the internets, unite!

If there would be a troll land, BTE would be the official currency, so trolls could troll around when they would buy stuff from other trolls.

Although I don't own any, I love this coin. It's by far the coolest one after BTCs. I thought it was just an april fools joke and I enganged in trolling, but it backfired. Now, BTE are still around and I red in some post that the BTE total hashrate was something like 2% of that of BTCs??!? I was the one trolled I guess.

This emerald is the crop of the cream of BTEs.... a little bit pyramid scheme seasoned but at the same time a fun not-so-dangerous troll. Buy buy buy buy. Troll Troll troll troll.

Probably a good change, that was a bit of a loss. No need to refund though, it was a known risk and I figure you deserve a little for all the hard work your pouring into this ;)

I'm getting sad you guys, the buy in is so low, someone save me!

First in with the new Emerald !! who wants it next !! cheap at the price !!

 ::)

http://bytecoin.us.to:9000/

I bought it back.. lets run this baby to the moon !  ;D

wow that was fast, its now too expensive for me  :-\ :'(  not enough Bytecoins.. will have to wait for the next reset..

It can take quite a long time for the confirms to come in, ( slow network ) , you usually see the funds on the web page, once the first confirm has occurred..

Fun, sent in 10 BTE waiting for next reset :(

I hope you meant BTE.. its not bitcoin, its bytecoin..

Whoopsies, yeah BTE :)

Erm... We seem to have run into a slight problem... The server just decided to delete all of the user data for the site :o

If you had a significant amount of BTE PM me your user id, payout address and your loss, and I'll put it back into your account

EDIT: Found a backup, no need to worry!

It was in the server log, luckily I made the server print out the entire database on every save :D

My BTE still has not come through
http://blockexplorer.bytecoin.in/address/8ZR6rZAHmGuYwLCNqdUTZyUUNd2fmvnept

It should be in your account now, I registered the transaction manually.

I installed a linux distro and accidentally deleted windows.. Byte Bye Bytecoin!

heh, it may still be there, did you really install over it ?

I wish it was reset so I can get some bytecoins :(

I'm not too sure, it's not that big of a deal so I didn't really bother looking for it.

It's currently at 5 BTE, why not grab it now?

I'm trying to buy it now, but it takes a while for a confirmation  ::)

Succeeded! Only 11 BTE now  ;)

Was asleep, I'll never get a chance to buy it at reset due to digigami. :(

Sure, make me feel bad :P 

How about a block's worth? ;)

What do you mean?

Check your Bytecoin client with your BTE address in your sig ;)

Aww, thank you <3

I should've complained when i had the chance  ;) :D

:P

Just bought a beautiful shiny emerald worth 31.43 BTE!  :D
It looks so shiny! 8)

Ok, next! BUY MEEEEEEEE! lol

It's still only about halfway through what it usually goes to, come on let's get it going again :)

I have the Emerald... come buy the wonderful Emerald from me ! Looook how greeen it is !

( dont leave me hanging guys !  ::) )

Chance in a lifetime, come buy the amazing emerald !!  ;D

http://bytecoin.us.to:9000

Hey everyone, I've made the page title live-updating now, so you can browse in other tabs until your balance confirms, and instantly see when you sell the emerald!

Nice !

looks like someone took the emerald off my hands...thought I was going to do a digi for a while... ;)

Oh so is that what we're calling it now?  ;D

I figured it's someone else's turn to hold the bag this time, so I'm out till next round at least.

Very wise too  ;D

is the site down? i can't acces it. :(

It seems to be down (http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/http://bytecoin.us.to:9000/). Hopefully it will be back up soon.

yup, just noticed its still down

It's back up now, I apologise for the downtime. I've extended the reset time for the current emerald owner

The cleaner accidentally unplugged the ethernet cable from my computer :/

EDIT: I'm pretty sure downforeveryoneorjustme.com doesn't work for alternate ports, I just checked it and it still says that the website is down, when I can see other people connecting :P

It's up and working now, I'm holding the Emerald.

Do you host the site on your PC?

Yep, it's the most cost-effective way! (And it allows me to easily update the site when necessary)

Nope! I am :D

I would buy it from you but i don't have the funds  ;)

ah that's too bad. :) It's very shiny!

So shiny, mmmm.  ;) :D

Should buy it off me

Thu Apr 18 2013 09:39:43 GMT+1000 (EST): You Bought the Emerald for 40.86 BTE and was paid back 4.9 BTE (no buyers)

Last time I checked, 40% of 40.86 is not 4.9. It is 16.344

It's 40% of the profits of the round, not 40% of the value of the emerald.

Looks fun... we need a Golden Kria for Freicoin.

There seems to be a pattern emerging here. People buy the emerald to a certain point, then it gets reset. The next round, people buy up to the price before the previous reset, and it is once again reset. Next round the same happens.

Three solutions I can think of straight away:

1. Reduce the value increase rate (More low-price purchases)

2. Increase the value increase rate (Higher reward for the risk taken)

3. Increase the reset time (may not be as successful, depends on who uses the site)

Let me know what you think, or if you have any other ideas, and I'll try to implement the most supported choice.

