I'm not up on modern Bitcoin opcodes, so I hope this makes sense:

A hard-fork proposal to make closing Lightning Network channels more predictable:

Problem: At the time a Lightning Network channel is opened, it is unknown what fees will be required to close it.

Insight: Most agree that the size of the blockchain should not grow faster than it currently is growing: 1 MB per block. But what if a block was published that was X bytes shorter than this limit, with the understanding that some future block be allowed to exceed the 1 MB limit by X bytes?

Proposal: Two new opcodes would be introduced:

"Reserve X bytes" would include a signed nonce. If a miner chose to include a transaction with such an opcode, then the block they publish must be at least X bytes smaller than the 1 MB limit. Miners would tend to price such a transaction based on the actual size of the transaction plus X.

"Redeem Nonce" would simply allow the mined block to exceed 1 MB by up to X bytes. Miners would tend to include all such transactions in the mempool where X is no more than the actual size of the transaction, because it would be free money: they would get all of the associated transaction fees while not using up any of the 1 MB space allowed.

I'm trying an event unlike anything I've ever run in Dragon's Tale - an entire month of (mostly freerolls) Tournaments, 3 per day (Noon, 8:00PM, 4:00 AM EDT), with a different game each day of the week. It all kicks off tomorrow at Noon EDT.

Saturday: Fireworks (65 BTM)
Sunday: Shrines (35 BTM)
Monday: Zhanlue (21 BTM)
Tuesday: Pyramid of the Orient (50 BTM)
Wednesday: Skill-based Fishing (30 BTM)
Thursday: Tug (21 BTM)
Friday: Silly Monkey (40 BTM)

Each Tournament is repeated three times on it's day, so that all time zones have a (somewhat) convenient time to play: 12:00 Noon EDT, 8:00 PM EDT, 4:00 AM EDT.

Dragon's Tale has a number of faucet-like mini-games within, which give enough free Bitcoin to play in all of these tournaments. There are no restrictions on withdrawals aside from a 1 BTM minimum to avoid dust, and no deposit or playthrough requirements, Of course I hope that lots of new players will discover the game and go on to deposit, but this is a way to get a truly free look at the oldest Bitcoin community aside from Bitcointalk.org itself.

Andrew Tepper
Developer, Dragon's Tale

Here at the eGenesis office we have a good bottle of champagne ready to go if Bitcoin hits $574, half of it's all-time high. I'd like to extend the celebration into the virtual world by giving away 1 BTC if that happens. I'll do this in the form of a Tug tournament with several winners splitting the 1 BTC prize. The tournament will have no entry fee. We'll use the current price as reported by Coindesk to determine when the event launches.

Tug is a 2-player strategy game that takes a few minutes to learn - there are plenty of players online that would be glad to show how it works.

I believe that Dragon's Tale is the longest-running Bitcoin business in the world, in continuous operation since October of 2010. (See posts on this forum to verify that.)

Teppy

What if, for the special case of an address already seen on the blockchain, it could be referenced by "The nth address on the blockchain" rather than the full address? N could be a 32 (40? 48?) bit number. Is this essentially what "Segregated Witness" does?

I've tried restarting with --rescan, but get this:

2015-11-30 13:34:22 Verifying last 288 blocks at level 3
2015-11-30 13:34:22 ERROR: DisconnectBlock() : added transaction mismatch? database corrupted
2015-11-30 13:34:24 ERROR: DisconnectBlock() : added transaction mismatch? database corrupted
2015-11-30 13:34:24 ERROR: DisconnectBlock() : added transaction mismatch? database corrupted
2015-11-30 13:34:27 ERROR: DisconnectBlock() : added transaction mismatch? database corrupted
2015-11-30 13:34:28 ERROR: DisconnectBlock() : undo data overwriting existing transaction
2015-11-30 13:34:29 ERROR: DisconnectBlock() : added transaction mismatch? database corrupted
2015-11-30 13:34:30 ERROR: DisconnectBlock() : added transaction mismatch? database corrupted
2015-11-30 13:35:27 ERROR: VerifyDB() : *** coin database inconsistencies found (last 7 blocks, 106434 good transactions before that)

2015-11-30 13:35:29 : Corrupted block database detected.


