Help launch decentralized betting: create your own betting hedge fund

[joey.rich]

PolyCash is an open source betting protocol that makes it easy to create cryptocurrencies pegged to sources of value like dollars or bitcoins.
We've been running betting games using play money and are now taking things to the next level by launching games where you can bet with real money.

We are seeking partners to help us provide liquidity and hedge against the financial risk of bets placed by our end users.  This protocol is designed to make betting as decentralized as possible.  In PolyCash betting games, there is no house and odds are determined entirely by the bets placed by the players.  When you bet you don’t send money to a trusted intermediary.  Instead, bets are placed by sending coins to your own addresses so that you maintain control of the private keys for your bets.

PolyCash can be used for betting on any topic.  We currently have games running where you can bet on events where the winner is determined at random in a provably fair manner (see decentralized Rock Paper Scissors).  We also have games running for betting on the winners of eSports matches (CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends and more - see https://poly.cash/esports-free/)

We need commitments from several “betting hedge funds” in order to launch real money betting for eSports.  Betting funds will wager money on betting events to help set the odds and to provide liquidity so that end users can bet significant amounts of money without dramatically changing the odds.  PolyCash betting is designed for extremely low fees and provides odds and payouts much higher than traditional betting systems.  With fees nearly at zero, it's easy for betting hedge funds to earn profit with low risk betting strategies that outperform the market.

PolyCash is a platform for stablecoins and eSports betting will operate with coins pegged to the dollar.  You can buy in and sell out at any time using bitcoin, but the bitcoins will be converted to dollars based on the exchange rate at the time of each transaction.

Fees in eSports betting will be set to the low rate of 0.25% on the payouts of winning bets.  You can register as a betting hedge fund by committing to purchasing as low as $1000 of in-game coins.  To operate a betting fund, you should set up your own node.  The eSports betting game will run on the Litecoin network so you'll install a Litecoin full node in addition to PolyCash.

You can get familiarized with the PolyCash betting platform by creating a web wallet on one of our hosted nodes like https://poly.cash and placing bets in play-money games.  If you’re interested in creating your own betting hedge fund, please respond in this thread with any questions, or DM me.

[1714154872]

1714154872

[jademaxsuy]

So your platform is ready and all you need is fund?. I am not interested as of now but I have some question to ask. What are the advantages and disavantages using your platform and what makes it different from other same platform as you have?. We all know that sports are being cancelled or postponed.

[joey.rich]

So your platform is ready and all you need is fund?. I am not interested as of now but I have some question to ask. What are the advantages and disavantages using your platform and what makes it different from other same platform as you have?. We all know that sports are being cancelled or postponed.

Yes, the platform is ready but funding is needed.

The advantages of this are:

• You hold the private keys to your bets.
• It's open source.
• Peer to peer design: anyone can set up a node.
• Odds are set by player bets rather than by a house.
• Highest odds and payouts compared to bookmakers.
• Compatible with bitcoin, litecoin & any blockchains based on bitcoin's code.
• Stablecoin functionality: in-game coins can be pegged to dollars, bitcoins etc.

Disadvantages are:

• Centralized bookmakers make more profit on bets.  That makes the business model trickier to get going with this system.
• No accumulator/parlay bets.  This system uses parimutuel betting and does not support parlay bets.

[joey.rich]

The current ban on sports is not a major problem since we are focusing on eSports.  We also have betting games based on random numbers from the blockchain, and based on stock prices.

[boyptc]

The current ban on sports is not a major problem since we are focusing on eSports.  We also have betting games based on random numbers from the blockchain, and based on stock prices.

Yeah right.

Esports is still a continuous industry despite the ban problems the world is facing.

I think I've heard of this "polycash", have you ever launched or advertise this somewhere a few years ago?

[Haunebu]

Faith in altcoin projects these days is at an all-time low these days op especially with COVID-19 wrecking havok around the world which is why I highly doubt your project will take off.

Creating betting hedge funds is not ideal under these conditions. Gamblers like me would rather stick to betting in popular sites instead of risking our money on new sites like yours unless you come up with something truly creative.