I think only the first would work..

I think you've really found the problem with the game, the issue you describe will always occur unless you have new players coming into the game that are not yet aware of the 'don't buy past a certain point' pattern.

reduce the value increase rate will create more rounds but I think you'll still get the same pattern of play emerge.

I think the game needs more dimensions to it, to help prevent obvious patterns developing so quickly, or at all ( though I suspect whatever you do tactics and patterns in any game will emerge ). I still think the idea I proposed in a previous post would be great fun and have a longer shelf life.

You could do a small percentage chance for a reset, like 5% or 10%, after every buy and then eliminate the timed reset. Or greatly increase the time, in case it stalls without a buyer.

Although, it's still somewhat likely to hit a pattern of buys at a certain point, as people aren't willing to risk loosing beyond a certain amount.

Litecointreasure.com has the random reset, that puts me off buying at the  higher price, just more risk. If want to increase the number of buys at higher prices I think the reward has to be proportionately higher, without added risk, that might help.

Basically, a better risk/reward ratio, the larger the value of the emerald, that would have to kick in at around 40 BTE judging by current action, it could perhaps improve at 50, 100, 150 etc...

Whoever is developing this, they didn't properly design the timezone, and it made it look like the reset was in 11 hours but it reset an hour later. :(

Hmm... I'll look into this later. Probably a problem converting the time to your local time zone.

It uses the standard javascript Date module, so it should work, but it seems in this case it didn't.

Could you post what it shows after 'Next Reset:'?

Its not a ponzi scheme.. more like gambling  :D

Eh ?! I thought we were investing in emeralds !!!  ???

 ;) ;D

That sounds like a good idea :)

I've implemented a simple version of this. It currently bumps up the profit from 15% to 30% once the price is over or equal to 40. I'm going to write a proportional algorithm to increase it automatically soon.

Does that take effect immediately or after the next reset ?  :)

Immediately ;)

Higher profits for more expensive purchases :D

Bought it!

come and buy my shiny green stone ! 

higher profit kicks in on next buy !

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

***UPDATES***

1. New List of Transactions
2. Your payments are confirmed instantly (0 confirms)
3. You can pay out once all your transactions have 6 confirms
4. You can generate an account with a 'secret key', every key will generate the same account (good if you want to use it on multiple computers)

Looks like no one wants to move the price into the higher profit bracket.. no takers at this low price to take advantage of greater rewards ?   :-\

why port 9000 on website ?

It's hosted on a node.js server along with other sites; port 80 on the server isn't free. I could try to move it to port 80 but it doesn't really seem worth it for the hassle; the current site works fine in most cases.

+1 for no-face avatar

why did you remove the cash back when you are the last player holding the stone? More profit for you?

I think it is a very bad thing to do that. This will very quickly filter away everyone that holds the emerald last, because those people will lose all their money and not have a cashback from which they can start over.

For example:
You have 45BTE on balance and decide to buy the emerald for 40.86. However, no one else buys it and you lose all your money.
On the old version, you would receive a small amount and you were able to start over in the small price ranges (5->15BTE) to gradually grow your balance again.
Now you just lose everything and you probably will stop playing because you can't buy the emerald anymore even at the lowest price and you probably don't feel vary happy and inclined to deposit more funds on a game that just striped you of 40.86 BTE.

Give people the cashback, give them a chance to start over again and regain the taste of the game. They will keep playing and it's important for this game that people play it, because else it will die in an instant.

To be honest, the profit margins for the house are ridiculously high right now. Half the profit on every sale of the emerald(even more if they have a website set O.o) + the entire last buy. All straight into the pocket. Don't be so greedy please, it's killing your game.

Why do people who enter a website url into their profile get severely handicapped in playing this game anyway? I'm lucky i didn't fill in that field when i started playing, especially because there is no way to change it back.

+1

I had my fun and stopped playing when the refund was 40% house profit. I wouldn't have even participated had I been at risk of taking a total loss.

That was the original idea, the reason why the payback was removed was because that's the standard procedure I take when implementing a big change in the way the website works (e.g it was never meant to be permanent).

The website has always let you remove a website, just not change it. There is a button to remove it if you decide you don't want to have the negative effects of it. People can enter a website if they want advertising for it, while still hopefully earning something from the emerald (although they pay a premium for the advertisment).

The house does not get the entire last buy, most of it goes to the last owner, which is why the 40% refund (Of everything the house has earned in the round) is so low. The entire profit is less than half of the last price.

