Introducing PevPot.com The Bitcoin Lottery

[Rmcdermott927]

Awesome.  Congrats to cowbay of the win and thank you Ryan for the great game.  

[dooglus]

I got the same as NLNico using a modified openssl version. I ran into the 32 bit integer limit too, so did this to bypass it - it saved me having to rebuild openssl - I just copied and modified the function with the 32 bit limit:

Thanks for doing that BTW, I created a mini repo for it: https://github.com/moneypot/pevpot-stretch

I'll try wrap it in a node module too later.


(But for now, I'm still running the verification in the native php and native js solution. Make sure they corroborate the same stretched hash. )


Update: The native PHP solution is matching  <modified openssl>, so I'm getting quite confident it's correct.
I'm still waiting for the native javascript one to terminate, before I'm sure though =)

I'm running a Python version too. It has been running for 12 hours so far:

Code:

>>> time.ctime(time.time()); pbkdf2.PBKDF2('000000000000000009b7fb236187f120a0c86eb8785f099a8d197dd34b9d2553', 'pevpot', 5000000000, hashlib.sha256, hmac).hexread(32); time.ctime(time.time())
'Tue Nov 17 01:50:44 2015'

I'm a little butthurt that my last minute snipe bets didn't pay off for me. The 10.8 BTC was my 10 BTC investment at moneypot plus profits over the last couple weeks, and the 5.x was as much as polo would let me withdraw in a single day. But I'm glad to see them go to a long-standing JD player.

[patt0]

wow 23BTC win for real? Really nice, congrats cowbay!

I think I will try it. By the way, why only one prize, and not multiple prizes?

[dooglus]

By the way, why only one prize, and not multiple prizes?

I'm a bit of a sucker for simplicity, so I do like the idea of "winner takes all". Provably fair doesn't imply that you're probably going to win, it just means that you can verify it's fairness. =)

[Emerge]

Great win and great lottery guys.

Probably the only legit lottery online lol.
Hope you guys keep it running for a while.

[jacktheking]

Look good. I am running a free lottery site and I am sure this is the best place I can advertise my site. Sponsored some Bitcoin into round #3. Look like I am the highest bidder so far. I know I will be knock down as soon as Just-dice operator is online. Let me screenshot it first ... LoL!

[NLNico]

Lol, actually the 5th on current round paid BTC0.0111, so you should make top 5 with BTC0.017. But yeh, maybe not first hehe I recommend to check last moments too, it is a bit tricky/disappointing if you end up being 6th by a few bits.


In other news: prize already BTC5.77 - hope it will be a big one

[cowbay]

I'm a little butthurt that my last minute snipe bets didn't pay off for me. The 10.8 BTC was my 10 BTC investment at moneypot plus profits over the last couple weeks, and the 5.x was as much as polo would let me withdraw in a single day. But I'm glad to see them go to a long-standing JD player.

......sorry for the late post, that was a long rage fapping session......

I actually made 2 bets (0.15+0.05), but nonetheless an incredible win.  Thank you doog for your snipe bets.  I think that boosting JD's sponsorship on pevpot is the least I can do - please sponsor some draws with this https://blockchain.info/tx-index/bed2c062bd9fff2b453cb76189ad024e47fea29d0deb5134039a6ba7a5603313.

......and back to rage fapping....

[jacktheking]

Lol, actually the 5th on current round paid BTC0.0111, so you should make top 5 with BTC0.017. But yeh, maybe not first hehe I recommend to check last moments too, it is a bit tricky/disappointing if you end up being 6th by a few bits.


In other news: prize already BTC5.77 - hope it will be a big one

Yeah. I actually wanted to send just 0.011* Bitcoin first. However as I am afraid that I might not be shown as Top five so I send 0.017. After sending I checked the Full sponsor page (https://www.pevpot.com/sponsors) and found out that I should wait until the last few hours before sponsoring. The good thing is that it is good to be at the top for ... a few hours days (hopefully).

* I just want to be in the "All-Time Biggest Sponsors" list.

[Falconer]

So one thing I've been thinking about, is how to incentivize people to play at the start of the draw (as opposed the last couple of blocks).

One ideas I've had:

a) The winner gets the total amount sent to the lotto, plus X of the sponsored amount. X is dependent on the block you buy your lottery tickets, and starts off at 100% and trends towards 50% by the end of the draw? So the earlier your buy in, the higher +EV it is  (but the less known the EV) is. The later you play, the lower the EV is but the more known it is. (But regardless of when you play, it's still +EV)

b) The winner is paid 50% in BTC and 50% in next-draws lottery tickets. This would make the pot start with a nice healthy amount right from the start, hopefully attracting more players. Players would be eligible to win multiple times in a row of course. (Although it seems a little shitty to me, to pay lottery winners in lottery tickets)


Or maybe I'm over thinking it, and last-minute play isn't a problem? I just have this impression that the bigger the pot, the more attractive it is for most lottery-ticket buyers to participate.

