Author

Topic: A horrible thing someone could do to change the world as we know it. (Read 771 times)

sr. member
Activity: 364
Merit: 253
And if the BTC is worth $10,000 ea. and the potluck is BTC100,000 guess what happens to any guy that has a bet? Obama?  Grin
sr. member
Activity: 350
Merit: 251
...we all know that many more petty but ambitious crooks are rising up...
"Crook" strongly implies that there's actually someone being wronged.
legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1001
minds.com/Wilikon
Already been done. I forget what it was called.. "Prediction market" or something like that. I guess it's an ever-present threat that keeps politicians honest. Wink

Nothing keeps a politician honest. I don't blame them. They need to lie in order to be elected. Look, nothing keeps some bitcoin users honest. Even bitcoin does not trust bitcoin.

The only difference between betting on a horse and betting on a politician's "odd" is: the horse does not monitor websites like this to then send a SWAT team after you.
legendary
Activity: 924
Merit: 1132
By the way, here is a youtube link for anyone who wonders how I picked Ivan's name. ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLb4SOLxHPA

(Amusing, but more than an hour long).

legendary
Activity: 924
Merit: 1132

Okay, we've all read the news where the Dread Pirate Roberts and his "auction" site on Tor have been taken down.  And we all know that many more petty but ambitious crooks are rising up in hopes of taking his place.  

Now, here is an interesting but horrible thought; what if one of these enterprising young agents of entropy is Chairman Ivan Dragomiloff?  And Ivan sets up a "gambling" site on Tor with much the same regard for the law that Roberts' "auction" site displayed?  

And, having in his misspent youth read a hypothetical proposal by Mr. Jim Bell (which I will *NOT* link here) he sets up a site that takes bets on the dates of death of public figures?  Simple enough, you pick a person and a day, place your bet, and if the day passes with your proposed death not occurring, your bet gets added to the jackpot.  If the death does occur on that day, you (and anyone else who bet on that day) get all the coins that were bet on other dates of death in bets smaller than yours, and the house keeps the money that was placed in bets larger than yours.  On the other hand, should death occur on a date no one has predicted, the house keeps the whole jackpot.  

So, if for example President Ween of Lower Slobovia has really ticked you off, you might bet a bitcoin that he'll die tomorrow.  If he's ticked off enough people who all bet a Bitcoin on a date of death, and he survives through all those dates, then suddenly we're looking at a situation in which someone who guesses correctly might bet one coin and harvest a few thousand.   And that kind of situation could influence a certain kind of mind, inspiring them to take steps to firm up their prediction and "improve the odds" on their particular bet.  

Welcome to the world of assassination politics.  It really isn't possible to hold any noticeable political office anywhere, or run any large business, or even to be what's called a celebrity, without pissing a lot of people off sooner or later.  Possibly even through no fault of your own.  But with Chairman Dragomiloff's Tor site running, suddenly there is an immediate reason to *fear* pissing large numbers of people off.

Just a random thought.  
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