The Bitcoin Lottery

[DaMan]

Hi!

I would like to introduce my latest project:

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The Bitcoin Lottery!

http://bitcoin.dyndns.info/bt/


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Feel free to register your bitcoin address and start playing.

Playing value:   0.1 btc to 1 btc

Winning chance: 50%

Every player rolls for the jackpot. So if you lose your round, you have still the change of winning the jackpot.

Instant payout: if you win you will receive your profit instant.


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UPDATE -> 22. Jun. 2011 20:44 h (CET)

Bet minimum: 0.1 BTC
Bet maximum 1.0 BTC

Win Class: Roll 100 - 200 = 150% payout
Jackpot Class: Jackpot Roll 200 = + 90% jackpot payout[/b]

x% -> See details on website.

<- Update end

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How it works:

Step 1:
Register your bitcoin address and send a minimum of 0.1 bitcoins to the shown address.

Step 2:
You have to wait until the bitcoin network confirms your bet. In the meantime you can see your name in the waiting list.

Step 3:
The server checks your ticket. If you win you will get an instant payout.

NOTE:
The Jackpot payout is updated after every players move, hence the payable amount may vary from the amount displayed at the rounds start.

The needed transaction fee is calculated for every transaction and may vary, too.

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I hope you like my little project and that my english is not to bad

Greetings!

[1713460532]

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[Grant]

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I would like to use this thread to discuss ideas and improvements.

Starting with these questions:

1. »Is 0.1 BTC a good value to play?«

2. »Shall we lower the winning chance of 50% to increase the jackpot value faster?«

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Nice work!

I'd like to propose, add a login/logout, and allow ppl to simply deposit a larger amount. With bets at 0.1 and transaction fee of 0.01, 10% is lost to bitcoin network.
And add different bet levels, smaller and larger.

[DaMan]

1. Login:

If you enter your Bitcoin address again, it will check the database and find your name. But maybe a real login system would be better. But I should have explained the login on the website.


2. Low Bet values

My project works really nice on the testnet, but I am a little afraid now on the real network
So I decided to start with low values for testing. If something went wrong, i will pay the winnings by hand.


But I am very happy that the first player gave it a try. Thank you, Ben! Whereever you are!

Regards,

Der Hamburger

[tragor]

I'm trying it out.
Waiting for my payment to be confirmed  

btw, I still don't see myself in the "Waiting for payment confirmation" section.

edit.
oh… damn… ok… that's because I LOST 

[DaMan]

I am happy to see it works!

@tragor: you have to reload to see your name in the waiting list ... I saw your name. If the transaction is confirmed your name will be displayed in the win or lost area. But there is no waiting list if you win, you name will be displayed instant in the winning area. To see the winning money transaction you have to look into your bitcoin client.

Maybe I should implement a list that shows the outgoing payments (like the waiting list).

Regards,

Der Hamburger

[tomfluff]

Just sent my 0.1, Wish me luck

Have you thought about open-sourcing your algo so we can check it truly is 50% chance?

Also noticed a spelling mistake:

If you send more than 0.1 BTC the differene will be added to the Jackpot

And

+ if you lost your round you have still the chance to win the jackpot...

I think it would read better as 'still have'

Cool service though, keep up the good work

Edit: lost

[DaMan]

Hi Tom,

thx for the spelling corrections, I appreciate that much!

The algo is very easy right now. Every 2nd player has a 100% winning chance. Maybe I should implement a rolling system with 50:50 chance. But only with the current system I can guarantee that there is a winning value.

If I would use a rolling system for regular wins, there will be no value in winning cases. In example if you win two times one after another.

The problem is that I need some more players. At this stage it's easy to guess if you win or lose.

The real competition is to win the jackpot.

I saw you are trying ... so you will understand the system and how it works. You can calculate your risk and decide to play or not. Even if there are more players at the same time you can't calculate it.

... Hmmm, maybe I should implement the rolling system for regular wins and keep some % of the Jackpot to guarantee there will be always a winning value for some regular wins one after another.

I hope you understand what I mean, some english words are missing ...

Greetings!

[DaMan]

@tragor

haha, it seems you understand the game ;-)

But just to let you know: depending on your location and connections it is possible that the transaction hash (don't know if that is the right word) of the player next to you is computed faster and confirmed earlier.

So watching the win/lose and waiting list will not work always.

Greetings.

[tragor]

I was trying for the 3rd win (since that's the minimum just to get in par with one initial loss), and i found myself in the middle of 2 other people.
basically the deciding factor has been "how fast you can get your payment confirmed". And I lost again.

So… 2 won, 2 lost.
And i'm down 0.13.

The thing is I'm left with 0.09, so… game over for me.

[DaMan]

That was the proof of concept.

On my list you were the first player, Louis was the second, xxx the third.

You were on winning position if the confirmations would have been calculated in that order.