[babo]

very interesting project
peer to peer betting protocol

https://github.com/PolyCash/polycash

isnt clear to install, how i can have a operator_key?

thank you for response

[joey.rich]

very interesting project
peer to peer betting protocol

https://github.com/PolyCash/polycash

isnt clear to install, how i can have a operator_key?

thank you for response

The operator key is like a password that allows you install the app.  Just generate a random string of characters and enter that into your config file as the operator key.  If you're installing on your local computer rather than a public facing server, you can even just leave the operator key empty.  I will try to make sure that's clear in the README.

[joey.rich]

The current ban on sports is not a major problem since we are focusing on eSports.  We also have betting games based on random numbers from the blockchain, and based on stock prices.

Yeah right.

Esports is still a continuous industry despite the ban problems the world is facing.

I think I've heard of this "polycash", have you ever launched or advertise this somewhere a few years ago?

Yeah, it has been publicized in several other threads here on bitcointalk - you can check my post history to see those threads.  It has previously always been using play money.  I'm hoping real money betting will gain more interest now.

[milewilda]

So this is some other blockchain-based type of games.



First trial from that free 500 coins isnt bad at all..

[DireWolfM14]

Can you please elaborate more on this:

When you bet you don’t send money to a trusted intermediary.  Instead, bets are placed by sending coins to your own addresses so that you maintain control of the private keys for your bets.

How can you ensure the clients will pay-up on their losses?


And then later I read this:

PolyCash is a platform for stablecoins and eSports betting will operate with coins pegged to the dollar.  You can buy in and sell out at any time using bitcoin, but the bitcoins will be converted to dollars based on the exchange rate at the time of each transaction.

So, are the private keys mentioned previously for your own stable coin?

[joey.rich]

Can you please elaborate more on this:

When you bet you don’t send money to a trusted intermediary.  Instead, bets are placed by sending coins to your own addresses so that you maintain control of the private keys for your bets.

How can you ensure the clients will pay-up on their losses?

To place a bet, you actually burn coins by sending them to one of your own burn addresses.  When the outcome of the betting event is determined, winning bets are paid by the protocol creating new coins at the address associated with the betting transaction where you burned coins.

And then later I read this:

PolyCash is a platform for stablecoins and eSports betting will operate with coins pegged to the dollar.  You can buy in and sell out at any time using bitcoin, but the bitcoins will be converted to dollars based on the exchange rate at the time of each transaction.

So, are the private keys mentioned previously for your own stable coin?

Stablecoin functionality is where some centralization comes in.  Like Tether, the peg between in-game coins and dollars relies on people purchasing coins with dollars, and those dollars being held in escrow.  Coin holders can sell out at any time by redeeming their in-game coins for dollars from the stablecoin issuer.

Unlike ICOs, the stablecoin issuer does not make money via seigniorage (printing money).  The business model for a stablecoin issuer is more like that of a bookmaker.  Players deposit money, bet, and then cash out.

It's possible for the stablecoin issuer to charge fees on bets without ever holding the private keys to any bets.  This is done by setting the payout rate for betting events to below 100%.  For example in the play money Rock Paper Scissors Fast game, the payout rate is set to 99.9% (fees of 0.10%).  The amount of new coins created in the payout is slightly less than the coins burned by players in bets, causing the supply of coins to constantly reduce.  The stablecoin issuer maintains the peg of 1 dollar per in-game coin, and therefore keeps these fees as their profit when the game ends since they owe less dollars to players than they originally took in.

[joey.rich]

This peer to peer betting looks interesting but creating our own betting hedge fund at this stage where the market is not very clear as the only good news ahead is the bitcoin halving and what is the minimum amount you are looking to raise for the functioning of this decentralized peer to peer betting.

I would like to launch real money betting with a game that isn't too long (say 1 week or a month).

Anyone who wants to participate can sign up and commit a dollar amount.  Once enough commitments are made, everyone will send in their money via BTC which I'll immediately convert to dollars.  The game will then be launched, and I'll distribute in-game coins to the investors in proportion to the amount of money they sent in.  (In game coins will just be called dollars since they're pegged to the dollar).  The game will run on Litecoin network, which means that to launch the game I'll create a genesis transaction on Litecoin, and then each investor will receive their in-game coins via a Litecoin address.  (They will receive a tiny amount of litecoins which will have a larger value in dollars via the PolyCash protocol).

