To place a bet, you actually burn coins by sending them to one of your own burn addresses.  When the outcome of the betting event is determined, winning bets are paid by the protocol creating new coins at the address associated with the betting transaction where you burned coins.


Stablecoin functionality is where some centralization comes in.  Like Tether, the peg between in-game coins and dollars relies on people purchasing coins with dollars, and those dollars being held in escrow.  Coin holders can sell out at any time by redeeming their in-game coins for dollars from the stablecoin issuer.

Unlike ICOs, the stablecoin issuer does not make money via seigniorage (printing money).  The business model for a stablecoin issuer is more like that of a bookmaker.  Players deposit money, bet, and then cash out.

It's possible for the stablecoin issuer to charge fees on bets without ever holding the private keys to any bets.  This is done by setting the payout rate for betting events to below 100%.  For example in the play money Rock Paper Scissors Fast game, the payout rate is set to 99.9% (fees of 0.10%).  The amount of new coins created in the payout is slightly less than the coins burned by players in bets, causing the supply of coins to constantly reduce.  The stablecoin issuer maintains the peg of 1 dollar per in-game coin, and therefore keeps these fees as their profit when the game ends since they owe less dollars to players than they originally took in.

Yeah, it has been publicized in several other threads here on bitcointalk - you can check my post history to see those threads.  It has previously always been using play money.  I'm hoping real money betting will gain more interest now.

The operator key is like a password that allows you install the app.  Just generate a random string of characters and enter that into your config file as the operator key.  If you're installing on your local computer rather than a public facing server, you can even just leave the operator key empty.  I will try to make sure that's clear in the README.

The current ban on sports is not a major problem since we are focusing on eSports.  We also have betting games based on random numbers from the blockchain, and based on stock prices.

Yes, the platform is ready but funding is needed.

The advantages of this are:

• You hold the private keys to your bets.
• It's open source.
• Peer to peer design: anyone can set up a node.
• Odds are set by player bets rather than by a house.
• Highest odds and payouts compared to bookmakers.
• Compatible with bitcoin, litecoin & any blockchains based on bitcoin's code.
• Stablecoin functionality: in-game coins can be pegged to dollars, bitcoins etc.

Disadvantages are:

• Centralized bookmakers make more profit on bets.  That makes the business model trickier to get going with this system.
• No accumulator/parlay bets.  This system uses parimutuel betting and does not support parlay bets.

PolyCash is an open source betting protocol that makes it easy to create cryptocurrencies pegged to sources of value like dollars or bitcoins.
We've been running betting games using play money and are now taking things to the next level by launching games where you can bet with real money.

We are seeking partners to help us provide liquidity and hedge against the financial risk of bets placed by our end users.  This protocol is designed to make betting as decentralized as possible.  In PolyCash betting games, there is no house and odds are determined entirely by the bets placed by the players.  When you bet you don’t send money to a trusted intermediary.  Instead, bets are placed by sending coins to your own addresses so that you maintain control of the private keys for your bets.

PolyCash can be used for betting on any topic.  We currently have games running where you can bet on events where the winner is determined at random in a provably fair manner (see decentralized Rock Paper Scissors).  We also have games running for betting on the winners of eSports matches (CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends and more - see https://poly.cash/esports-free/)

We need commitments from several “betting hedge funds” in order to launch real money betting for eSports.  Betting funds will wager money on betting events to help set the odds and to provide liquidity so that end users can bet significant amounts of money without dramatically changing the odds.  PolyCash betting is designed for extremely low fees and provides odds and payouts much higher than traditional betting systems.  With fees nearly at zero, it's easy for betting hedge funds to earn profit with low risk betting strategies that outperform the market.

PolyCash is a platform for stablecoins and eSports betting will operate with coins pegged to the dollar.  You can buy in and sell out at any time using bitcoin, but the bitcoins will be converted to dollars based on the exchange rate at the time of each transaction.

Fees in eSports betting will be set to the low rate of 0.25% on the payouts of winning bets.  You can register as a betting hedge fund by committing to purchasing as low as $1000 of in-game coins.  To operate a betting fund, you should set up your own node.  The eSports betting game will run on the Litecoin network so you'll install a Litecoin full node in addition to PolyCash.

