Hello Fellow Bitcoin Addicts,
I've started a Bitcoin raffle service similar to BitLotto (no affiliation), but with cheaper tickets (0.10 BTC), more frequent draws (as soon as 100 tickets are sold), and with smaller payouts (10 BTC to start).
The first raffle will be for at least 10 BTC. I say at least 10 BTC, because the drawing will be held at midnight (UTC) on the day the prize pool reaches 10 BTC. Tickets are 0.10 BTC each, so 100 tickets need to be sold to meet the minimum prize pool. All transactions posted before midnight (UTC) on that day will be counted in the drawing, so the prize could likely be more than 10 BTC. I'm keeping the ticket price low so it's easier for people new to Bitcoin to participate.
I will only be keeping 0.5% of the take to help with overhead, so the payout will be 99.5% of whatever is collected. So on a 10 BTC prize pool, I will make a whopping 0.05 BTC. So you can see I'm definitely not in this for the money, I'm doing it for fun and to help promote Bitcoin.
I've taken some steps to ensure the system is cheat-proof. Each ticket is made up of the following data elements:
- Daily3 mid-day numbers from MichiganLottery.com from the day the prize pool minimum is met
- Bitcoin transaction hash that sent the payment
- number 0001 thru number of tickets you purchased (if you sent 3x the ticket price, your tickets would be: 0001, 0002, 0003)
- The first Bitcoin block number with a timestamp after midnight on the day the prize pool minimum is met
SHA256 hashes are calculated for the data string (made up of the four elements listed above) for each ticket sold, then sorted (0-9,A-Z). The winner is the ticket at the top of the list.
The transactions/tickets for the first draw can easily be viewed using the Bitcion Block Explorer at
http://blockexplorer.com/address/1Hxjf7yzS8C5obUBcVKxFNSFVCeaVhmTeAStill, I know this will require some level of trust. That's another reason why I'm keeping the ticket price and prize fairly small right now. I want people to see that it will actually work and they are not being lied to.
I think it will be fun. I hope some of you will try it out!
http://bitcoinraffle.co/