The last time I had to do a --reindex it took 4-5 days to complete, and that's a long time to be down. Any other options? Should --reindex take that long?

I have just released a new series of Tournaments specifically to teach new players about Dragon's Tale.

You'll be able to play three games: Silly Monkey, Shrines, and Drinking. There are prizes for having the greatest overall winnings on Shrines, the highest single jackpots in Drinking, and the greatest winnings and highest individual jackpots in Silly Monkey.

Each of the 90 tournaments (one every 8 hours, for the next month) has 18 BTM (0.018) in prizes. To make these "free," I've limited the bets to a cumulative 0.1 BTM per player per tournament, which is an amount that you can easily get for free within Dragon's Tale itself, with a bit of exploration. You can search Soldiers, scout Herbs, quaff Mineral Waters, or even make friends with established Dragon's Tale players (many of whom will gift 0.1 BTM to a friendly new player.)

Glad to answer any questions about these new tournaments.

Teppy

Yesterday afternoon Aston won 124 Bitcoins on a single bet. He wagered 3 BTC on an approximately 41:1 monkey maze tile which hit - that's the highest USD value jackpot in Dragon's Tale's nearly 5 year history, worth about $34,000. Previously we've had at least one $25,000 value jackpot, which was higher in numbers of Bitcoins (I think it was in the days of $12 Bitcoins. Jase, if you're still around, care to confirm?)

I'm hoping someone has videos of the subsequent after-parties - if so, please post here! I have never seen so many cigars, drinks, rounds of shots and festival boxes happen in one day.

Anyone care to try to break this new record??

I've just released the first version of Mineral Waters, a new game in Dragon's Tale where veteran players place "bets" on new players.

If you enter the game as a new player and interact with existing players, there is a very good chance that you will be gifted some Mineral Waters. These are special drinks that cost the provider nothing, but pay off in Bitcoin to the one receiving them. Veteran players get several each day to distribute as they see fit.

Each time a veteran player gives you a Mineral Water, they're betting that you will eventually do a certain amount of gambling in the game. If they're accurate, they can win in-game and real-life prizes.

The Bitcoins in the drink are provided by the house: We're placing a bet that you'll love Dragon's Tale and  join our little community. We've been in continuous operation since October 2010, and are, I believe, the longest running Bitcoin based business in the world.

Native clients for Windows, Linux and OSX are available on http://www.dragons.tl

I'm planning to do a Q&A session in IRC about the motivations behind PS Coin, a new market that I have recently launched (currently in alpha at http://www.pscoin.com)

As some of you know, I am the designer of Dragon's Tale, which is (I believe) the longest-running Bitcoin based business in the world, in continuous operation since October 2010.

This market puts a new twist on commissions, that should eliminate high-frequency trading, and create a truly deep and stable market.

Time: Friday, 2/27/2015 at 11:00 AM EST
Server: irc.freenode.net
Channel: #bitcoin-otc

Teppy

Some of you know me as the designer of the gambling MMO Dragon's Tale, which I believe to be the longest-running Bitcoin based business in the world. I'm posting to announce a new venture that I have started.

--------------------------------------------

Pittsburgh, PA - PS Coin today is pleased to launch the first correctly incentivized market on www.pscoin.com. The unique PS Coin market algorithm encourages "healthy" behavior among traders in a market by awarding limit orders with royalties relative to their participation in helping produce a deep, dense, and stable market. Traders are automatically compensated for placing orders for as many units of currency as they can, as close to the bid-ask-spread as they dare, for having those orders sit there for a long time accumulating royalties, and then eventually having their orders trade. As a result of our incentive algorithm, all of the bids and asks you will see on the PS Coin markets are very likely to remain there. It's not an illusion of stability, as traders have come to experience many times in traditional markets. It's actual stability.

You are encouraged to watch our video for a detailed explanation of how the PS Coin algorithm works, by the conceiver of the algorithm himself and co-founder of PS Coin, Andrew Tepper: https://youtu.be/dLqhMIksOjU

PS Coin's engineering team has spent over a year in development, with the goal of building the most secure and most powerful exchange possible.

