Just wanted to confirm PopCoin will be launching today! We're going to be seeding the game with 2ETH, so the first players should have a really good chance for a big win; watch our video above for a quick primer on how to play.

OK, this is another one of those ETH smart contract gamble games like those ExitScam and Fomo games getting popular now, right? I will admit, this one looks LESS complicated, and MORE easy to see and to win, but the problem is to attract the first few players.

You said you put in 2 ETH but I see there is 0 in the pool right now, meaning not a single player has played, meaning no one will risk until those ETH start building up.

First, just want to confirm we are launching today. We needed to make some last minute adjustments so we pushed back launch by a day. It will now be launching at 2am UTC.


Correct, it is similar to some of those games however also pretty different. The biggest difference is how we integrated our own mining algorithm into the game. The House takes a 3% rake of every bet made and puts it into a side pool just as a casino would in real life. This is how they make money and this is how The House in our contract makes money. However, unlike other games where the house is just the developers we instead wanted to make it so that The House were the people who added the most value to the game (ie the players) hence PoP - Proof of Play.
When you place a bet you mine PoPCoins which can be exchanged for that 3% rake the house takes. So by playing PoPCoin you are not only playing a game similar to the games you mentioned earlier but you are also becoming The House and are earning a portion of that 3% for every bet going forward. The game is not pre-mined and there is no way for the developers to change anything or remove money once it's launched.

PoPCoin is also different in that it is a framework of games all of them paying eth into The House that PoPCoins make you a part of. PoPCoin is essentially a decentralized casino with unique fun games and where the players own the earnings of the casino.

You did see 0 in the pool when you last checked because we had to make some last minute changes to the contract. It is true with no money in the contract there is no reason for players to play. That is why we are seeding the contract with 2 Eth which you will see later today.

If you want more information on how PoPCoin works you can checkout our videos or our pitch deck with outlines the economics of it: http://popcoin.gg/images/popcoinPitch.pdf

Thanks for the responses. It looks like you still had problems launching, I guess the announcement was premature. Idea is actually very good now that you have explained it because:

1. Mining by betting and proof of play is just like a casino rewarding the most active players or the ones who wager the most. I really like this concept.
2. 3% rake might be too high. Lower it to 1% for a start, maybe max 2% once established. No point being greedy, right?

Now your idea is excellent but you really need to get your smart contract looked at AND maybe touch up your design.

Thanks for your feedback! After collecting some additional last minute input we decided there were a few small features that should be added to the contract. Everything is in place now and we're just going through the final testing stages, feel optimistic for a launch early next week.

Regarding your point about rake, we agree 3% in a vacuum would seem high, but keep in mind the majority of this rake doesn't go to the game or the developers, it goes back to the players.

Because of this players, especially early players, have an interest in and benefit from a healthy rake. We're intending to launch with the percentage of PopCoins the developers mine (and thus percent of rake they're entitled to) set to 30%. This number is set in the contract itself and can possibly decrease but can never increase.

So: 3% * 0.3 = a total of a 0.9% rake for the game/developers which we think is very reasonable and below most dice sites or other popular forms of crypto gaming. The remaining rake the players are entitled to and can redeem their PopCoins for at any time. This is all enforced through the contract itself, no trust is required of us at any time.

Hope that answers your questions, and we'll keep working on the design too

We’ll be publishing the contract source very shortly upon launch so everyone can confirm both that the game is based on a smart contract and can also verify all the claims we’ve made about the game if they so chose.

Just to get into this point a little more, we believe one of the coolest parts of crypto and smart contracts is that they allow decentralized, trustless games like this to exist. We think the idea of by playing a game you effectively become the house is really powerful and interesting, but who would want to trust some centralized, non-verifiable source that the game winnings are being reported accurately and that the new player/owners will actually get the winnings they were promised and entitled to? We think a game like PopCoin is a great candidate for a project well suited for smart contracts and one that really couldn’t exist and make sense before their creation.


As far as investing to acquire coins, all players who make a bet, regardless of how small it is or if it ends up winning any ETH, will earn PopCoins, entitling them to a portion of the house of the rake. Not only that but the amount of coins they earn will increase linearly as the game continues, so a player’s bet might initially earn then 100 coins, but by the end of the game, as more bets from other players come in, without doing anything additional that same bet will have earned them 200 coins. The amount of coins the contract will ever issue is fixed at 10,000,000 and will payout less over time, similar to how bitcoin's block reward decreases over time.

Also just to be clear, this is a portion of the rake not just for the current game, but for the entire history of the contract both past and future. By playing the game you really are earning a portion of the contract rake and pseudo becoming the house.


It’s interesting to hear another project has explored the Proof of Play concept, although we hope there’s still something unique in our approach. It can be hard to keep with the crypto trends!

You’re probably right there’s room for improvement in our marketing and educational materials but we’re hopeful though that once the game is live and you can see it in action it will be very approachable to understand how it works. We’ve tried to make it both simple and easy to get started and also exciting as the to watch the game develop as the round continues and grows.

We’ve designed the contract so a few key constants, including the rate rake, will be able to be adjusted over time. Limits to the rate of this change are built into the contract and changes will always apply to future, never current games. The contract will also have a "nuclear option", a function that, if we call it, will prevent even us from making any future changes to these constants including the rake.

You make a good point that as more PopCoins are mined the incentive for new players to enter the game will decrease; as this happens likely the rake will be lowered.

We’re also of course hopeful that by the time a large majority of PopCoins have been mined the game will have a healthy player base and rounds will be generating pots large enough that play will largely come from organic interest in these pot sizes and not only a desire to mine PopCoin.

Also as a technicality, all PopCoins will never be completely mined. The rate PopCoins are issued at will decrease as more are issued, but this rate will only approach 0, never quite reach it.

Thanks, we've pushed back the launch a bit but still planning on launching soon, very likely within the week. Will update when we have a date confirmed.

Thank you for that explanation again, I do think it is one of the more interesting concepts to be introduced lately, but I will say that the early people, like me, if I plan on joining, will definitely want to own the PopCoins and those that come later may not be as incentivized to join for the lack of rake shares/popcoins.

August 20 2 UTC for launch is about 18 hours from now, looks really exciting. How will we know it has launched? When that ETH pot shows positive? Will we be able to deposit from an exchange or casino or must we stick to MetaMask?

Also just wanted to remind everyone, PopCoin will be launching in a little more then 24 hours!

The first game will be seeded with 2 ETH so make sure to get there early. Very excited for the launch and looking forward to a great game!