Bitcoin Lottery with Trusted Escrow Holding Private Key and all funds

[icanscript]

Okay,

So I seen many attempts of bitcoin lottery's start and fail but I am wondering whether it would be a good idea to do the following.

1) Create site which shows lottery address every week and chooses a winner every saturday.
2) This address is created by one of the big three escrows and no-one else has access.
3) escrow gets his fee from pot, lottery site gets a quarter of the monthly hosting cost so the site can be made.
4) rest of pot goes to winner via manual payment from escrow

(or something more complicated but around the same method)

[Sigals]

There is already a site like this https://brafflr.com

[icanscript]

There is already a site like this https://brafflr.com

Thanks, I had not seen this before, how are the funds escrowed, just trusted by site holdings?

[Sigals]

I believe so yes, but they are multi-sig wallets.

[icanscript]

I believe so yes, but they are multi-sig wallets.

Multi-Sig wallets themselves don't mean security, it depends who holds the keys.

[jacktheking]

Good idea you have there. However, why dont an escrow hold a lottery game themselves when they "can" hold lottery funds? Also taking 25% fees is somewhat too high. For my free Bitcoin lottery site I only take 10% of the total revenues.

[icanscript]

Good idea you have there. However, why dont an escrow hold a lottery game themselves when they "can" hold lottery funds? Also taking 25% fees is somewhat too high. For my free Bitcoin lottery site I only take 10% of the total revenues.

Sorry, I didn't mean 25% fee, I meant a quarter of the monthly hosting cost. so if its $8, then take $2.

[mOgliE]

The idea in itself isn't exactly bad. But it seems like mutliple persons tried this and it didn't work.

I can relate to that, no matter the lottery I would have no intention to participate

[SFR10]

1. There's a site that picks a winner daily (even though sometimes they seem to pick someone real and pay, recently the haven't paid anyone since most bitcoin addresses they choose is either new or very old and it seems more of a cheating IMO)
2,3,4. All good

My concern is, how winners would be chosen? Will it be in a completely transparent way in which a software will be used and everything will be video recorded for everyone to see if it's purely legit? If yes then you might have a chance, If no, then forget it.

[icanscript]

1. There's a site that picks a winner daily (even though sometimes they seem to pick someone real and pay, recently the haven't paid anyone since most bitcoin addresses they choose is either new or very old and it seems more of a cheating IMO)
2,3,4. All good

My concern is, how winners would be chosen? Will it be in a completely transparent way in which a software will be used and everything will be video recorded for everyone to see if it's purely legit? If yes then you might have a chance, If no, then forget it.

I was going to choose a winner using a pseudo-random number from an array of address/names I pull out of a database. I have no access to Hardware RNG.

[DimensionZ]

The problem with all the bitcoin lotteries is how do we know that the person who wins every week is not just an alt of the person organizing the lottery? The problem is not the escrow holding the funds but determining if the winner is legitimate in the first place. That's why all the 'official' lotteries have audits and committees overlooking the process. Because the escrow could be releasing the wins to your alt accounts and no one would be suspecting a thing.

[icanscript]

The problem with all the bitcoin lotteries is how do we know that the person who wins every week is not just an alt of the person organizing the lottery? The problem is not the escrow holding the funds but determining if the winner is legitimate in the first place. That's why all the 'official' lotteries have audits and committees overlooking the process. Because the escrow could be releasing the wins to your alt accounts and no one would be suspecting a thing.

Agreed,

If there was a way to make this more transparent it would be good. as you say. the random number generated by the site could be the site owner alt himself.

Maybe somehow we could involved https://letstalkbitcoin.com/ and draw from a hat on their podcast or something.... i dunno, idea.

[Sigals]

The solution is using a probably fair method which is what https://brafflr.com does.

You can read more about it on their FAQ.