And now you can see the last finished cakes in the Dashboard...

I want to publicly thank gordoh for helping me testing the site with me so we can make sure it's robust for the rest of you guys. It's looking really great so far, and really the main issues have been special treatment for how blockchain.info works.

Oh, and I just added the possibility now to edit your salt until time runs out for a cake! Making it even more difficult for anyone to guess the result, as anyone can change it like 1s before time is out.

Do you have any idea if it works? I never click those ads myself... But could be worth a try though, so thanks for the suggestion!

Haha, yea, the Simulator is kinda left behind and lacking. It's hard coded that user #1 and #2 bet on wedge 1, user #3 and user #4 on wedge 2. And you need at least one bet on both wedges. But, forget the simulator. It's not really needed. Maybe I improve it later.

Cool! A new yummy Cake. I put a slightly higher bet than you to make it interesting. I have a slightly better chance of winning, but can loose more...

Wow, thanks for the feedback! I hope you aren't too sad about loosing the play money... As I said, I can just give you extra PlayBTC if you want...

Anyway, things to do and think about for sure. I will surely do more of the linking stuff later, when a few people have tested using bitcoins for a while. I just want to make sure it's robust before the site has billions of users and it will be much more work fixing issues then.

Oh, and I just created twitter account at www.twitter.com/BTCCake

About emails, I like it this way where people who wants to be anonymous, they can be. The unique user url is quite impossible for anyone to guess, and you can lock it down with a password. So email is totally optional, but handy for recovery and notifications though (although that is not in place yet).

I noticed a new cake now which is for real bitcoins. That is cool, but I don't think anyone will bet there yet. Which is fine. You guys better wait using real bitcoins a bit more anyway (I need to test more using blockchain.info).

What is cool here though, is that if a cake doesn't have any bets, it will just be deleted from database when time ends! That way, the database will be clean from unused cakes. So, don't be alarmed if a hash to a cake doesn't work anymore. Or if you wonder why the cake you created is gone. It's just some neat cleanups I added to the code. (I told you I've been working on this for a long time)

Cool, so http://www.btccake.com/cake/99c44e59efad2ff9c96e77fcc56855671a4ef656d6b7acecbaeeeef398a22a16 ended and everything went well there. Apparently I lost 0.1 PlayBTC, and some other guy. But the third guy on wedge 3 is now 0.2 PlayBTC richer. I checked database, and all fine there too. Now, I know PlayBTC doesn't really mean anything (yet), but it's still fun to see this working!

(I don't take a fee on PlayBTC, but maybe I should? So you guys don't think you were fooled? I mean, there is no point taking a fee for made up play money, but maybe it would be less of a chock for when using real bitcoins later?) Well, I think you guys are smart, so I won't start with some stupid fee on made up play money.

Well I'm really glad to hear that! I have put a lot of thought and time into this. I actually just now finished a simple script to backup the database with timestamps and everything. And, blockchain.info sends me backups every time the wallet updates. So that is all good. Again, I really want to make this work properly. Even though I use services, I also prefer having a backups locally.

I agree, this can be really fun if it takes off actually. The thing is, I'm no bank. Meaning, the money basically goes between users (it's almost like a trading site ). So, you aren't playing against the house really, although I take a small cut (hey, gotta support this site and me somehow) But anyway, the users get the most bitcoins, and I really like it like that. And there is a cake for everyone. If not, create one. Did you notice that every cake has it's own chat as well? Could be handy later on when more people are on that cake to chat. Maybe new cool ideas can come from it. Oh, and there is a "global" chat in the Dashboard too. I have so many ideas, but so little time.

I will surely include you among those that get a small amount of real bitcoins for helping me out soon then. I just need to figure out how to do it the best way... which brings me to the following question:

Any idea what "marketed right" would entail?

Yes, you are correct. It will affect the end result as it's used together with the formula as you say. You are able to affect the result because it is part of the formula. But, you don't know how (and is how we want it because then anyone could cheat). And which is why the cake's secret "salt" is hidden, because otherwise anyone could use that and calculate with their salt what the end result would be.

However, I like it like this because everybody affects the results. If you put "H3LL0" it will give one result. If you put "HEllO", it will be a totally different result. But, you don't know what. But one of them could mean you win...

