[ANN][XCP] Counterparty - Pioneering Peer-to-Peer Finance - Official Thread

[jonny1000]

Hi

Is anyone else having problems with Rock Paper Scissors?



As my game history shows, I appear to win because my opponent often makes move "NA".

Please could someone explain why the game does not appear to work effectively?  Are players too impatient to wait for conformations?

[deliciousowl]

Thanks Semiel

Question for the devs: is there anything new to report on new exchanges enabling the trading of BTC/XCP?

Not a dev, but noticed something.

A short while ago some guys from business development over at Cryptonext were asking in Skype chat about how to integrate XCP into their white label cryptocurrency exchange service. https://cryptonext.net/

This will make XCP tradeable against many different kinds of fiat (and other cryptocurrencies) in many different countries around the world.
https://cryptonext.net/?page=aboutUs#clients

So whoever makes a Cryptonext white label exchange, will be able to add XCP to the trading system automatically.

[semiel]

yes the prize amounts cannot be the same as powerball since it is unrealistic to use fixed pay outs unless this is being done by a large entity who already has the funds.  the payout as i mentioned above should ensure that at least 33% of the tickets get something.  does it do that?

You're going to need a big bankroll regardless, if you want to run any sort of lottery. That's because, by definition, if you're working with fixed probabilities there's no guarantee reality will follow exactly the expected distribution. What if only one person enters, and they win a prize? (The situation is different with a raffle, where the probabilities and payouts change together.) Real lotteries solve this problem by buying insurance and things like that.

I originally followed the probabilities of the real Powerball for payouts, which means that you have about a 1/35 chance of winning a prize. I just pushed a change giving the ability to payout on fewer matched numbers, so that you can bring that number down if you like. If you give a small payout for even a single match, my back of the envelope calculations say people should have about a 50% chance of winning.

[oakmaster]

is there a multipool for XCP

[Equality 7-2521]

is there a multipool for XCP

XCP is not mine-able. All the XCP that will ever exist have already been generated by proof-of-burn.

[baddw]

is there a multipool for XCP

XCP is not mine-able. All the XCP that will ever exist have already been generated by proof-of-burn.

Multipool is for coins that are not mine-able.  They mine various coins of the same algorithm (e.g. scrypt or X11) depending on profitability, and trade for (none-mineable-currency) via exchange, and payout miners in the the desired currency.  An XCP multipool would be a good idea.

[Equality 7-2521]

I know that the Counterparty Contract Lottery contest has not been completely finalized yet but I would just like to say bravo to prophetx for proposing it in the first place and kudos to semiel for rising to the challenge, and in record time!

What other Counterparty Contracts would we like to see implemented. Which ones would have the most impact?

Would it be possible to have a Counterparty Contract that creates a hash of all the Counterparty Protocol data up to a particular block and encodes that data in the blockchain (using OP_RETURN). The Counterparty Protocol data up until that point could be downloaded from any channel (radio, sneaker-net, sateliite, torrents, etc.) and using an SPV capable thin client the hash could be verified, thus the Counterparty Protocol data could have it's integrity trustlessly verified (or not, as the case may be).

[prophetx]

yes the prize amounts cannot be the same as powerball since it is unrealistic to use fixed pay outs unless this is being done by a large entity who already has the funds.  the payout as i mentioned above should ensure that at least 33% of the tickets get something.  does it do that?

You're going to need a big bankroll regardless, if you want to run any sort of lottery. That's because, by definition, if you're working with fixed probabilities there's no guarantee reality will follow exactly the expected distribution. What if only one person enters, and they win a prize? (The situation is different with a raffle, where the probabilities and payouts change together.) Real lotteries solve this problem by buying insurance and things like that.

I originally followed the probabilities of the real Powerball for payouts, which means that you have about a 1/35 chance of winning a prize. I just pushed a change giving the ability to payout on fewer matched numbers, so that you can bring that number down if you like. If you give a small payout for even a single match, my back of the envelope calculations say people should have about a 50% chance of winning.

cool thanks!

Hopefully one of the dev's can check your code soon, so you can get the award.  I'll keep bugging them but I guess it is the weekend.  

[semiel]

yes the prize amounts cannot be the same as powerball since it is unrealistic to use fixed pay outs unless this is being done by a large entity who already has the funds.  the payout as i mentioned above should ensure that at least 33% of the tickets get something.  does it do that?