Security:

The majority of all funds which will be deposited to the PS Coin exchange are stored offline in bank vaults. For the rest, we have sought the expertise of cryptographers and decorated cybersecurity experts to design and engineer software security systems that far exceed industry standards for excellence. Because we can't accurately condense all of the information into this press release, you are encouraged to read more about how we will protect your funds on our security page: https://pscoin.com/Security/

Performance:

The PS Coin incentivized trading engine has to do a bit more work than standard exchanges, because it must process accumulation and capture of royalties for every order. Yet our C++ based engine can handle about 500,000 new orders per-second on a single commodity server.

Experience:

PS Coin engineers have extensive experience in the crypto-currency space. Co-founder Andrew Tepper is also the founder of eGenesis, the 14th company ever to accept Bitcoin as a currency, and creator of Dragon's Tale, which is likely the longest running Bitcoin based business in the world (in continuous operation since October 2010.)

Availability:

The PS Coin initial alpha launch will commence worldwide this morning at 9am EST and allow traders to participate in the following initial crypto currency markets:

* Bitcoin / Nxt
* Bitcoin / Darkcoin
* Bitcoin / Litecoin
* Bitcoin / Paycoin
* Bitcoin / Peercoin
* Nxt / Darkcoin
* Nxt / Litecoin

Our initial alpha testers can only sign up after receiving an invite. Press and media personnel are encouraged to request an invite from us directly via e-mailing our co-founder, Daniel Pusateri: daniel@pscoin.com - Upon request, a very small amount of funds may be provided to press and media personnel for the purpose of testing the PS Coin exchange.

Revelvant links:

Website: https://pscoin.com/
Interview: https://youtu.be/dLqhMIksOjU
Press materials: https://d1s3cnxrjam8j.cloudfront.net/dl/PSCoin_Press_Materials.zip

I'm getting an error from the server that I have not seen before, so we may have some extended downtime. It's in a section of code that I did not write - trying to contact the other initial developer for assistance.

Teppy

I suspect that a network change made by our ISP to guard against Shellshock related worms is causing many connections to the Dragon's Tale server to hang at the "sending login request" stage. I have taken Dragon's Tale offline while debugging this, but expect at least a few hours of downtime. I'll update here as I learn more.

Teppy

I've added a significant new system to Dragon's Tale called Governor's Tournaments. For those new to Dragon's Tale, I'll first describe the game itself, explain how governed islands work, and then how these new tournaments work.

Dragon's Tale is an MMORPG where most of the content is Bitcoin based gambling. The game takes place in a 3D persistent world. All the games in Dragon's Tale are novel: You can tip cows, go fishing, launch fireworks, drink and smoke. We currently have 67 different games. Dragon's Tale is the oldest Bitcoin based gambling site on the internet (October 2010.)

The game is set in the modern day, on a series of islands off the China coast. Travel between islands is by boat. Some of these islands are accessible to everyone, while others are "governed." Each month an in-game election is run, and a new set of 4 governors is elected.

Governors control access to their island, and can now create tournaments with prizes. A Governor's Tournament may (for example) challenge players to fish in a particular type of pond on one specific island, and award prizes in proportion to each player's winnings on that pond. Other types of tournaments that have been run include drinking contests, smoking events, monkey races and free-for-alls.

Many of these Governor's Tournaments limit play to only micro-stakes, yet have significant prize pools, often around 0.1 BTC. This type of a tournament is often called a Freeroll, because only a negligible amount of BTC is needed to participate. Dragon's Tale gives small amounts of Bitcoin out for free, enough to fund play in some of these tournaments.

Funding for these prize pools is provided by the house (for now,) and is distributed to each island in proportion to the bets made on that island. The more you gamble on your home island, the richer the pots for that island. If you're new to Dragon's Tale, be sure to talk to the various Governors and their deputies, to get a feel for each island.

Glad to answer any questions about the game, or about this new system. (If you already play Dragon's Tale and participate in this thread, include your character name!)

Just posting to let everyone know that I'm aware of the problem and working on it with the ISP.

Teppy

To celebrate our highest #online player-count since the last wave of Bitcoin excitement, I'm running a "semi-freeroll" tournament in Dragon's Tale. I figured this is also a good way to explain our tournaments for those new to the game.

