[UPDATE] SatoshiDICE Android and Desktop Apps Open Beta v1.1

[evoorhees]

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UPDATE Jan 13, 2013: The SatoshiDice apps for desktop and android have been updated to v1.1 and are now in open beta. They will now be available from SatoshiDice.com for the first time (they'll be going up this week).

This new version (v1.1) can be downloaded here:

SatoshiDICE Android App
  MD5: ff89d643b9b2c8ab2c539dbcd6e2c73d
 SHA1: 5fa09730ed612c48817f84c79758857f62441fc7

(Installation instructions for Android: Download file, then enable Settings -> Security -> Unknown Sources. Then install a file browser (folks recommend Astro), find the .apk you downloaded and run it. Android should install directly from the file on the device.)

SatoshiDICE PC/Linux/Mac Desktop App
  MD5: bfa7f5ec58a3bc45dd6b8904b356cd2b
  SHA1: 9c1c76aef3dd825151f40b89d30acde7df4fc0b9

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They've arrived! After much development, SatoshiDICE now has two apps for your gambling enjoyment!





NOTE: THESE ARE IN OPEN BETA. THEY HAVE BEEN TESTED, BUT USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. If you find any bugs, please report them.


Both apps are "thin clients" meaning they are real Bitcoin wallets. When you open them up, you'll see a deposit address created for you. You can deposit and withdraw Bitcoins to that address whenever you wish. A thin version of the blockchain is downloaded on first launch (about 20 MB). Before coins can be bet, they must have received at least one confirmation. The apps transact and receive to SatoshiDice.com just like any other wallet.



Features

• Point and click interface to select bets
• Specify bet amount easily and repeat bets easily
• Stack bets to process in one transaction, saving on tx fees
• See your performance broken down by each bet option
• Apps work as wallets and you can backup your wallet files
• With the Android version, play on the go!
• Use these apps to demonstrate the awesome power of Bitcoin for the gambling industry...

IMPORTANT: The wallet files created by these apps are not encrypted, so keep them safe. In a future release, encryption will be supported. If you're worried about the integrity of the files, please use the checksums provided above.

Android Tablet Version:


Linux, Windows, Mac Version:

[ingrownpocket]

Nice 

[piuk]

Awesome. Testing now, how come you need to wait for a deposit to confirm before it can be bet?

[dooglus]

A thin version of the blockchain is downloaded on first launch (about 20 MB).

That's a very slick looking interface.  I like it.

Comments:

Some kind of progress indicator would be useful.

I just see a flashing "fetching blocks" message, but have no way of knowing whether it's going to take another 10 seconds or 10 hours.  I don't know whether to give it a few more minutes or give up on it.

Oh, never mind.  It eventually changed to "fetching blocks... 1%".

So the initial message should say "fetching blocks... 0%" to I can see that it has a long long way to go.

Incidentally, I (and I would guess a lot of other people) have the full blockchain already in ~/.bitcoin/blk*.  My Internet connection is slow and expensive.  I would much prefer that your 'thin client' check to see if it can grab blocks from my local copy before it re-fetches them over the network.

[dooglus]

Awesome. Testing now, how come you need to wait for a deposit to confirm before it can be bet?

Just guessing, but:

Unintentional double-spends cause problems for SDICE's wallet handling.  They pay out winners with losers' bets.  If the losing bets never confirm then the payouts that use those bets never confirm either.  Incoming bets are much more likely to confirm if the inputs of those bets are already confirmed.

[Nyhm]

Hello, all. I'll be following along to answer any technical questions/issues about SatoshiRoller. I wrote the software (desktop and Android), and your feedback is most welcome.

Awesome. Testing now, how come you need to wait for a deposit to confirm before it can be bet?

Just guessing, but:

Unintentional double-spends cause problems for SDICE's wallet handling.  They pay out winners with losers' bets.  If the losing bets never confirm then the payouts that use those bets never confirm either.  Incoming bets are much more likely to confirm if the inputs of those bets are already confirmed.

Notice that pay-in and pay-out logic are entirely handled by the satoshidice.com service (not by the SatoshiRoller client). Your analysis is very insightful, but it actually comes down to a technical reason. SatoshiRoller uses the BitcoinJ library, which does not (yet) support spending unconfirmed transactions.

