BitBet.us is live and accepting bets again

[bitbet-info]

Dear BitcoinTalk members,

It is our great pleasure to announce that https://bitbet.us, one of the oldest (since early 2013) and most reliable Bitcoin betting / prediction market site is back online after a short one month hiatus.

The site is operated by a new team, but everything remains otherwise unchanged:
    - fees remain as before (for now), at 1% of amounts wagered
    - creating new bets works as before
    - betting on existing bets works as before
    - policies are as before : https://bitbet.us/faq/

You can get notified of all the new stuff happening on BitBet:
    - Via our twitter feeds https://twitter.com/BitBets and https://twitter.com/BitBetsBets
    - Via our RSS feeds https://bitbet.us/rss/new/ and https://bitbet.us/rss/resolved/

We look forward to seeing you there soon, to bet and to submit exciting bet proposals.

The BitBet management team.

[kaykawa]

Well, one of the best sites, hope new admins are honest too.

[bitbet-info]

Well, one of the best sites, hope new admins are honest too.

Thank you 

And regarding your question:

https://bitbet.us/faq/#1115

[bitbets]

Hi, I saw your thread, I see my username is similar to yours,
but we are not affiliated as you know,
and thought I'd offer my blogging services to you
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1463319.msg14772074#msg14772074

[bitbet-info]

Dear BitBet users,

We are currently experiencing a DDOS attack very similar to the one our colleagues at
Betcoin.ag were subjected to a couple of days ago :

    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=386266.4420

Below is a cut and paste of the extortion request we received. We have no intention
to comply to their demands and we are working with our hosting provider on a technical
solution.

The Website will unfortunately be down for a while, but rest assured that all funds are
secured (the wallet is not on the site), and so is the site database which is mirrored
continuously to another machine.

As our email server is co-hosted with the web site, please communicate with us on this
thread.

WE HAVE YOUR SITE DOWN LETS TALK

Hello Support,

We are a team of highly skilled independent security consultants. One of your competitors hired us to take your site offline for an entire month (which we have the resources to do but don't like the contact and might be able to work together instead) and I must say that we have seen ALOT of miss-configured sites with security issues but it took our DB expert less then 30 minutes to dump your sql database without setting off your IDS system.

We want to disclose some of the flaws we found with you and have already put a significant amount of time in researching, exploiting and then documenting the vulnerabilities we found. Unfortunately, most site owners don't give a shit and would rather wait for more malicious hackers to come along. We are going to stop that from happening.

We are taking your site offline until we here from you. Our initial consultation will cost 1 BTC. That price will go up half a btc for every 12 hours we have to keep your site offline. I want to personally assure you that we have the power to keep your site down for an indefinite amount of time. We are the ones who took down xbox live all week (testing ONE of our new servers). In addition to lletting your site up and giving you a report of what we found and how to fix it we will also let you know the ONLY way to stop a DDos attack the size we are capable of launching. We will also add you to a blacklist so no one else fucks with you.

The BTC can be sent to the following address :
14U5q4AJhKiefui7f2d3ZmSq4FWkLfnDjK

I know that you are going to try to mitigate but in the end that is only going to cost you a lot more money. You make enough from betting and advertising alone that just an hour of downtime wont justify the cost. Our team also understands that you will try to mitigate but nothing will stop the attack except my command. Your hosting provider will not be able to help, the authorities wont be able to help you, your firewall is easily bypassed and any ddos service you try to bring in we can bring down (we have done this for a long time). believe it or not we are not the masked assholes stealing credit card numbers. Most of us have families and can't find legitimate jobs in our fields right now and have families to feed.

You have active bets and every minute you spend trying to mitigate your losing more then our consultation fee. We took down xbox live for a week with one server, believe me no one can stop our attacks. Lets work together!

Regards,

GETDD0sed

[bitbet-info]

Dear BitBet users,

We are currently experiencing a DDOS attack very similar to the one our colleagues at
Betcoin.ag were subjected to a couple of days ago :

And we're back !

[bitbet-info]

Dear BitBet users,

As you know, BitBet is under new management, and we are currently discussing whether
to keep or change the very controversial policy around bets received (where received means
included in a block) after betting closes or after the resolution event has already occurred.

The current policy, which we are given to understand created a lot of frustration in the past
was designed to discourage users to try and take advantage of the other users by betting large
sums on "obvious" bets late in the game or even after the event occurred.
 
Our current policy is to review all such bets manually and to refund them on a case by case basis.
We typically refund such bets unless they are a blatant attempt at taking advantage of the other
bettors by betting on an event where the outcome is known.

This process has unfortunately become necessary these days where transaction confirmation
has become highly unpredictable because of full blocks (even when fat fees are included).