You're going to need a big bankroll regardless, if you want to run any sort of lottery. That's because, by definition, if you're working with fixed probabilities there's no guarantee reality will follow exactly the expected distribution. What if only one person enters, and they win a prize? (The situation is different with a raffle, where the probabilities and payouts change together.) Real lotteries solve this problem by buying insurance and things like that.

I originally followed the probabilities of the real Powerball for payouts, which means that you have about a 1/35 chance of winning a prize. I just pushed a change giving the ability to payout on fewer matched numbers, so that you can bring that number down if you like. If you give a small payout for even a single match, my back of the envelope calculations say people should have about a 50% chance of winning.

cool thanks!

Hopefully one of the dev's can check your code soon, so you can get the award.  I'll keep bugging them but I guess it is the weekend.  

No worries! Thanks for setting this all up!

I should say, if there's anything you don't like about the way I interpreted the spec, let me know. I'm happy to make any tweaks that are necessary. I want everyone on both sides to feel good about how this went.

[PhantomPhreak]

Hi

Is anyone else having problems with Rock Paper Scissors?



As my game history shows, I appear to win because my opponent often makes move "NA".

Please could someone explain why the game does not appear to work effectively?  Are players too impatient to wait for conformations?

The problem is that the other user isn't finishing the game. There's no way to tell why not.

[Anotheranonlol]

I think it would be a good idea to create a specific section for Smart contracts on the CounterParty forums. At the moment most of the knowledge and community discusssion are to be found on Ethereum-centric boards.

The section can:
-Focus on general smart contract discussion
-cover an introduction to building & deploying a simple smart contract, with a 'hello world' test as well as links to useful resources for those playing with the technology
-Include a subsection for bidding on smart contract writing
-Include subsection for the showcase & trade of smart contracts/ smart contract lego-brick logic (whether it be snippets found online or new creations by freelancers)

I'd expect this ecosystem to broaden over time, and skilled Freelance smart contract writers to come into an increasing demand in future. Having CounterParty forums as one avenue they can congregate seems beneficial to both creators and consumers.

Especially with the introduction of multisig, it would be a cool idea to build a relatively simple 'smart contract' kickstarter/reverse kickstarter on top of CounterParty, where community can collaboratively chip in funds to realise the development of smart contract dApps.

[LordMeowMeow]

I really like the idea of having the community support the protocol/CP team with bounties for additional features. The lotto idea was great indeed.

[semiel]

Especially with the introduction of multisig, it would be a cool idea to build a relatively simple 'smart contract' kickstarter/reverse kickstarter on top of CounterParty, where community can collaboratively chip in funds to realise the development of smart contract dApps.

This is a really good idea, and luckily very easy to do. "Kickstarter"-style contracts have become a really common proof-of-concept in the Ethereum world. Here's one in Serpent:

https://github.com/ethereum/serpent/blob/poc7/examples/crowdfund.se

And one in the upcoming Solidity language:

https://github.com/chriseth/cpp-ethereum/wiki/Crowdfunding-example-contract-in-Solidity

[prophetx]

yes the prize amounts cannot be the same as powerball since it is unrealistic to use fixed pay outs unless this is being done by a large entity who already has the funds.  the payout as i mentioned above should ensure that at least 33% of the tickets get something.  does it do that?

You're going to need a big bankroll regardless, if you want to run any sort of lottery. That's because, by definition, if you're working with fixed probabilities there's no guarantee reality will follow exactly the expected distribution. What if only one person enters, and they win a prize? (The situation is different with a raffle, where the probabilities and payouts change together.) Real lotteries solve this problem by buying insurance and things like that.

I originally followed the probabilities of the real Powerball for payouts, which means that you have about a 1/35 chance of winning a prize. I just pushed a change giving the ability to payout on fewer matched numbers, so that you can bring that number down if you like. If you give a small payout for even a single match, my back of the envelope calculations say people should have about a 50% chance of winning.

cool thanks!

Hopefully one of the dev's can check your code soon, so you can get the award.  I'll keep bugging them but I guess it is the weekend.  

No worries! Thanks for setting this all up!