But the payment confirmations arrived in that way:

First: Louis (winner)
Second: YOU (lost, sorry)
Third: XXX (winner)

I am sorry for you, but it's good for the game that counting and watching the list will not work everytime.


@tragor: thx for playing!  I will fill up your bitcoin account and send you the needed coins. Whats your bitcoin address?

Greetings,

Der Hamburger

[tragor]

@tragor: thx for playing!  I will fill up your bitcoin account and send you the needed coins. Whats your bitcoin address?

Greetings,

Der Hamburger

be careful with that, you don't want to create a case or you'll get everyone who lost some coins begging at your door to have them back 
anyway, if you feel like it… there's a hash in my signature, thanks.

xxx right now is playing against himself. not the smartest idea.

[DaMan]

He's trying to get the jackpot!

And he rolled a 99 in his last round, which was close but no cigar!

[tragor]

do you think so?
the first two times he simply got stuck in these confirmation-rushes. I suppose now he's just trying to get back on pair.
just like Louis… he started with a loss (like me), and then he got 2 wins. I'm pretty sure he'll try for a 3rd run sooner or later.

btw, i rolled a 97, that was pretty close too 

[tomfluff]

You should probably implement a decent random number generator.

Not just a plain old php 'rand( int $min, int $max )'

You could maybe include a tiered prizing system like

rand(0,100)

0-40: LOSE
41-50: 50%  of bet
51-60: 100% of bet
61-90: 150% of bet
91-99: 200% of bet
100   : JACKPOT!

[DaMan]

Good Idea!

But it must be optimized. What will happen if 10 people win 200% of their bet?
The server account would be empty and the server will not be able to payout the winning values.

What about:

0-50: LOSE
51-69: 5% of Jackpot
70-80: 10% of Jackpot
80-90: 25% of Jackpot
91-99: 50% of Jackpot
100   : JACKPOT!

In that case the winnig profit is bind to the server's account balance.


and btw: Lucker! +1 win to your account 

[Btcworld24.com]

i'd like to get the jackpot, best wishes xxx

[tragor]

EDIT
---
forget it, i got the sums all wrong.
let's delete the shame 

[genewitch]

Good Idea!

But it must be optimized. What will happen if 10 people win 200% of their bet?
The server account would be empty and the server will not be able to payout the winning values.

What about:

0-50: LOSE
51-69: 5% of Jackpot
70-80: 10% of Jackpot
80-90: 25% of Jackpot
91-99: 50% of Jackpot
100   : JACKPOT!

In that case the winnig profit is bind to the server's account balance.


and btw: Lucker! +1 win to your account 

Er... "breaking the bank" is a risk that you, the "house" have to take. That's why we allow you to take vigorish (transaction fees). If you're worried about your risk, look at how Keno pays out, or roulette, or craps. Depending on how much risk you want to take as the "house" you can choose which sort of weights you want on winnings. Craps has the lowest payouts for the house, keno the most (13 cents on 100 dollars for craps, 13+ dollars on a hundred dollars for keno)

If you need some help setting your tiered bets up properly i might be able to help you, as long as you don't screw the algorithm up i'd recommend having about 10-100 times more than the maximum bet amount in your "house bank" to ride out statistical anomalies. It'll all work out in the houses favor in the end (and should, since they're paying the bills) - but it can get real choppy if luck goes to your players for a dozen hands :-)

[tomfluff]

I just tried to enter again and send my 0.1 to the receiving address...

Only this time because i had received winnings the bitcoin application had changed my sending address, Now I don't see my name on the waiting list?

Is it possible for you to refund this transaction or add it to the list or anything?

Thanks

EDIT: You added it when I was the previous winner, causing me to loose lol

[DaMan]

Hi tom,

I don't added your address by hand. I checked the database and everything worked as it should. As mentioned before you can not count the entrys in the win/loss or waiting list in order to win.

Sometimes it took some time until the bitcoin server receives the unconfirmed transaction. I don't know why but I think it has to do with the bitcoin networks node connections.

If there are more than one player in the waiting list, the server will deliver the playing order depending on the confirmations.

The latest example was:

Waiting list order:

-> Player 1: Puls....
-> Player 2: Puls...
-> Player 3: Phil...

The server receives the bitcoin transaction block and delivers the following list, depending on confirmation order:

Player 1: Puls....
Player 2: Phil...
Player 3: Puls...

As you see, player 1 bet two times in order to win one. But the confirmation of player 2 was computed faster and so the playing order changed. If you would like to know why the order changed we have to open a thread in the technical discussion area. I am not so deep inside the block-calculation process to answer this question.

I hope that helps.

Kind regards!

@genewitch:
I am open for any ideas. Please be lenient towards me, it's my first bitcoin project and it is the first day running.
But I am very interested in setting up the bets properly.