[Stephen Gornick]

These are not yet available on the SatoshiDice.com website, because I wanted the community here to get to play around with them first.

Is it fair to say this app won't appear on Google Play?

Gambling: We don’t allow content or services that facilitate online gambling, including but not limited to, online casinos, sports betting and lotteries.

- http://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html

Hello, all. I'll be following along to answer any technical questions/issues about SatoshiRoller.

I installed it and am waiting on "Connecting ....".

It has been several minutes. How long should that status persist?  [Edit: Ah ... now it says "Fetching blocks ... nn%", so at least now I know how long I need to wait.]

For the message that displays my deposit address, ... it would be helpful to display a QR code.  I'm getting in the habit of primarily using my mobile for everything, and in this instance, funding the SatoshiRoller wallet on one device using a Bitcoin app from another -- with QR codes as the way to pass the Bitcoin payment address between the two.

[guruvan]

Well, as a shareholder, I gotta say, this is the shiz!

Looks really slick, will have to try it out myself. (and, as an investor, but non-player, I think that speaks well of what effect the apps will have on the S.DICE bottom line.

Good work!

[evoorhees]

These are not yet available on the SatoshiDice.com website, because I wanted the community here to get to play around with them first.

Is it fair to say this app won't appear on Google Play?

Gambling: We don’t allow content or services that facilitate online gambling, including but not limited to, online casinos, sports betting and lotteries.

- http://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html

We will be trying to get it in Google Play.

Notice this:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zynga.livepoker&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS56eW5nYS5saXZlcG9rZXIiXQ..

So, the store does allow gambling apps, so long as it's not "real money."

Thus the question is... is Bitcoin real money or not?

[Nyhm]

For the message that displays my deposit address, ... it would be helpful to display a QR code.  I'm getting in the habit of primarily using my mobile for everything, and in this instance, funding the SatoshiRoller wallet on one device using a Bitcoin app from another -- with QR codes as the way to pass the Bitcoin payment address between the two.

SatoshiRoller cannot (yet) generate a QR code itself, but you can open the deposit address at Blockchain.info by clicking the icon (desktop) or menu item (Android), which shows a QR code.

Well, as a shareholder, I gotta say, this is the shiz!

Looks really slick, will have to try it out myself. (and, as an investor, but non-player, I think that speaks well of what effect the apps will have on the S.DICE bottom line.

Good work!

Complements are much appreciated - thank you!

[Stephen Gornick]

We will be trying to get it in Google Play.

Notice this:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zynga.livepoker&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS56eW5nYS5saXZlcG9rZXIiXQ..

So, the store does allow gambling apps, so long as it's not "real money."

Thus the question is... is Bitcoin real money or not?

Good point.  I hope to see it included.

Hello, all. I'll be following along to answer any technical questions/issues about SatoshiRoller.

After leaving my Android device idle it goes to the Lock screen.  It appears that after I unlock and the app reappears that the (green) background image is repainted at the wrong image size and not at the full resolution of my display (this is on a tablet).

[dooglus]

The 'fetching blocks' got up to 18% after 2 or 3 hours when the power went out so I closed the SD app.  I got back online, restarted the SD app, and was surprised to see it starting from 1% again fetching blocks.

The SatoshiRoller.blocks file was up to about 5MB, and is continuing to grow from that size, but the progress indicator started from 1% again.

Is that normal?  I'm never going to be able to stay online to download all the blocks in one go.

I also don't see any way to resize the app.  The text is kind of small, but I have lots of spare screen realestate.  I'd like to 'fullscreen' the window.  On a netbook I suspect the window is too big, so it would be useful to be able to shrink it a bit too.

[Nyhm]

After leaving my Android device idle it goes to the Lock screen.  It appears that after I unlock and the app reappears that the (green) background image is repainted at the wrong image size and not at the full resolution of my display (this is on a tablet).

Thanks for the report. This has only been extensively tested on the Google Nexus 7 tablet (which has never exhibited that behavior). Can you tell me what tablet and Android OS version you have? I will attempt to reproduce this in emulation.

