Hi, I'm considering investing in Etheroll. Could you please answer the following questions:
1. Profits are distributed each 12 weeks. If a loss occurs in a 12 week period (due to lucky players), this loss is not compensated. So, will the bankroll shrink over time?
2. You mentioned that also sports betting might be implemented. How do you ensure the 1% house edge with this kind of gambling?
3. It is possible to divest 4 times 25%. Do these 25% refer to the initial investment or to the bankroll (which would be 80% of the initial investment)?
4. I wonder how you ensure that the random number generation is not exploited. Is it not possible for the miner to request another random number from random.org if the first one is unfavorable?
1. Profits are distributed each 12 weeks. If a loss occurs in a 12 week period (due to lucky players), this loss is not compensated. So, will the bankroll shrink over time?
2. You mentioned that also sports betting might be implemented. How do you ensure the 1% house edge with this kind of gambling?
3. It is possible to divest 4 times 25%. Do these 25% refer to the initial investment or to the bankroll (which would be 80% of the initial investment)?
4. I wonder how you ensure that the random number generation is not exploited. Is it not possible for the miner to request another random number from random.org if the first one is unfavorable?
Hi HPt,
Thank you for your interest and feedback.
To answer your questions;
1) Token holders are able to return their tokens to etheroll in return for ETH. This means etheroll can sell the returned tokens again onto the market, allowing the bankroll to be lifted again in the case of a bad run. Overall, the expected value should return 1% to the house bankroll, but yes, there will be big variances.
2) Sports betting and any other games would have a house edge particular to those games/bets. The 1% house edge is only for our first game, the dice game.
3) Yes, it is possible to divest 4 times 25%. The divestment available to token holders relates to the 80% sent to the bankroll. When a token holder divests, they are returned their proportional share of the bankroll*.25
4) It is impossible for miners to have control over our RNG as it is generated off chain. We spent a lot of time considering and ensuring this was not open to an attack vector by miners.
Hopefully that answers your questions, if you have any other questions, concerns or comments please let me know and I will gladly try to answer them all.
Thanks,
James
Thanks for your answers!
1) Actually my question 1) didn't aim at divesting. I was talking about the regular 12 week distribution of profits. This distribution hinders the bankroll to grow. But there's also the (small) possibility that there's a loss after 12 weeks (due to lucky players, not due to divesting). In this case the bankroll would shrink. So, if the bankroll can shrink but cannot grow, is it doomed to shrink over time? (Example: Let's say, the bankroll initially has 10000 ETH. After 12 weeks it has 11000 ETH. 1000 ETH are distributed and the bankroll ist back to 10000 ETH. 12 weeks later the bankroll has 9500 ETH. That is, no win and no distribution, but also no refill. 12 weeks later the bankrall has 9800 ETH. 300 ETH are distributed and bankroll is back to 9500 ETH. etc.)
2) What I actually want to know is: How do you ensure that the house has an edge with sports betting in the fist place (let it be 1% or 5% or whatever)? Since (other than with the dice game) you don't know the probabilities how can you make sure that the house has an edge?
4) How do you unambigously assign a specific random number to a specific game? Let's say at 2016/06/14 12:39:15 the block 1702168 was mined. In this block someone gambled. Which random number belongs to that game. Is it, e.g., the first random number generated by random.org after 2016/06/14 12:39:15?
5) In your answer to my first question you mentioned that returned tokens are not destroyed but can be sold again. To which price are they sold again (and to whom)?
Oh i see, sorry, let me explain further.
1) Lets say the bankroll is created and has a total of 10000ETH. After 12 weeks it has 11000 ETH. 1000 ETH are distributed and the bankroll ist back to 10000 ETH. 12 weeks later the bankroll has 9500 ETH. That is, no win and no distribution, but also no refill. 12 weeks later the bankrall has 9800 ETH. 300 ETH are not distributed. There is only a distribution at > 10000ETH.
2) Sports betting (for the moment) is probably the lowest on our priority list. However, we would probably do something like so; at the time of paying winners we would pay them -x% of their winnings. Ensuring the house always realises a gain. I want to make this clear. Sports betting is something that is on the back burner for now. We are more interested in dice games, card games, roulette. However, sports betting seems like a nice fit as well. In all honesty, we would not be looking to implement sports betting until we have roulette, dice-game variations, baccarat complete.
4) Our dice game is like a roulette wheel. All players are playing against the same result. Only 1 result is returned for all players in that round. Once that results is returned, a new round begins. Our betting rounds will complete within 5 seconds towards the end of the year with the Serenity release of Ethereum and 1 second block times, allowing us to handle 100s of thousands of bets per day.
4) When a token holder returns their tokens to etheroll, they are essentially being refunded their initial investment (80%), as 20% is used by etheroll to fund continued development, marketing and so-forth.
Does this clear things up for you? Let me know, happy to discuss.
Cheers,
James