You can get familiarized with the PolyCash betting platform by creating a web wallet on one of our hosted nodes like https://poly.cash and placing bets in play-money games.  If you’re interested in creating your own betting hedge fund, please respond in this thread with any questions, or DM me.

In addition to placing bets manually, you can also select an strategy & have bets placed for you automatically at regular intervals.

Decentralized Rock Paper Scissors is a fast paced betting game with events ending every minute.

Unlike traditional casino games, this game is P2P and fully open source.  It is built on the PolyCash protocol.

In this RPS themed game, one of the 3 options is randomly chosen as the winner based on the latest block hash.

Bets are paid out on the following block via decentralized protocol.

There is no house and no fees.  Odds are dynamic and determined based on player bets.

No house edge means you get higher odds than you'd get with traditional betting games.

This is currently using play money and you can get 5000 fake dollars upon signup.

We will soon be launching a real money version of this (and other games) so that you can play with real money.

Please try it out and post your feedback in this thread.

In addition to playing for free coins by creating a web wallet on our public node, we need people to install nodes.  If you're interested in setting up a node, check out the project on github and feel free to contact me in case you have any problems installing.

To start playing, please follow this link:
https://poly.cash/rock-paper-scissors/

Install your own node:
https://github.com/PolyCash/polycash

Here's a screenshot of the betting UI:

Thanks

PolyCash is the ultimate open source betting protocol.

We are on a mission to disrupt the sports betting industry by giving higher odds and bigger payouts to bettors.

eSports Promo is a promotional cryptocurrency to generate interest for open source betting.

The eSports Promo currency will launch as soon as we get enough signups to get a good eSports betting game going.

eSports Promo will launch with these parameters:

Coin name:	Promocoin(s)
Supply:	5,000,000 promocoins
Blockchain:	Litecoin
Distribution:	50% to 90% promotional giveaway to users. 50% to 10% retained by PolyCash

To distribute the currency and get the game going, we are giving away 25,000 promocoins to each of the first 100 players to join the game.  That's 50% of the entire supply of the currency or 0.5% to each of these first users.

If we quickly get 100 initial players, we'll give out an additional 40% of the currency, but with a smaller number of coins for the next users to sign up.

Players should use their coins to bet daily on our eSports betting events for CS:GO, Dota 2 and League of Legends.  We will add and resolve at least 5 betting events every day.

There is no guarantee that promocoins will have any value.  Please view your coins as an opportunity to try betting and to learn more about this project.

To get 25,000 promocoins please send me a DM here.  You must include either:
- Your email address
- Or your username on https://poly.cash
- Or a Litecoin address where I should send your coins

I recommend sending me your email address.  This will ensure that you receive daily email notifications about your wins and losses and also gives me a way to contact you.

If you don't wish to create a user account on https://poly.cash just send me a Litecoin address and you can still participate by installing PolyCash on your own computer.

If you send me your email address or PolyCash username, your promotional coins will be given to you via your web wallet on poly.cash.  After claiming your coins there, you can withdraw your coins to another wallet any time.

We need a small amount of litecoins to issue the 5,000,000 promocoins.  To contribute to this cost, please consider donating some litecoins:
Litecoin donation address:  LgR3Z96xLThAnoDVNy9o9neJzJRA74fisT  View transactions
Bitcoin donation address:  17azxyGhnA82RkVddHsQxFbisSQo2FMJCn  View transactions

Please note that you do not need to respond to this thread to receive coins but instead you should send me a direct message.  This is to comply with the giveaway thread guidelines for this board.

Money from lost bets goes to the winning players for each event rather than to a house.

As the one who issued the stablecoin and holds the $10k which is owed to the coin holders, the only way I make money is that until I sell them, I hold a large number of coins and so make money from the appreciation of those coins as fees reduce the coins in circulation.

