Edit: Service has been closed for now. Will reconsider reopening in a slightly new form when/if multisig becomes more popular and easier to use.Hi y'all,
I'm making a
betting exchange that uses bitcoin - it has currently passed all my in-house tests, and I would now like to invite all of you to test it.
There are currently many options for the gambling bitcoiner. At least a large number of casinos, and SD. For those wagering on real-life events, there's a bookmaker who accepts bitcoin, charging a gigantic overbook, of course, and there is the betsofbitcoin, which has a messy, totally unpredictable payout scheme in addition to charging an enormous commission.
Therefore, I have written a betting exchange, similar to for instance Betfair and Betdaq, that tries to leverage the strengths of bitcoin.
A betting exchange is a peer-to-peer platform for betting - instead of betting against the house, you are betting with other users. You select the event you want to bet on, the selection you want to bet on (or bet against), and the odds you want, send your bitcoins to the address for those odds, and your bet is matched against the bets of other users or returned if your bet is not matched before the market closes.
In this testing period you can only bet on tomorrow's UEFA Champions League match
Real Madrid vs Manchester City. The market closes at the scheduled kickoff. Of course, no commission will be charged during this testing period - winnings are paid out in full (apart from a small transaction fee to the miners to ensure the transaction is confirmed in reasonable time).
The testing period has essentially two purposes:
- Testing the technology: it has passed all in-house tests, but has not been exposed to the wider world yet. Hopefully there are no serious bugs, but be warned!
- Collecting feedback on the concept: I would very much appreciate your honest opinion on the concept of a betting exchange built in this way. What things are bad? What things are good? What is missing? What is superfluous? What is confusing? All feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Visit the site here:
http://56ft5sy3qg6q5ua3.onion/http://56ft5sy3qg6q5ua3.tor2web.org/Click on "Help" in the top navigation bar to learn more about the service.
How do I place a bet, and how are my winnings paid?Very simple: just send bitcoins to the address corresponding to the odds you would like to bet at ("back") or against ("lay").
Longer explanation: Visit the site, and follow the link to the event you want to bet on. This will take you to the market summary screen, showing the selections and the odds currently available in our book. If you would like to back or lay the selection at any of the available odds listed there, simply send your bitcoins to the corresponding address. If you would like to back or lay a selection at different odds, click on the selection you would like to back or lay, and send your bitcoins to the address corresponding to the odds you would like.
When the transaction is detected on the bitcoin network, your bet is matched with other bets in our order book (at the best possible odds, naturally) and any remaining unmatched amount is entered into the order book.
Unmatched portions of your bet can be cancelled at any time by signing a message that proves you own (one of the) originating address(es).
The winnings, and any bets or portions of bets that are unmatched at market close, are returned to the address from which the bet was sent in the first place when the outcome has been unconditionally determined. (
Users of shared wallet services beware!)
Some words of warning- The service is IN TESTING. That means you should keep records of all your transactions, in case anything goes wrong, and that there is a chance your bet will be voided if something unexpected happens, even if it may have previously been considered to be matched. Please don't cry if your bet is voided.
- Make sure you understand betting exchanges before you try it
- Never gamble more than you are prepared to lose
- This service is run in "onionland", that is, as a TOR hidden service (https://www.torproject.org/). To access it, you need to have TOR installed, or use the Tor2web proxy. TOR protects your privacy, and it protects my privacy.
- You should avoid placing large bets at this time because (1) it's a bad idea to send large amounts to some anonymous person in onionland with no reputation yet, (2) the technology is still in testing.
- The site is slow. It's on TOR and hosted on a fairly slow connection. Please be patient - but even though the site is slow, the bets are normally received withing seconds of being sent.
Since I am very short of BTC, I am also looking for sponsors - if you would like to sponsor the service, send me a PM with your offer (looking to buy my signature, some honorable mention, etc.?). Any donations would also be appreciated, and donations and sponsorships would go towards covering hosting costs (1FUwAQVuy3HiDFNbGAsmQ7gfky8tHfm2CK).
Betting exchanges are much more fun than traditional bookmakers, and have plenty of advantages - although going through them here would be beyond the scope of this post. I think this concept really shows off the strengths of bitcoin, and offers a lot of value for bitcoin users. In the future I want the service to use multisig transactions - that would make this service truly great.
I would like to offer my gratitude to whoever is willing to give it a try and offer their opinion. As said, the service is under development, so please make an effort to keep the feedback constructive.
Good luck!
bitfair
tldr Help testing a betfair clone for bitcoin.