A true freeroll in Dragon's Tale is a tournament with meaningful sized prizes which limits players' bet sizes to a very small amount, typically an amount small enough that the free Bitcoin gifts in-game can cover your play. Imagine a slots tournament in a real casino where everyone is limited to 100 plays of 1 cent each, and the one that earns the most wins $1000 each - that's a freeroll.

This tournament has no spend limits, so to reach the top tier would be very difficult without depositing. To win one of the top tier 100 BTM (0.1 BTC) prizes, be among the top 6 players by cumulative winnings during the 2 hour tournament period.

The second tier awards 15 prizes of 20 BTM each. These will tend to be won by those that play for lower stakes, but not satoshi-level stakes.

The third tier awards 50 prizes of 5 BTM each. Since there are only about 50 players logged in as I write this, everyone that plays (even non-depositors) should win a prize.

This is also a great opportunity to meet all the friendly folks that hang out in Dragon's Tale - most are eager to show new users the ropes, just ask around. And, glad to answer any questions here.

The tournament starts at 3:00PM EST and lasts for 2 hours. Download the game client at http://www.dragons.tl

Teppy

----------------------------------

Triple Tier Roll
Begins Sunday, November 10, 2013 3:00 PM Signup at Xinren 308 282
Tournament sponsored by: Di with BTC 1.150 in Prizes.
==========================================================
Any (raked) games may be played, but prizes are in 3 tiers: The top tier has 600 BTM of prizes, split evenly among 6 players by winnings, so each will get 100 BTM. These prizes will tend to go to those playing higher stakes.
  
The second tier is 300 BTM split evenly among 15 players also by winnings. The top-6 will also each claim one of these 20 BTM prizes. These prizes will tend to be won by those that play for lower stakes, though it may be hard to reach this level just from soldier gifts.
  
Finally, the third tier is 250 BTM split among 50 players - everyone that makes an effort should be able to claim one of these 5 BTM prizes, even if you don't deposit.
  
Here's the twist: There are no spend limits in this tournament. However, there are enough prizes that everyone playing at their own level should be able to win something.  
  
It's great to be back in Costa Rica! Feel free to use the ATM if you need some additional Bitmils.
==========================================================
Duration: 2 hours
Free to Enter
Tournament Spin Limit: 10000
Tournament Spend Limit: BTC 1000
Signup Ahead is Allowed
Total of BTC 1.150 in Prizes:
    Prizes for All Normal Games:
        BTM 600 by Winnings, Top-N in 6 chunks of BTM 100
        BTM 300 by Winnings, Top-N in 15 chunks of BTM 20
        BTM 250 by Winnings, Top-N in 50 chunks of BTM 5
==========================================================

Our newest game will only be around until Halloween - the bar on Xinren has disappeared, and in it's place a graveyard has been discovered!



Can you uncover all the haunted occupants of the cemetary?


Graves are a luck-based game. Bets start at 10 kSAT, and go up to 10 BTC. Maximum jackpot is 880 BTC.

Dragon's Tale is the longest running Bitcoin-based gambling site in the world. We've been in continuous operation since October 2010 and now feature 64 different kinds of games.

I'm writing to describe the latest "game" in Dragon's Tale, but also to share an interesting unintended consequence of a decision that I made months ago. (these effects are so interesting - this is why I love designing MMOs.)

Since early on, large jackpots in Dragon's Tale have been announced game-wide and accompanied by fireworks displays. Announcements like "A Major Jackpot of 1.450 BTC by Emperatorzs on Fence: Watch Beetle Downs for a display of Mmmmmm Donuuuts in 15 seconds" would be heard several times an hour.

The first unexpected effect was after I added drinks to the game: These were a way to buy yourself a fancy visual treat that pays off - sometimes less than the cost of the drink, sometimes more. Drinks could also be bought for friends in the game, and it became a popular custom to buy a round of drinks to celebrate a particularly large win.

Over time, some of our top players began to notice that these "rounds of drinks" were sort of expected, and it was always by players that themselves seldom had large jackpots (because they only played for low stakes, didn't deposit, etc.) And so they asked if I could give a way for them to turn off these jackpot messages so that they wouldn't be constantly pestered for free drinks. These were our top players, so of course I accommodated the request.

So fewer and fewer jackpot messages were displayed. The amount of play was still great, but players commented that the game seemed very quiet, and I noticed a fall in active players. It was logical to conclude that this was causal. My dilemma though was that I could not simply remove an option that many players liked.