But I see your point that having the coin slowly go up in price vs USD prevents it from being perfectly stable and is confusing.  There is a way I could change this so that fees go to the stablecoin operator rather than the coin holders.  This essentially makes the stablecoin operator into a house and so kind of goes against the original concept of creating a betting system with no house.  On the other hand this change gives the "house" a way to make money which helps make this into a sustainable business.  Betting still works without money being sent to a central party so this is still substantially more decentralized than a traditional betting system.

I also don't know of any coins running on Litecoin. Maybe this is a first?

This is a protocol for colored coins.  This particular crypto asset is roughly pegged to the dollar hence the name "bucks" but uses trace amounts of litecoins to represent ownership.  Running on Bitcoin/Litecoin gives all the security and cryptographic functionality of those blockchains.  The colored coin protocol is needed for the decentralized betting functionality which relies on "burn addresses" where bets are placed by burning coins to your own address matching the format associated with the option that you're betting for.


Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals are already enabled.

Buying in, placing bets and withdrawing are pretty simple at the UI level.  If it seems complicated to you, I recommend trying the software.  I'm hoping to refine my presentation on how to explain this so that people can understand it easily.

Is the issue that no one wants to hold USD until their bet resolves, or that people are expecting to get ripped off on the conversion or something?

Based on the feedback here so far, I'm considering switching to a BTC pegged in-game currency called mBTC worth 1/1000 of a bitcoin each.  Deposits/withdrawals will no longer depend on the USD/BTC exchange rate so it will be easier to see that there's no deposit/withdrawal fees.  I want to make sure I understand your objection(s) first though.

Has anyone tried placing a bet and willing to share their experience?

The advantages are:

• Low fees, and fees go to coin holders rather than a business owner.
• This is an open source P2P app which can you can install on your own computer.
• You can create your own betting currencies.
• By running your own node you can fork any coin where you disagree with consensus on the outcome of a betting event.
• This app has nice wallet and blockchain explorer features which you can use for viewing BTC/LTC data or managing your bitcoins/litecoins (or any other blockchain based on the Bitcoin code).
• This app does a great job of handling all the complexity of the blockchain and makes creating a new P2P betting currency as easy as integrating a data source or uploading a CSV file.

As I sell bucks, I will hold on to those deposits, so would have up to $20k in the business account if a majority of bucks were to be sold.  I am operating with no expenses because the important thing at this point is proving the concept, and I have another source of income.

This is parimutuel betting and all bets are between players.  There is no house holding onto funds.  When you place a bet, you actually destroy coins to one of your own addresses and then the protocol creates new coins to the winning addresses when each event pays out.  The 1% fee is paid to all coin holders via deflation rather than being kept by a house.

Parties holding onto the backing funds are a point of centralization but are not involved in the betting and should not be confused with the house in a traditional sportsbook.


This is a platform which makes it easy to create a currency and betting functionality is built in at the protocol level for these currencies.

In eSports Live $10k, "bucks" run on Litecoin and each bet creates a Litecoin transaction.  We could run on Bitcoin instead but TX fees would be $1-$2 per TX, compared to Litecoin where we can get transactions with 20+ bets confirmed for 0.0001 LTC = 1 penny.


We already have BTC payments & withdrawals built in.

There is some risk since this is a new app with lots of functionality.  But a lot of steps have been taken to make sure nothing goes wrong like holding backing funds in a traditional bank account and keeping only some BTC on public nodes and transferring the remainder to offline wallets.  We also have done comprehensive security reviews and did a bug bounty program for finding vulnerabilities and so are highly confident that the app is secure.

Even though this coin is not tradable on exchanges, you can still buy & sell your coins for BTC by trading with public nodes.

Players can buy in with Bitcoin and then cash out to Bitcoin any time.  Both processes are fully automated so I don't believe it's any slower or less convenient than sites where you bet directly with Bitcoin.

We can do a Bitcoin backed coin if players would prefer to have the value of their in-game coins fluctuate with the value of BTC rather than dollars.  Or do one backed by dollars and another backed by BTC and allow players to choose.


Yes, correct.