Betting on eSports events will then run while the game is in progress.  The game will end at a fixed time, at which point the currency will be wound down by the stablecoin issuer (me in this case) buying back the in-game coins while maintaining the 1 dollar per in-game coin peg.

Players / investors should install their own nodes.  It's possible to play by creating a web wallet on a hosted node, but much better if players run their own nodes.

I would like to get at least 20 players who each put in $100 to $500 for this trial run.  Some of the details of this are still flexible.  For example, we could use Rock Paper Scissors betting rather than eSports betting.  We could use Bitcoin blockchain to run the game rather than Litecoin.  (The reason I'm proposing Litecoin is because the fast blocks are good for betting, and transaction fees are low).  We could keep the in-game coins pegged to BTC rather than dollars.  Buy-ins and payouts could be done with Tether rather than Bitcoin.

[DireWolfM14]

~

So, essentially the private keys that your clients possess are for a centralized stable coin that can only be redeemed on your platform?  Please explain to me how the term "decentralized" applies to any aspect of your service.

[joey.rich]

So, essentially the private keys that your clients possess are for a centralized stable coin that can only be redeemed on your platform?  Please explain to me how the term "decentralized" applies to any aspect of your service.

This is open source and anyone can install a node.  This is an implementation of the colored coins concept and is compatible with Bitcoin, Litecoin and any other blockchain based on bitcoin's code.

Unlike ICOs I'm not trying to launch a single currency.  Anyone can use this open source protocool to launch their own currency.

Here I'm proposing a stablecoin pegged to the dollar and using the Litecoin network.  Players own coins with litecoin private keys held in a litecoin wallet on their node.

It's possible to use this protocol to launch coins which are not backed by anything.  But I believe coins should be backed by sources of value which is why I'm pursuing a business model which uses stablecoins.

Yes, the stablecoin aspect means this is less decentralized than bitcoin and is more similar to Tether.

One of the weaknesses of Tether's business model is that there is no end date to their stablecoin.  Tether holders are asked to trust Tether to keep every coin fully backed by a dollar, without incurring any operating expenses and no end date to the scheme.

Here I'm proposing a series of stablecoins each of which has an end date.  When a game ends, the source of value funds are paid out and the stablecoin is terminated.  Then another game starts and players have the opportunity to buy in to the next game.  You can buy from the stablecoin issuer or from other coin holders via an exchange.  Putting an end date on each stablecoin means that any situation where the stablecoin issuers fails to maintain the escrowed store of value funds becomes apparent.

I believe the transparency and incentives in this design are a much better way to guarantee against fraud in comparison to stablecoins like Tether.  Charging fees to bettors by burning some coins whenever a bet is placed causes the supply of coins to constantly reduce, and these fees accrue to the stablecoin issuer by reducing the amount of store-of-value funds owed to the coin holders.  Giving stablecoin issuers a legitimate way to make money makes the business model work and allows them to earn a transparent profit which they can use towards operating expenses.

As I mentioned above, the business model that I'm pursuing is not similar to ICOs where the founders make money via seigniorage.  Instead in this business model, fees are earned by the stablecoin issuer and any "hedge funds" which help sets the odds and provide liquidity to the bettors.  Bettors benefit since they get odds which are higher than traditional bookmakers and also from more decentralized design of this system (open source software, holding your own private keys).

[babo]

The operator key is like a password that allows you install the app.  Just generate a random string of characters and enter that into your config file as the operator key.  If you're installing on your local computer rather than a public facing server, you can even just leave the operator key empty.  I will try to make sure that's clear in the README.

thanks for your kind reply
I suggest you also write it on github

It is very important to enter all the information to be able to correctly install a node independently

otherwise others like me will ask you the same thing

[joey.rich]

We are now distinguishing between the protocol (PolyCash) and a site dedicated to eSports betting (StakeMoney)

To check out the eSports betting, follow this link:
https://intro.stakemoney.com/