The Bitcoin Problem, changing blockchain for a better User Experience
Hallo to all, I see a big market and techinical problem around the relationship between a blockchained card game like Spell of Genesis and bitcoin blockchain.
Bitcoin blockchain is slow, but this isn't the main issue. The main issue are the fees.
Currently Core Devs are doing their best to realize a specific vision :
1) small blocksize
2) very high onchain fee
3) a lot of offchain transaction throgh the Lightin Network protocols and sidechains ( Blockstream products)
In this vision, the counterparty protocol is not suitable for cards. Some cards have an high value but the most of the cards worth a very little amount of bitcoins. In the future, the near future, fees will be more than the value of those cards.
Right now is not cleare if and WHEN counterparty protocol could eventualy use offchain transactions.
So my proposal is this: change blockchain with a controlled process
The two most interesting blockchains for SOG are:
1) Ethereum blockchain, powerful but still diffcult to handle
2) Bitshares blockchain, less powerful but very easy to manage
I don't think that is so difficult to add a system that control more than a blockchain in SOG, that's a trivial function, so some cards for same time could exist in the bitcoin blockchain and other card in eth or bts blockchain.
The problem is the switch for the old cards and eventualy bitcrystals. This topic have to handled whit special care.
I know that this new topic add other stress to the sog team, but I realy thing that in a very near time, bitcoin blockchain will be a problem not an opportunity.
Thanks in Advance
Viva!
p.s I know more the bitshares blockchian because currently i'm working with the open ledger team, but i do think that also the eth blockchain fit perfectly with Sog .
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1479359.40my name is Paolo Rebuffo
Hey Paolo, sorry but sidechains that are being built around Bitcoin like the lightning network will allow for microtransactions for little or no fees.
A new day a new suggestion, what will you guys suggest tomorrow? LOL
Don't worry noone is going to raise fees that much in the near term, and from what you say fees are going to cost as much as a card... not this year, not next IMO.
For one Bitcoin is the most secure and popular blockchain. Ethereum is still in its infancy compared to the well tested Bitcoin and they may hit issues of their own in terms of scalability soon enough.
They are working on Casper and I wish them good luck with that, but until it is proven effective I have my reservations on Ethereum's scalability and speed.
BitShares... No one is using it or they have little traction. However they have very low transaction fees and they were thinking of having 0 fees implemented...
But network effect and user adoption with them is 0 at the moment. I was following them when they did their massive token sales and attempted a DAO, it was so complicated, there was confusing information all over BitsharesTalk that a newbie could only get lost to find anything useful easily. So glad I didn't waste my money on it.
Open Ledger is trying hard to get people on it (I know Ronny, met him in London last year), but I don't know many people who are actually using it.
I do like what they are trying, but it will be a while before it takes off if ever, with all the competition and wish you guys all the best.
Not sure if you have seen Yodark's last message, it explains pretty well what the team is concentrating on and I think unless it is a major issue in the near term (which I doubt)
they better stick to making the game as awesome as possible. Nice of you thinking ahead though.
If and when there will be an issue with BTC I'm sure the team will keep an eye on alternatives however I personally don't believe it is something to worry about right now.
Having a mix of blockchains can be really confusing for new users, have you thought about that, user experience? Especially new non-crypto users that know nothing about crypto tokens?
If push comes to shove it will be trivial to create tokens on Ethereum or another blockchain for BCY and cards, may cost a bit in Tx fees for users and SoG but things can be swapped one by one.
Current users are well used to Counterparty, there are swapbots that allow many in the community to participate in the economy and sell cards... It's not a small change you are proposing.
Some may not even want to go through all this and could cause people to loose interest in the game altogether.
And the way I see blockchain integration in SoG is merely to show your cards in your account as it is now. Blockchain-based cards can be exchanged outside the game.