[BITLOTTO] Mar 1 draw over $2000 or 50BTC! Tickets now 0.1 BTC for Apr 5

[mem]

bought my 2 tickets for the may the 2nd draw, the jackpot is certainly drool worthy.

[Technomage]

As everyone knows, I make very little from BitLotto. 1% to be exact!
I would like to get my site more professional looking and take BitLotto to the next level. Any donations to: 1JQdiQsjhV2uJ4Y8HFtdqteJsZhv835a8J are VERY appreciated. I'll use the BTC to pay for designing/improving the site better with graphics and/or features. If I'm still short on BTC I'll probably end up borrowing the rest.
Thanks.

I'd suggest just increasing your percentage. Most big lotteries take around 50% of the prize money, I know of none that takes less than 20%. I'm quite confident that if you increased the fee to let's say 3%, it would be fine. It would make more sense because 1% is just very little for running something like this.

[Daily Anarchist]

As everyone knows, I make very little from BitLotto. 1% to be exact!
I would like to get my site more professional looking and take BitLotto to the next level. Any donations to: 1JQdiQsjhV2uJ4Y8HFtdqteJsZhv835a8J are VERY appreciated. I'll use the BTC to pay for designing/improving the site better with graphics and/or features. If I'm still short on BTC I'll probably end up borrowing the rest.
Thanks.

I'd suggest just increasing your percentage. Most big lotteries take around 50% of the prize money, I know of none that takes less than 20%. I'm quite confident that if you increased the fee to let's say 3%, it would be fine. It would make more sense because 1% is just very little for running something like this.

I disagree. I wouldn't have bought tickets if the rake had been any greater. I'm not a gambler when I feel I have negative equity. Obviously, I have negative equity even with a 1% rake. But I participate slightly because of its fun factor, and mostly because I want to help out the lottery and show the world how much better it is than state run Dollar backed lotteries. It won't take long before the lotteries are big enough to make a living on. And besides, the only reason the state takes 50% in their lotteries is because they have a monopoly. No competition is allowed. If he goes and raises his rake then there will be competitors chomping at the bits. He's got a good thing going. No need to ruin it.

[Technomage]

I disagree. I wouldn't have bought tickets if the rake had been any greater. I'm not a gambler when I feel I have negative equity. Obviously, I have negative equity even with a 1% rake. But I participate slightly because of its fun factor, and mostly because I want to help out the lottery and show the world how much better it is than state run Dollar backed lotteries. It won't take long before the lotteries are big enough to make a living on. And besides, the only reason the state takes 50% in their lotteries is because they have a monopoly. No competition is allowed. If he goes and raises his rake then there will be competitors chomping at the bits. He's got a good thing going. No need to ruin it.

3% won't ruin it. I doubt he would get serious competition, trying to sell a 1-2% lotto while the demand for such a lottery is still this small wouldn't really make sense at all. I just think it's absolutely silly that he asks for our donations to get money to develop the site. It would be much easier to just increase the percentage slightly. He can't really increase it too much because people wouldn't play and there would be more competition as well. But for me the difference between 1% and 3% is really not significant when we compare it to any state lottery. For him it would be 3 times the money so it would be significant.

I know some people who don't really trust the whole lottery because the fee is so low. I would actually claim that increasing the fee slightly would increase the amount of play because it would add more trust to the whole thing. Then it would make less sense for him (he is a totally anonymous person no one knows about, btw) to just walk away with the money in the future. It would add trust to the whole thing because if he has a good revenue stream going it would make no sense to scam the players. 1% does not qualify as a good revenue stream.

[Daily Anarchist]

I disagree. I wouldn't have bought tickets if the rake had been any greater. I'm not a gambler when I feel I have negative equity. Obviously, I have negative equity even with a 1% rake. But I participate slightly because of its fun factor, and mostly because I want to help out the lottery and show the world how much better it is than state run Dollar backed lotteries. It won't take long before the lotteries are big enough to make a living on. And besides, the only reason the state takes 50% in their lotteries is because they have a monopoly. No competition is allowed. If he goes and raises his rake then there will be competitors chomping at the bits. He's got a good thing going. No need to ruin it.