The 'fetching blocks' got up to 18% after 2 or 3 hours when the power went out so I closed the SD app.  I got back online, restarted the SD app, and was surprised to see it starting from 1% again fetching blocks.

Yes, this is normal, and it is not re-fetching any old blocks; it is now at 1, 2, 3% of the remaining blocks. I agree this is confusing/misleading. I should improve the logic to show the overall % (of all blocks). Thanks.

I also don't see any way to resize the app.  The text is kind of small, but I have lots of spare screen realestate.  I'd like to 'fullscreen' the window.  On a netbook I suspect the window is too big, so it would be useful to be able to shrink it a bit too.

This version was developed at a fixed resolution. Making the window resizable and making the fonts resizable are two features that could be implemented. Thanks for the input!

Incidentally, I (and I would guess a lot of other people) have the full blockchain already in ~/.bitcoin/blk*.  My Internet connection is slow and expensive.  I would much prefer that your 'thin client' check to see if it can grab blocks from my local copy before it re-fetches them over the network.

That's a good suggestion, and we were considering something similar to speed up the initial grind.

I'm keeping track of all your suggestions, and your input will help prioritize future features.

[MPOE-PR]

We will be trying to get it in Google Play.

Notice this:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zynga.livepoker&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS56eW5nYS5saXZlcG9rZXIiXQ..

So, the store does allow gambling apps, so long as it's not "real money."

Thus the question is... is Bitcoin real money or not?

Nice going. 

[dooglus]

The 'fetching blocks' got up to 18% after 2 or 3 hours when the power went out so I closed the SD app.  I got back online, restarted the SD app, and was surprised to see it starting from 1% again fetching blocks.

Yes, this is normal, and it is not re-fetching any old blocks; it is now at 1, 2, 3% of the remaining blocks. I agree this is confusing/misleading. I should improve the logic to show the overall % (of all blocks). Thanks.

The current logic is OK so long as it's clear that that's what it's doing.  If you showed "1% (5000 of 200000 blocks) then it would be clearer I think.  What is it fetching exactly?  All the block headers, but none of the block content?  Or just recent blocks?

[BitCoiner2012]

Downloading this now. I like to tinker with Satoshi or Lotto or whatever often enough, this looks slick. I'll post more impressions upon use... Hell, I was just rolling some dice (with no luck mind you..), let's try out the client.

[dooglus]

So it finally finished downloading the blocks after about 8 hours.  Then I decided to deposit some coins to the address it gave me, and of course it's been almost an hour since the last block was found, so I'm having to wait now for a confirmation.

Eventually I'll get to try the new interface out I'm sure. 

Edit: I got to play.  I made a small bet, a very small percentage of the amount I deposited.  It won, but now my whole balance is 'pending', presumably because the change from my bet now has no confirmations.  So I'm going to have to wait for another block to be found before I can play again.  That's quite a limitation, and one that's definitely worth addressing.  It's so much more convenient to play from the satoshi client where I can bet with unconfirmed coins.

[dooglus]

I made a small bet, a very small percentage of the amount I deposited.  It won, but now my whole balance is 'pending', presumably because the change from my bet now has no confirmations.  So I'm going to have to wait for another block to be found before I can play again.

My bet now has 6 confirmations.  So my change must also.  Yet my whole balance is still shown as "pending".  What's going on?  I did lose power to the router for a few minutes.  Does the roller client not handle Internet outages very well?



I'll try restarting the roller client.

Edit: that fixed it.  When I first restarted it, I saw:



but once it connected, it very quickly fetched blocks (42%, 84% flashed by) and then my balance was no longer pending:

[dooglus]

I think I found a bug.

My balance is 8.1270 BTC.

My available balance is 8.1265 BTC.

But the withdraw dialog won't let me withdraw more than 8.1260 BTC.

ie. it's taking off the mandatory 0.005 BTC transaction fee twice.

Also, I'd like to be able to copy/paste the available amount.  It's annoying to have to copy it by hand.

A "withdraw all" button would also work.

[2GOOD]

Great Idea for the app, the downside is the waiting for confirmations its annoying

Edit: It would be nice if I can replay the same bet again, or to choose from a custom list of bets will be just perfect