Run though of the house profit with no refund (profit = total house profit if user loses it):

------ROUND 1:
Price: 6.5
Increase: 1.96
Profit: 0.96
Balance: 1.51
Repaid: 0.0
Profit: 1.51
------ROUND 2:
Price: 8.46
Increase: 2.54
Profit: 1.25
Balance: 2.51
Repaid: 0.0
Profit: 2.51
------ROUND 3:
Price: 11.0
Increase: 3.3
Profit: 1.63
Balance: 3.8
Repaid: 0.0
Profit: 3.8
------ROUND 4:
Price: 14.3
Increase: 4.29
Profit: 2.13
Balance: 5.47
Repaid: 0.0
Profit: 5.47
------ROUND 5:
Price: 18.59
Increase: 5.58
Profit: 2.77
Balance: 7.63
Repaid: 0.0
Profit: 7.63
------ROUND 6:
Price: 24.17
Increase: 7.26
Profit: 3.61
Balance: 10.44
Repaid: 0.0
Profit: 10.44
------ROUND 7:
Price: 31.43
Increase: 9.43
Profit: 4.7
Balance: 14.1
Repaid: 0.0
Profit: 14.1

With a refund:

------ROUND 1:
Price: 6.5
Increase: 1.96
Profit: 0.96
Balance: 1.51
Repaid: 1.3
Profit: 0.21
------ROUND 2:
Price: 8.46
Increase: 2.54
Profit: 1.25
Balance: 2.51
Repaid: 1.69
Profit: 0.82
------ROUND 3:
Price: 11.0
Increase: 3.3
Profit: 1.63
Balance: 3.8
Repaid: 2.2
Profit: 1.6
------ROUND 4:
Price: 14.3
Increase: 4.29
Profit: 2.13
Balance: 5.47
Repaid: 2.86
Profit: 2.61
------ROUND 5:
Price: 18.59
Increase: 5.58
Profit: 2.77
Balance: 7.63
Repaid: 3.71
Profit: 3.92
------ROUND 6:
Price: 24.17
Increase: 7.26
Profit: 3.61
Balance: 10.44
Repaid: 4.83
Profit: 5.61
------ROUND 7:
Price: 31.43
Increase: 9.43
Profit: 4.7
Balance: 14.1
Repaid: 6.28
Profit: 7.82

As you can see, the house doesn't make exactly what you thought. I take away the refund while testing brand new features just to make sure that the house doesn't go bankrupt from a bug, or at least not owe as much that it doesn't have.

Don't worry about the refund; it will be back soon. I'm pretty sure I've got all the bugs out now (The testing server = the production server :o so proper precautions and testing is essential)

EDIT: The refund is back, I think it's safe enough to be there now.

That's not what you said before Lucas :P

there is no mention of the removal being temporary, quite the contrary

I understand the game, so no need to apologize for that. ;)

Glad the refund is back though.

Oh, I apologise. My intention was to remove it temporarily, but I guess I got a bit caught up in the thread and wrote something different to what I intended :P

It's good to clear that up, if you have any problems or suggestions just run them by me and I'll see what I can do ;)

I lost the emerald on reset for the first time, but at such a low price.. the game is dying because not enough new players joining who don't yet know not to buy at higher value.

Need to find a new game plan, this one is dying. :(

You win Digigami :)

Ya know, when it comes to this game winning kinda sucks!  :D

but I haven't given up yet! I know someone out there really wants to take their turn holding this shiny Emerald!

p.s. kinda cool, there is a shoutbox on the Emerald site now too, come say Hi so I can talk you into buying this thing back   ;D

Why is it down again?

The database crashed, I've extended the time until the next reset.

EDIT: (Luckily no data is lost when the server crashes, so the site is always fine :))

Oh okay, maybe you should make it alert you when the database can't connect?

Thanks for fixing it :)

No problem :)

I rewrote the database persistent storage system; hopefully it won't crash any more.

No ones buying me coins :( Makes me sad.

Its down again

The server machine decided to shut down. It's back up now. At least it wasn't the database this time ;)

I fixed the problem which made the server stop, an auto-update service restarted the computer and effectively shut down the site.

There is not enough people to play :(

can some1 sell me Bytecoins for ixcoins or bbqcoins

The website is down again

woot made .5 bte in no time flat

It's up, the DNS server didn't update correctly to the new server IP.

(once again) It should be fine now, the problems are at least getting further away from the actual server now. (Database -> Internet -> DNS Server)

I'm out, I find it extremely unfair how much bte you lose when it resets.

There's not much I can do about that, the server profit before the refund is roughly 50% of the last owner's price, so there is no sustainable way I can pay it all back.

Considering how much profit you make when people buy others emeralds and from the reset, doesn't 20% of the emerald going back to the owner when resetting sound better?

The entire server profit before the refund is *roughly* 50% of what the last user paid.

The refund is 40% of the server profit.

40% of 50% is effectively 20% of what the last user paid...

EDIT: I'll change the site if you want, to make it a bit clearer, as that is the current refund given

Updates:

-The Emerald & Ruby will be down from 21:00-21:11 UTC 13/5/2013

-Sites will be closed on 29/5/2013 if there is no significant activity/interest - Withdraw your BTE now! (PM me if you want to withdraw after, you must provide your user ID (in the site url))

EDIT: 13/5/2013 - Emerald & Ruby are back up
EDIT: 29/5/2013 - Emerald & Ruby are closed for the time being