Please see this comment :

https://bitbet.us/bet/1254/bitcoin-value-at-or-above-600-on-jul/#c6150

And please also see this resolved bet:

https://bitbet.us/bet/1269/bitcoin-value-at-or-above-525-before-june

where we did refund a very late bet even though it could in fact have been
construed as a skimming attempt.

We would appreciate your perspective on this topic.

The BitBet management team.

[Superbitzz]

what is this i want to receive information about that. is ther any one who can give me a breefing aobut that  pleas.e.

[animalspirit]

We would appreciate your perspective on this topic.

With opt-in replace-by-fee, it becomes trivially easy to "cancel" a zeroconf transaction.

[dooglus]

We typically refund such bets unless they are a blatant attempt at taking advantage of the other
bettors

[...]

we did refund a very late bet even though it could in fact have been construed as a skimming attempt.

By changing this rule you are effectively telling the cheats that they will now be allowed to cheat again as long as they don't make it too obvious. You are also opening yourself up to accusations of favouritism yourself - maybe you refund some bets and not others because of who made them. We can't tell.

Using the old rule is much clearer and fairer for everyone in my opinion.

[Daffadile]

Nice site, are you planning on adding some extra features ?

[RocketSingh]

Using the old rule is much clearer and fairer for everyone in my opinion.

What was the old rule?

[bitbet-info]

Nice site, are you planning on adding some extra features ?

Yes, we do have plans for new features, but mostly related to presentation.
We are however, open to suggestions.

[bitbet-info]

Using the old rule is much clearer and fairer for everyone in my opinion.

What was the old rule?

The "old" rule is in fact still in vigor. We are currently considering changing it,
hence this thread.

The rule in question is described here: https://bitbet.us/faq/#1121

In short, it states that bets received (where "receives" means "transaction is included in a block")
after betting closes or after the resolution event occurs will be considered "donations" to BitBet.

[bitbet-info]

We typically refund such bets unless they are a blatant attempt at taking advantage of the other
bettors

[...]

we did refund a very late bet even though it could in fact have been construed as a skimming attempt.

By changing this rule you are effectively telling the cheats that they will now be allowed to cheat again as long as they don't make it too obvious. You are also opening yourself up to accusations of favouritism yourself - maybe you refund some bets and not others because of who made them. We can't tell.

Using the old rule is much clearer and fairer for everyone in my opinion.

Well, the problem these days is that blocks are full, and knowing when your TX will actually confirm
has become an absolute crapshoot unless you add very large fees (which does not work for small bets).

Also, although made very explicit when you place a bet on the site, the rule has created a lot
of controversy and hurt feelings (real or simulated) in the past. We're trying to design the best
possible experience for our users:
    - on the one hand we want to protect legitimate bettors from skimmers
    - on the other hand, we do not want legitimate bettors who just bet late
       to be unjustly penalized by the rule

[dooglus]

    - on the one hand we want to protect legitimate bettors from skimmers
    - on the other hand, we do not want legitimate bettors who just bet late
       to be unjustly penalized by the rule

I understand the tradeoff, and prefer protecting players from skimmers.

I very rarely bet on your site however, so it doesn't matter what I think.

[bitbet-info]

    - on the one hand we want to protect legitimate bettors from skimmers
    - on the other hand, we do not want legitimate bettors who just bet late
       to be unjustly penalized by the rule

I understand the tradeoff, and prefer protecting players from skimmers.

I very rarely bet on your site however, so it doesn't matter what I think.

It's never too late to give it a try

[Sir_lagsalot]

    - on the one hand we want to protect legitimate bettors from skimmers
    - on the other hand, we do not want legitimate bettors who just bet late
       to be unjustly penalized by the rule

I understand the tradeoff, and prefer protecting players from skimmers.

I very rarely bet on your site however, so it doesn't matter what I think.

It's never too late to give it a try

Maybe make every second round option 1, and the other option 2. Do some A/B testing and maybe provide an on-site poll for user's opinions.

[greyhawk]

Using the old rule is much clearer and fairer for everyone in my opinion.

What was the old rule?

The "old" rule is in fact still in vigor. We are currently considering changing it,
hence this thread.

The rule in question is described here: https://bitbet.us/faq/#1121

In short, it states that bets received (where "receives" means "transaction is included in a block")
after betting closes or after the resolution event occurs will be considered "donations" to BitBet.

I remember people talking about this. The best policy is not to honor the bet and refund it. Considering it a donation is wrong, as clearly it was intended to be a bet. If you start allowing the bets you'll open up yourself to being scammed.

[dooglus]

If you start allowing the bets you'll open up yourself to being scammed.

Well, the site only takes a commission, so they're not opening themselves up to being scammed. The more bets the better as far as they're concerned. It's the other players who are vulnerable to getting scammed if you accept bets once the result is clear.