What are your thoughts?

Im guessing option 1 is better since this will drive more people to buy the ticket faster and the pot will goes higher. As long as it is still EV+ I think the first idea is still a good option even though someone will buy in the last minute. As for option 2, Its a bad idea imo

[NLNico]

Yeh, option b) def not. Option a) could be, I just hope it won't make it more confusing? (making it as simple as possible is the best point of the lottery.) Does it also mean that your "commission" is 0% at start and 50% at end? (not that I really care about that, just wondering.)

[dooglus]

And I will shortly make the payment of 23.87646599 BTC to cowbay after my last script for verification has finished running (or Dooglus' python one).

For the record:

Code:

>>> time.ctime(time.time()); pbkdf2.PBKDF2('000000000000000009b7fb236187f120a0c86eb8785f099a8d197dd34b9d2553', 'pevpot', 5000000000, hashlib.sha256, hmac).hexread(32); time.ctime(time.time())
'Tue Nov 17 01:50:44 2015'
'6e466cdd13cc80b1137addf46362bbe3714fc9bf7faef9aba930554d3e080ba5'
'Tue Nov 17 23:44:24 2015'

[dooglus]

I think that boosting JD's sponsorship on pevpot is the least I can do - please sponsor some draws with this https://blockchain.info/tx-index/bed2c062bd9fff2b453cb76189ad024e47fea29d0deb5134039a6ba7a5603313.

Thanks very much! I wasn't expecting to see any of that back again.

I'll use it to fund JD ads over the coming weeks.

So one thing I've been thinking about, is how to incentivize people to play at the start of the draw (as opposed the last couple of blocks).

One ideas I've had:

a) The winner gets the total amount sent to the lotto, plus X of the sponsored amount. X is dependent on the block you buy your lottery tickets, and starts off at 100% and trends towards 50% by the end of the draw? So the earlier your buy in, the higher +EV it is  (but the less known the EV) is. The later you play, the lower the EV is but the more known it is. (But regardless of when you play, it's still +EV)

b) The winner is paid 50% in BTC and 50% in next-draws lottery tickets. This would make the pot start with a nice healthy amount right from the start, hopefully attracting more players. Players would be eligible to win multiple times in a row of course. (Although it seems a little shitty to me, to pay lottery winners in lottery tickets)


Or maybe I'm over thinking it, and last-minute play isn't a problem? I just have this impression that the bigger the pot, the more attractive it is for most lottery-ticket buyers to participate.

What are your thoughts?

I agree that it's best to encourage people to play early, to grow the pot early, to make it more attractive for others.

I don't think it's OK to pay lottery winnings in lottery tickets.

I like the first idea. I think you should take your 10% off the top first, and split the remaining 90% like you stated, with the left over sponsorship money (0% to 50% of the remaining 90%) going into next week's sponsorship pot.

[ComboChris]

lol @ the fact that you put a donald trump quote on the bottom of the site.
Love the idea in general though, seems innovative.

[dooglus]

When someone wins the lotto, we get the block-height of their transaction and figure out:

Code:

(1000 - BLOCKS_SINCE_STARTING)/1000

You get this fraction of "Early bird bonus pool". What ever is left over, will be carried to the next months early bird bonus pool.

Just to be clear, this scales the sponsorship from 100% down to 0% over the 1000 blocks, instead of the 100% -> 50% you originally proposed.

Is that what you intended?

[NLNico]

In theory it sounds good and I hope it will be good.

Alternative result: the "EV+ betters" find it too risky to bet at start and it's not EV+ anymore to bet in the end > resulting in an "even" lower prize.

But let's hope it works out

[chaoman]

If I specify my lotto payout address will it pay automatically without me having to sign? Also, can I mine into my personal lotto address?

[dooglus]

https://www.pevpot.com/verify

I've made an in-browser verification tool!  It has the benefit of using completely different libraries, and data source than I actually use.

Typo: "Strech the block hash"

Also, the block hash isn't automatically filled in in the stretching tool, even after I have fetched it. I have to copy/paste it, which seems like a step that could be automated.

And it would be nice if there was some kind of progress indicator while stretching, so I know how far through it is.

[RHavar]

If I specify my lotto payout address will it pay automatically without me having to sign? Also, can I mine into my personal lotto address?

Correct, and yes

[RHavar]

Also, can I mine into my personal lotto address?

BTW if you pay with the coinbase from a fresh block, it should work but won't be pretty. The earliest that coinbase coins can be moved is after 100 blocks (due to coinbase restrictions), but my code won't handle it perfectly. My code is unaware of this bitcoin restriction will actually fail to send it, and start doing an exponential back off, so by the time it sends it to the lotto address will be likely hours after the 100 block restriction expires. If you're planning on mining direct into a forwarding address, let me know and I'll better support the whole thing.