I should say, if there's anything you don't like about the way I interpreted the spec, let me know. I'm happy to make any tweaks that are necessary. I want everyone on both sides to feel good about how this went.

ok thanks

i am going to sleep now, it took me way longer than i thought to drive on a1a from miami beach.

i'll bug people tomorrow about checking the code

worst case i will try to see how to run it myself on the test net - i guess i might as well try since this (ethereum contracts) is a major new feature of XCP

[Equality 7-2521]

Can Counterparty adopt something like this - http://blog.coinprism.com/2014/09/10/proof-of-authenticity-of-cryptoassets/ - to verify the issuers of legit assets?

[deliciousowl]

Can Counterparty adopt something like this - http://blog.coinprism.com/2014/09/10/proof-of-authenticity-of-cryptoassets/ - to verify the issuers of legit assets?

I brought this up on github, and one of the core devs already said they'll add it. It's not a big deal.

[prophetx]

yes the prize amounts cannot be the same as powerball since it is unrealistic to use fixed pay outs unless this is being done by a large entity who already has the funds.  the payout as i mentioned above should ensure that at least 33% of the tickets get something.  does it do that?

You're going to need a big bankroll regardless, if you want to run any sort of lottery. That's because, by definition, if you're working with fixed probabilities there's no guarantee reality will follow exactly the expected distribution. What if only one person enters, and they win a prize? (The situation is different with a raffle, where the probabilities and payouts change together.) Real lotteries solve this problem by buying insurance and things like that.

I originally followed the probabilities of the real Powerball for payouts, which means that you have about a 1/35 chance of winning a prize. I just pushed a change giving the ability to payout on fewer matched numbers, so that you can bring that number down if you like. If you give a small payout for even a single match, my back of the envelope calculations say people should have about a 50% chance of winning.

cool thanks!

Hopefully one of the dev's can check your code soon, so you can get the award.  I'll keep bugging them but I guess it is the weekend.  

No worries! Thanks for setting this all up!

I should say, if there's anything you don't like about the way I interpreted the spec, let me know. I'm happy to make any tweaks that are necessary. I want everyone on both sides to feel good about how this went.

ok thanks

i am going to sleep now, it took me way longer than i thought to drive on a1a from miami beach.

i'll bug people tomorrow about checking the code

worst case i will try to see how to run it myself on the test net - i guess i might as well try since this (ethereum contracts) is a major new feature of XCP

so here is the review of you code, there are a couple issues that need to get resolved.

https://gist.github.com/jorisbontje/353f69515a16cef7de7b

a snippet from the conclusion:

Code:

Then intend of the code is good, but in the implementation I have identified a couple flaws:

As stated under 6, the redemption deadline isn't fully implemented. This is problematic as it conflicts with the administrator being able to withdraw funds after the deadline.
Winning numbers can be redrawn multiple times after the lottery deadline, potentially overriding previous drawings. https://github.com/PeterBorah/ethereum-powerball/blob/master/contracts/lotto.se#L62-L81 As this can be triggered by anyone this is a serious concern. Suggested is to 'freeze' the lottery after the lottery deadline until the redemption deadline has expired as well.
Relying on block.prevhash is a security risk as this can be abused by miners / mining pools using a block withholding attack. If this is a real threat depends on the payout amount of the lotto. Since the RNG is configurable, I'd consider this to be currently good enough for the bounty.
Minor feedback for improvement:

use def init for automatic initialization upon contract creation
specify explicitly in requirements.txt which pyethereum / ethereum-serpent library are supported
create user interface ;)

[semiel]

Thank you for the thorough review! I'll take a look at addressing the issues when I get the chance. (Might be a day or so.)

[pankogulo]

Hi all, here's the new post from the foundation: http://counterpartyfoundation.org/counterparty-foundation-membership-benefits/

Thanks to all our new members and everyone showing their support!

Hopefully this post will explain the members program a bit better. If you have any questions feel free to contact us at info@counterpartyfoundation.org

[jonny1000]

Hi

Is anyone else having problems with Rock Paper Scissors?



As my game history shows, I appear to win because my opponent often makes move "NA".

Please could someone explain why the game does not appear to work effectively?  Are players too impatient to wait for conformations?

The problem is that the other user isn't finishing the game. There's no way to tell why not.

Thanks for your reply.  Do you often play the game?  I keep trying but the other user never does anything.  This makes the game unplayable.  Cant the rules be changed so that players must reveal within say 2 blocks?