3% won't ruin it. I doubt he would get serious competition, trying to sell a 1-2% lotto while the demand for such a lottery is still this small wouldn't really make sense at all. I just think it's absolutely silly that he asks for our donations to get money to develop the site. It would be much easier to just increase the percentage slightly. He can't really increase it too much because people wouldn't play and there would be more competition as well. But for me the difference between 1% and 3% is really not significant when we compare it to any state lottery. For him it would be 3 times the money so it would be significant.

I know some people who don't really trust the whole lottery because the fee is so low. I would actually claim that increasing the fee slightly would increase the amount of play because it would add more trust to the whole thing. Then it would make less sense for him (he is a totally anonymous person no one knows about, btw) to just walk away with the money in the future. It would add trust to the whole thing because if he has a good revenue stream going it would make no sense to scam the players. 1% does not qualify as a good revenue stream.

I agree that asking for donations is a non-starter. Better to ask for investments. But the amount of increase in revenue from 1% to 3% is not large enough to make it worth while, compared to how much business he might lose if he does it.

[Otoh]

I agree with DA & also pledge to donate 3% of any winnings to bitlotto for site development etc, if we could get this established as a voluntary but accepted good community practice here then maybe we'll help fund it without harming it's powerful 99% edge

[bitlotto]

I agree with DA & also pledge to donate 3% of any winnings to bitlotto for site development etc, if we could get this established as a voluntary but accepted good community practice here then maybe we'll help fund it without harming it's powerful 99% edge

THANKS! Well you do have over 400 tickets so who knows?

I'd be desperate before I change the 99%. It's one of our best features. I guess I'll ask for donations to improve the game but it will be up to the winner. The winner has the freedom to do what they want. Right now the 1% is just enough to keep the website online. That will have to do. If I don't get donations and I still want a professional design, I guess I will pay for it out of my own pocket. I really like BitLotto and I believe it can be a great game in the future. (Granted, it is right now of course too!)

Making it 99% makes it VERY fair for repeat customers too. So don't worry about that changing!

[Ilovebitcoins]

Hello,

So I have a question. I am still new to bitcoin and all but I opened a blockchain.info wallet for this lottery and sent payment via a wallet there. Now that site is down. I have a backup of that wallet in json format but I do not know how to access it. So basically my question is when I win this lottery will the coins still be sent to the wallet even tho the blockchain.info site is down?  Because I know I am going to win. LOL!

[Daily Anarchist]

Hello,

So I have a question. I am still new to bitcoin and all but I opened a blockchain.info wallet for this lottery and sent payment via a wallet there. Now that site is down. I have a backup of that wallet in json format but I do not know how to access it. So basically my question is when I win this lottery will the coins still be sent to the wallet even tho the blockchain.info site is down?  Because I know I am going to win. LOL!

The blockchain.info site is not the actual blockchain. The blockchain is fine. That site is just a way to track everything. There is also blockexplorer.com.

[Ilovebitcoins]

Hey,

Yes I understand that but I never copied the actual wallet addresses anywhere. So basically all I have is backups in json file format of the wallets. I have no access to the wallets with blockchain.info being down. Basically I am looking for a way to restore those wallets for access to them without using blockchain.info.

Is this possible with just the json file backups? For the future I now know to use SIPA file format so that it can be imported to strongcoin. I just opened an account with them and I am trying to list the wallets there. Are there any forum discussions showing this information? I really would like access to those wallets. Thanks to anyone that helps. I am sure these are newbie questions but I just posted here because it is kind of related to this lottery.

[Daily Anarchist]

Hey,

Yes I understand that but I never copied the actual wallet addresses anywhere. So basically all I have is backups in json file format of the wallets. I have no access to the wallets with blockchain.info being down. Basically I am looking for a way to restore those wallets for access to them without using blockchain.info.

Is this possible with just the json file backups? For the future I now know to use SIPA file format so that it can be imported to strongcoin. I just opened an account with them and I am trying to list the wallets there. Are there any forum discussions showing this information? I really would like access to those wallets. Thanks to anyone that helps. I am sure these are newbie questions but I just posted here because it is kind of related to this lottery.

Oh, my bad. I misunderstood you. I assumed you had your own wallet on your local computer and simply a backup elsewhere, in which case there would be nothing to worry about. Hopefully somebody else can address your problem.