Not exactly.  This is a platform for a plurality of currencies.  The idea is that anyone can issue a new coin and then give it value by backing it with tangible sources of value.  In this case, I have $10k that I can personally put up to back this currency.  Putting an end date on the coin and requiring the backing dollars to be paid out avoids the situation where a stablecoin operator can use funds from the escrow because there is no clear obligation to repay.

If having USDB increase vs USD due to deflation from fees is too complicated, we could set betting fees to zero and maintain a strict $1 per buck peg.

PolyCash is the ultimate open source gambling protocol.  PolyCash integrates with Bitcoin, Litecoin and other blockchains and makes it easy to create a cryptocurrency for betting on anything.

We recently launched eSports Live $10k.  This is a game for betting on CS:GO, Dota 2 and League of Legends using a stablecoin called "bucks" (USDB).  This colored coin runs on the Litecoin network and is backed by $10,000 in real dollars.

To bet on eSports, you first need to acquire some bucks.  Bucks are not listed on any exchange, so for now, you'll need to purchase bucks by depositing BTC to one of the public nodes hosting the eSports Live $10k crypto asset, such as https://poly.cash.  Your BTC will immediately be converted to bucks based on the current USD/BTC exchange rate.

You can set up a wallet by either:
1. Installing Litecoin, PolyCash and eSports Live $10k on your own computer.
2. Creating a web wallet on a public node like https://poly.cash

Now that you have a wallet and some bucks, bet on as many eSports events as you want.  eSports Live $10k charges a fee of 1% on each winning bet.

You can sell out at any time by entering a Bitcoin address.  Buy-ins and sell-outs are not quite instantaneous because one confirmation is required on Bitcoin or Litecoin.

This is a maximally decentralized betting platform and there's no house taking a cut.  Instead, the 1% fee is destroyed, reducing the supply of bucks.  The supply of bucks decreases as more and more betting fees are paid.  But the $10k backing this currency remains constant, causing bucks to grow in value vs the US dollar.  PolyCash is a pioneer of a concept called the "fixed term token" in which pegged coins are wound down for the sake of transparency rather than living indefinitely. eSports Live $10k will not live forever, and at some point this stablecoin will be wound down and the $10,000 backing it will be paid out to the coin holders via the Litecoin network.  We have not yet set an end date for this $10k stablecoin, but will eventually do so based on feedback from coin holders.

This eSports betting game is pegged to the dollar but we can just as easily create coins pegged to bitcoin, eth and more.  We can also integrate data sources for betting on other topics like sports or stocks.

Here are some screenshots of betting, buying in and selling out. Right click and open in new tab to see full size.


This project has been under development for a while and the concept has changed significantly since we got started.  Please help us revolutionize the betting industry with open source software by making some bets with BTC or posting any questions or comments in this thread.

Ok I just tried getrawtransaction with verbose=true and I can see the inputs properly now. Thanks.

I am building a blockchain explorer and found a couple of transactions which are causing problems for me.

These transactions have no inputs and have negative value outputs.  Furthermore, the negative value outputs have been spent in transactions which appear to have greater outputs than inputs.  When I check these transactions on block explorers like Blockchain.com these transactions look ok.  But what I get from running getrawtransaction and decoderawtransaction is not consistent with those explorers.

The outputs that I'm looking at are:
Created in tx 9789cf1e36def70ea44219c6c2bd633bf831a67cb659a19c2757b709883cdd6e
Spent in tx 4faba86e9cc006378216defa5bb29c87826d8aa5d02c7a03af2c1f237ec98354

Created in tx 797d455d6a13c9418a8c6d75aa119827c3b6036b015687e9de7f4d2f16bfadee
Spent in tx 8728c4ddc43c8f1259cb4fe08c28eea732f168b9960c3f40c0e5ac81baeddc0c

Can anyone help me understand what's going on with these transactions?  If this isn't the right place for this issue, please direct me appropriately.

decoderawtransaction returns the following for the creation transactions:
9789cf1e36def70ea44219c6c2bd633bf831a67cb659a19c2757b709883cdd6e

797d455d6a13c9418a8c6d75aa119827c3b6036b015687e9de7f4d2f16bfadee