Topic: [ANN] Bitfair: Betting Exchange (CLOSED) (Read 2150 times)

Funny, it doesn't stop an airdrop form from coming being announced!
https://twitter.com/bitfair_coin/status/956113559594835968
I'd pay good money to see that bitfair account that hasn't been used since 2015 spring back to life!
Along with the twitter - @bitfair_coin - I'd say it's a pretty solid scam, raising tokens for DATA referrals by looks of it.
A cheap scam at best. Some people a little desperate these days  

Very shrewdly observed, dooglus.

I deliberately did it a bit differently than it is done on betfair, thinking that my way makes a bit more sense: the number shown is the highest amount that can be matched at the given price.

Let me explain: in the betfair world, if you try to back at 1.51 for $1.00, betfair shows there is $1.00 available to lay at 1.51. However, in order to match your bet entirely, someone will need to lay $0.51 at 1.51. So betfair shows $1.00 available to lay at 1.51, but you need to lay $0.51 to match it.

That is why I decided that instead of showing the $1.00 that was backed, I would rather show the $0.51 that was needed to match the bet entirely. The cited amount on my exchange would therefore always have the meaning "maximum amount of money that could be sent to this address and matched".

That's not how it works at betfair, as far as I remember.

If I try to back at 1.51 for $0.01, then there will be $0.01 exactly available to lay at 1.51.

The stakes get matched exactly.

Your exposure changes though, which I guess is what you were displaying.

Duly noted, thanks!

That number comes from a calculation that wasn't rounded off: I sent one bitcent to the corresponding lay address, which means there is 0.01/(5.4 - 1.0)=0.00227272727273 BTC available to back.

Thanks, dooglus & Nefario, I appreciate your replies.

It's actually perfectly understandable that people are not terribly desperate to send their money to some anonymous person with no reputation and low post count.

Unfortunately, a service of this type isn't quite in line with regulations in my area, and there's no chance for me to 'go legit'.

Anyway, the match has started, the market has been closed (no bets taken). The service is going down!

I might try again when multisig transactions increase in popularity and ease of use - could make people more comfortable about the whole thing...

Available to back Man City:

5.4
(0.00227272727273 BTC)
1AthfWf966g3jgAbytSposbzPdWYWgfgSR

I don't know where you're getting that number of BTC from, but BTC is only divisible to 8 decimal places.

Two things,

1) having this as an anonymous service is a no no, you'll run off with the coins you little scamp
2) If you did go legit, don't call it bitfair, you're just asking to get sued.

I get the impression that people are tired of all the scams that have been happening recently, and so don't want to be sending coins to yet another anonymous newcomer.

Maybe that's just me though.

Not much interest so far, even though the odds currently quoted allows for a bit of arbitrage with other betting exchanges.

I guess people who are interested in bitcoin are not so interested in sports, huh?

(Or it could perhaps be TOR frightening everyone away.)

Edit: Service has been closed for now. Will reconsider reopening in a slightly new form when/if multisig becomes more popular and easier to use.

Hi y'all,

I'm making a betting exchange that uses bitcoin - it has currently passed all my in-house tests, and I would now like to invite all of you to test it.

There are currently many options for the gambling bitcoiner. At least a large number of casinos, and SD. For those wagering on real-life events, there's a bookmaker who accepts bitcoin, charging a gigantic overbook, of course, and there is the betsofbitcoin, which has a messy, totally unpredictable payout scheme in addition to charging an enormous commission.

Therefore, I have written a betting exchange, similar to for instance Betfair and Betdaq, that tries to leverage the strengths of bitcoin.

A betting exchange is a peer-to-peer platform for betting - instead of betting against the house, you are betting with other users. You select the event you want to bet on, the selection you want to bet on (or bet against), and the odds you want, send your bitcoins to the address for those odds, and your bet is matched against the bets of other users or returned if your bet is not matched before the market closes.

In this testing period you can only bet on tomorrow's UEFA Champions League match Real Madrid vs Manchester City. The market closes at the scheduled kickoff. Of course, no commission will be charged during this testing period - winnings are paid out in full (apart from a small transaction fee to the miners to ensure the transaction is confirmed in reasonable time).

The testing period has essentially two purposes:

• Testing the technology: it has passed all in-house tests, but has not been exposed to the wider world yet. Hopefully there are no serious bugs, but be warned!
• Collecting feedback on the concept: I would very much appreciate your honest opinion on the concept of a betting exchange built in this way. What things are bad? What things are good? What is missing? What is superfluous? What is confusing? All feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Visit the site here:
http://56ft5sy3qg6q5ua3.onion/
http://56ft5sy3qg6q5ua3.tor2web.org/

Click on "Help" in the top navigation bar to learn more about the service.

How do I place a bet, and how are my winnings paid?
Very simple: just send bitcoins to the address corresponding to the odds you would like to bet at ("back") or against ("lay").

Longer explanation: Visit the site, and follow the link to the event you want to bet on. This will take you to the market summary screen, showing the selections and the odds currently available in our book. If you would like to back or lay the selection at any of the available odds listed there, simply send your bitcoins to the corresponding address. If you would like to back or lay a selection at different odds, click on the selection you would like to back or lay, and send your bitcoins to the address corresponding to the odds you would like.

When the transaction is detected on the bitcoin network, your bet is matched with other bets in our order book (at the best possible odds, naturally) and any remaining unmatched amount is entered into the order book.

Unmatched portions of your bet can be cancelled at any time by signing a message that proves you own (one of the) originating address(es).

The winnings, and any bets or portions of bets that are unmatched at market close, are returned to the address from which the bet was sent in the first place when the outcome has been unconditionally determined. (Users of shared wallet services beware!)

Some words of warning

• The service is IN TESTING. That means you should keep records of all your transactions, in case anything goes wrong, and that there is a chance your bet will be voided if something unexpected happens, even if it may have previously been considered to be matched. Please don't cry if your bet is voided.
• Make sure you understand betting exchanges before you try it
• Never gamble more than you are prepared to lose
• This service is run in "onionland", that is, as a TOR hidden service (https://www.torproject.org/). To access it, you need to have TOR installed, or use the Tor2web proxy. TOR protects your privacy, and it protects my privacy.
• You should avoid placing large bets at this time because (1) it's a bad idea to send large amounts to some anonymous person in onionland with no reputation yet, (2) the technology is still in testing.
• The site is slow. It's on TOR and hosted on a fairly slow connection. Please be patient - but even though the site is slow, the bets are normally received withing seconds of being sent.

Since I am very short of BTC, I am also looking for sponsors - if you would like to sponsor the service, send me a PM with your offer (looking to buy my signature, some honorable mention, etc.?). Any donations would also be appreciated, and donations and sponsorships would go towards covering hosting costs (1FUwAQVuy3HiDFNbGAsmQ7gfky8tHfm2CK).

Betting exchanges are much more fun than traditional bookmakers, and have plenty of advantages - although going through them here would be beyond the scope of this post. I think this concept really shows off the strengths of bitcoin, and offers a lot of value for bitcoin users. In the future I want the service to use multisig transactions - that would make this service truly great.

I would like to offer my gratitude to whoever is willing to give it a try and offer their opinion. As said, the service is under development, so please make an effort to keep the feedback constructive.

Good luck!

bitfair

tldr Help testing a betfair clone for bitcoin.