I explained all of the above in-game, and brainstormed with players about solutions - at the suggestion of Zebedee, we created a sort of lottery: Daily drawings for 50 BTM (0.05 BTC), weekly drawings for 500 BTM (0.5 BTC) and a monthly drawing for one Bitcoin. For each "Major Jackpot Message" that you generate, you get one ticket to each of the three drawings.

Immediately nearly all players turned their Major Jackpot messages back on; numbers improved across the board, and the game once again felt alive. Yesterday's peak was 44 players.

After nearly 3 years in development (October 2010), 17,000 players, 400k BTC won, the first Bitcoin gambling game is going to Beta!

It all starts Friday, July 12 at Noon EST. We'll have freerolls all weekend. The news has already hit The Guardian, Gamasutra, Joystiq and other sites:

---------------------

eGenesis announces Beta for Dragon's Tale, the Gambling MMORPG

July 8, 2013, Pittsburgh, PA

eGenesis, developers of A Tale in the Desert annoucnce their next game, "Dragon's Tale." As the first MMORPG based on real-money gambling, Dragon's Tale brings a creative and intensely social experience to online gambling. Lead designer Andrew Tepper ("Teppy") explains:

"The first thing that struck me about online gambling today is that it's a pretty lonely experience, typically one player in a web browser, watching a 2D slot machine. I've taken what I've learned in the last 15 years building MMORPGs and for the first time applied that to gambling. I've created an intensely social world where players can explore the game world together, share techniques, and rely on each other as they level up by completing gambling quests."

"Furthermore, every game in Dragon's Tale is novel, and is designed for a 3D environment: You can tip cows, hunt for Dragon's Eggs, catch fish, run monkeys through mazes, feed ducks. There are 60 different games so far, with new ones being added all the time, and every one of them is a new take on gambling. About half the games are luck-based and half are skill-based."

In addition to quest-based levels, Dragon's Tale features a complex tournament system, a student/mentor system, and a form of player-controlled governance that will be familiar to those that have played A Tale in the Desert.

Dragon's Tale offers a free trial, and for those that wish to gamble, supports Bitcoins and credit cards. Beta testing begins Friday, July 12, 2013 at Noon EDT.

Native clients are available for Windows, Linux and OSX: http://www.dragons.tl

Dragon's Tale is once again running from Costa Rica. This means that non-US players can now buy Bitcoins in-game at any of the ATM machines using a credit card. As always, US players can play with Bitcoins. Each of the Governed islands has an ATM, as does Xinren Tang. The minimum cash-in is 1 Euro worth, or about 12 BTM as of this post.

We sell and buy back at exactly the midpoint between the current MtGox highest bid and lowest ask prices.

There are some rules:

* If you buy Bitcoins on a credit card, then you can't withdraw them as Bitcoins; you can only cash out to the same card you last bought them on.

* If you're from the US you can't use this feature, because only brick & mortar casinos that pay what are essentially multimillion dollar bribes to politicians are allowed to do gambling. It will be sweet revenge when Bitcoins replace the dollar as the world's currency.

* If you buy Bitcoins and then immediately sell them back without gambling, we'll charge you 12% of the amount you bought them for. The 12% is our cost, and factors in credit card fees both ways, MtGox commissions, typical market spread, and a 3% estimated fraud rate.

* If you play through the purchased coins six times (raked games) we'll waive the 12% fee. We'll even pro-rate it, so if you only play-through three times, we'll charge 6% of the purchase amount when you cash-out.

* With Visa cards you can cash in and out on the card. For Mastercards, we'll send winnings by wire transfer and charge you whatever our cost is for that, around 250 BTM ($25) as of this post.

* We can waive any of these fees/restrictions on a case by case basis.

When Dragon's Tale started, Bitcoins were five cents each, and even in those early days we'd say "you know, one day we're going to look back and realize that we were gambling with $100 bills."

So a little mini-event: the moment we hit $100, I'm going to pick someone at random among those logged in and hand them a Bitcoin. (I'll filter out mules and those playing over a proxy, just to make it fair.)

I'll also do a freerolls tournament with 1 BTC in prizes which will start at the same time.

Teppy ("Di")