So yes, you can put whatever in there (currently limited to a-z, A-Z, 0-9 characters to make it safe and not use some weird character which could mess things up). So yea, you can put "H3LL0" in there. I've actually been thinking about that, because there is no blocking for profanity (yet)...   But then again, I would only see it as "certain characters in a particular order"...  

Btw, other sites call this a "seed", but I find the name "salt" more suiting for what it's for. In cryptology, when sites saves your password, you use a "salt" with your password to make the SHA different in case same password was used, and to make table lookups harder.


Note to self: Also, I need to get "edit salt" in place, as it should be possible to change the salt as long as time isn't up yet.

You can't use passwords with 63 random alpha-numeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9), and use the RPC API (walletpassphrase) to unlock. You will get "pad block corrupted" error then. You have to use shorter passwords. This is not good.

Send bounty to: 1LWpfgUxQZGcGZsednymFguJDEJdiUSYSn

Tastes good! Well, I bet on wedge 2 now, so one of us will win. Actually, if you loose I can give you extra PlayBTC just for playing along. Remember, if you have more than 10, you have more than you can get other ways. The button to get more only resets to 10 PlayBTC...

Ah, yes, this is a design decision I had to make for the cake rendered there to show correct colors for the wedge. Basically so the buttons matches the wedge. And the needle would point to wrong wedge otherwise. Now, I could disable the order of able to bet on wedge, and everything would be calculated correctly. However, the colors wouldn't line up, and the result page would mix it up in different orders. So instead of neat and clean like this:

0-60
60-100
100-200
200-360

for example, it would be like:
100-200
60-100
200-360
0-60

Again, everything would be calculated correctly (I've tested this), but it wouldn't look as great. Besides, it doesn't really matter, unless you really like one particular color more than the other. Which reminds me that one of the additional features I would add later on would be to be able to select colors yourself (for the wedges).

But I might fix this "design flaw" later, and unlock betting on whatever wedge from start. For now I hope you can live with it.

There needs to be a range so we can decide who wins. But the range is arbitrary. The formula maps to whatever range, so it could be anything really. I just set limit between 0 and 1000 for, in case you have a number in there you like and I have to limit it to something. You can even have a range between 0 and 1, which is kinda funny. I have 0 to 360 as default, because, well, it makes sense for a circle.

The range is then mapped to the wedges depending on the amount of bitcoins compared to the other wedges. This so the more bitcoins than the others, the bigger range, and thus bigger chance of winning.

That is correct. In that case it would be:
Wedge 1: 33.33%
Wedge 2: 66.67%

This basically means that wedge 2 will have double the range than wedge 1, but no grantee to win.

I'm really glad you say that because if you just knew much much time I put into this. Way too much if this fails. I hope it will be worth it though. That is why I'm taking it slow now and easing it in so it can be properly tested. With time this will be even better!

Btw, @gordoh check the cake now at http://www.btccake.com/cake/f6e6eaa50e3bc52444f0079e0414fdfd0928631d7e8954ca6cde6167908c9d05 and click the "Results" tab! There you have even more details. Might be too technical, but still.

Edit: And I just checked the database, and everybody got their PlayBTC back. So that works. What's great here is that PlayBTC and real bitcoins go pretty much the same path in the code, so if it works for PlayBTC, it works for real bitcoins too. For the code, it's the same thing.

I love this feedback! Sounds to me like I should make a nice explanation page on there somewhere.

Basically, you bet on a wedge.

If the cake has 2 or more wedges, a wedge chance of winning is based on amount if bitcoins for that wedge.

The winning wedge is calculated based on input from a secret string concatenated with all users input, so its not really random, but quite impossible for anyone to know what it will be before hand. I really like that way because the result can always be calculated anytime by anyone (well, after the secret is revealed when time is up).

As for winnings, for example, the current cake has 0.3 PlayBTC on wedge 1. 0 on wedge 2. So, if time goes out, we just get our PlayBTC back because no one else bet against (basically Wedge 1 has 100% chance of winning )

Now, if someone put a bet on wedge 2 at, say 0.1 PlayBTC, that would be:

Wedge 1: 0.3 PlayBTC - 75% chance of winning
Wedge 2: 0.1 PlayBTC - 25% chance of winning

Also, the users in the winning wedge share the winnings based on bet too, so it's all fair.

Makes more sense now?