[Stephen Gornick]

For the future I now know to use SIPA file format so that it can be imported to strongcoin. I just opened an account with them and I am trying to list the wallets there. Are there any forum discussions showing this information? I really would like access to those wallets. Thanks to anyone that helps.

Have you tried using Mt. Gox's Add Funds to redeem any of the private keys?  That will sweep any current amount for that address into your account, and any payments that might be received in the future as well.

[Justin00]

I think in another thread they were saying you can use the multibit client to import the backup.
Im sure the site will be back up soon anyways.

Hey,

Yes I understand that but I never copied the actual wallet addresses anywhere. So basically all I have is backups in json file format of the wallets. I have no access to the wallets with blockchain.info being down. Basically I am looking for a way to restore those wallets for access to them without using blockchain.info.

Is this possible with just the json file backups? For the future I now know to use SIPA file format so that it can be imported to strongcoin. I just opened an account with them and I am trying to list the wallets there. Are there any forum discussions showing this information? I really would like access to those wallets. Thanks to anyone that helps. I am sure these are newbie questions but I just posted here because it is kind of related to this lottery.

[Otoh]

I think in another thread they were saying you can use the multibit client to import the backup.
Im sure the site will be back up soon anyways.

Let's hope so, here's the multibit post:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78583.msg875789#msg875789

BitLotto's May Jackpot now big enough for 3 BTF Singles > 375 BTC = $1,865 +   which is 2.496 Giga Hash / S @ 240w = over 50 BTC or $250 / month according to http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php

[DutchBrat]

I agree with DA & also pledge to donate 3% of any winnings to bitlotto for site development etc, if we could get this established as a voluntary but accepted good community practice here then maybe we'll help fund it without harming it's powerful 99% edge

Pledging a 3% donation as well !

+1

[DutchBrat]

And I bought 2 more tickets, so I will actually win this sucker 

[bitlotto]

Hello,

So I have a question. I am still new to bitcoin and all but I opened a blockchain.info wallet for this lottery and sent payment via a wallet there. Now that site is down. I have a backup of that wallet in json format but I do not know how to access it. So basically my question is when I win this lottery will the coins still be sent to the wallet even tho the blockchain.info site is down?  Because I know I am going to win. LOL!

If you indeed win, we should be able to get something to work to restore your backup.

[bitlotto]

Looks like May 2 was over 385 BTC!! Stand by for results. It would be nice if someone does the calculations too! I'll post later after the mega millions draw is over.

[Ilovebitcoins]

Hello. Do I understand this correctly?

The block we will use to sha256 is Block 178185?

Short link: http://blockexplorer.com/b/178185

    Hash?: 00000000000003723f19329de9a63afc06abd3d9cfb1aea444cc9226ea13c611
    Previous block?: 00000000000003e47ff48e3d6d9619c8b58fb5fa15223e043bdcd5d3af5aacf3
    Next block?: 0000000000000148ed6a6723684da55051c2164aedafe176e8752f5405ef5d90
    Time?: 2012-05-02 00:28:04
    Difficulty?: 1 508 589.67206 ("Bits"?: 1a0b1ef7)
    Transactions?: 22
    Total BTC?: 3534.70203929
    Size?: 20.326 kilobytes
    Merkle root?: 1cf82ec078f100d24791041e43737eb447fc4ab2555851d9fd7f9275d5b5aeae
    Nonce?: 2325707318
    Raw block?

Also I know the mega millions numbers are not out yet but I am just confirming that I know what I need to do so I know if I have won or not. Once the numbers are drawn (5 numbers plus the mega ball so six total numbers with no spaces or dashs) So just for an example 02-07-22-39-45 MB 8 would be entered as 02072239458 correct?

Now I get confused here. What is the exact formula to view the winning hash? I think it's like this (00000000000003723f19329de9a63afc06abd3d9cfb1aea444cc9226ea13c61102072239458) and then I just sha256 hash that and I have the winning block correct?


ALSO IF THE JACKPOT IS OVER 385 COINS IT ABOUT $1900!!!

I know I won already so you guys don't need to worry about winning LOL!

[Ilovebitcoins]

Well folks the mega numbers are in for tonight.

24-27-31-45-52 MB 38

http://www.usamega.com/

That is where I got the numbers from. Please someone can you answer my questions so I can confirm I have won!