Actually, I just created this: http://www.btccake.com/cake/f6e6eaa50e3bc52444f0079e0414fdfd0928631d7e8954ca6cde6167908c9d05 and placed a bet. Anyone wanna join or bet against me? It's PlayBTC, so not real money. But fun anyway. And you have 10 when you start.

Thanks! It's up right now at www.btccake.com actually. And if you happen to get a "not available" just refresh after a while, because you might be unlucky and trying just when I restart the server.

I can't stress enough that I want to test this out a bit first before people send bitcoins there like crazy. I've done many tests myself, but still. Could missed something. That is what you get when you can't really test with blockchain.info. Well, you can test with real bitcoins, but I don't understand why they don't have testnet3 support.

Feel free to play around with the fake money though. PlayBTC. I've actually set it to be able to reset to 10.0 BTC every week. This way it will have some value, as if you have more than 10 you are on the plus side. And, you can't just reset it if you just lost. I think I might have some nice prices for this later on.

Oh, and I need to get email in place. But you don't need that as long as you save your unique url. (which is http://www.btccake.com/user/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

Yea? What do you find particularly complex? I guess the "Create New Cake" can be daunting at first, but really, all those values are necessary and more importantly, important. Note though that you really basically only need to set time range and then you could create a cake. But anyway, what do you find most confusing/complex?

I think I will do a giveaways actually. First people will get a sum of btc just for using it and giving me feedback.

Man, so many external issues its ridiculous. I want it to be easy, safe and intuitive. But man, there really is lacking a neat way getting live feedback with bitcoin transactions and blocks. Blockchain isn't making it easy, as you have to do several extra steps to make it work. And it's really annoying they don't have testnet support, so I can actually test for real with _their_ service with fake bitcoins. I've tested a lot locally though, using testnet.

I can use a local bitcoind, but I prefer using a service which provides more safety and automatic backups. Again, working on not loosing anyone’s bitcoins.

Now, is anyone here willing to test this out? Before I really announce this in "Service Announcements" or so. I'm even thinking pointing to testnet first as well.

I have done many tests myself with testnet and the PlayBTC's.

I have actually put in extra checks in case something isn't going as expected! Every bid has a boolean to tell me if everything is OK when it comes to payments. And, the whole cake has a boolean, that, if set to true, I KNOW everything is OK with it. Including payments. Because this boolean is set absolutely last, if that is false for some reason, and time is up for a cake, I know it's not ok, and can investigate further because I also put a lot of effort in keeping a history and messages about what's going on for a cake.

So, if you see this:


Everything is OK with that Cake!

Ok, so head over to www.btccake.com and tell me what you think. Note that this is not an official launch yet! I just need some feedback before I can make it official.

Thanks guys!

How is this going? When are you guys gonna support websockets (or anything with live notifications)?

Hey, yea, that is what I'm actually using to create the the new address for example. What I'm looking for now is a smart and fast way to be notified about new transactions. So I know when users send BTC for example. Balance and amount of confirmations should to be enough I think...

Hi,

I'm working on a bitcoin site, but its getting delayed because of external problems.

I'm creating new addresses using getnewaddress, however, blockchain's "receive API" creates yet another address which is tracked but doesn't help me, as I already created a new address. I do this way because then I can track what addresses belongs to which user, as they are linked to the same account, and I'm not relying on any other service. Actually, this is how it works in bitcoind.

getnewaddress -> 1bitcoinaddress1

vs

/api/receive -> 1bitcoinaddress2 (which apparently points to 1bitcoinaddress1)

So, according to support, I should use https://blockchain.info/api/api_websocket . But, to get balance and amount of confirmations, I should use https://blockchain.info/api/blockchain_api .

I know there are some other sites as mentioned here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=575651.msg7361747#msg7361747 but I'm trying to work it out properly using blockchain.info, as they do have websocket and all other good stuff. I asked support, but they said I should post here and see what you guys have done "the best way".

Anyway, what I'm wondering here is, have anyone here got any experience here, and can tell me how I can get the total balance, and confirmations for addresses the easiest way using blockchain.info when a new transaction accurs?  I basically just want to avoid polling, and get some kind of notification of a transaction, and then be able to check the balance and confirm by some amount of confirmations that the transaction is OK.

Thanks,
Chillance