Topic: [ANN] BTC Cake - It's a piece of cake. - page 6. (Read 18657 times)

I highly suggest sinking some bitcoins into advertising sites.

Try the ad function for freebitco.in or use adbit.co.

Okay so I lost with the playBTC... I was on wedge 1. I dunno who was on wedge 3, but its good to see you have another follower

Marketing

The first thing that you should definitely do, is make sure that it is user friendly for normal people. (Like try use simpler terms. The word string can make people really confused if they don't understand what a string is. Maybe try explain it a bit simpler, IE call it a randomizer instead of strings or something?)

Then you need to try and get your link out on betting websites. Ultimately you have a gambling site here so maybe stick to that niche.

These are just a few ideas, I'm no marketing pro but I do know a thing or 2 about SEO. If PrimeDice can get big, then I don't see any reason why BtcCAke cant get just as big or even bigger! You might have to put a bit of money into the marketing and SEO unless you are really patient and willing to do a lot of work submitting your link to different sites.

Social networking is also really important for marketing. I suggest you add a twitter and facebook button to your site. Then you can inform people of new cakes as they are made and announce winners too. Also you should get a mailing list. When people register, they need to give their emails, then you can mail them once the cake has timed out so they can know immediately if they have won or not.

I will keep thinking of ways to improve the project. If I get any more ideas, I will post for you.

I noticed a new cake now which is for real bitcoins. That is cool, but I don't think anyone will bet there yet. Which is fine. You guys better wait using real bitcoins a bit more anyway (I need to test more using blockchain.info).

What is cool here though, is that if a cake doesn't have any bets, it will just be deleted from database when time ends! That way, the database will be clean from unused cakes. So, don't be alarmed if a hash to a cake doesn't work anymore. Or if you wonder why the cake you created is gone. It's just some neat cleanups I added to the code. (I told you I've been working on this for a long time)

Cool, so http://www.btccake.com/cake/99c44e59efad2ff9c96e77fcc56855671a4ef656d6b7acecbaeeeef398a22a16 ended and everything went well there. Apparently I lost 0.1 PlayBTC, and some other guy. But the third guy on wedge 3 is now 0.2 PlayBTC richer. I checked database, and all fine there too. Now, I know PlayBTC doesn't really mean anything (yet), but it's still fun to see this working!

(I don't take a fee on PlayBTC, but maybe I should? So you guys don't think you were fooled? I mean, there is no point taking a fee for made up play money, but maybe it would be less of a chock for when using real bitcoins later?) Well, I think you guys are smart, so I won't start with some stupid fee on made up play money.

Well I'm really glad to hear that! I have put a lot of thought and time into this. I actually just now finished a simple script to backup the database with timestamps and everything. And, blockchain.info sends me backups every time the wallet updates. So that is all good. Again, I really want to make this work properly. Even though I use services, I also prefer having a backups locally.

I agree, this can be really fun if it takes off actually. The thing is, I'm no bank. Meaning, the money basically goes between users (it's almost like a trading site ). So, you aren't playing against the house really, although I take a small cut (hey, gotta support this site and me somehow) But anyway, the users get the most bitcoins, and I really like it like that. And there is a cake for everyone. If not, create one. Did you notice that every cake has it's own chat as well? Could be handy later on when more people are on that cake to chat. Maybe new cool ideas can come from it. Oh, and there is a "global" chat in the Dashboard too. I have so many ideas, but so little time.

I will surely include you among those that get a small amount of real bitcoins for helping me out soon then. I just need to figure out how to do it the best way... which brings me to the following question:

Any idea what "marketed right" would entail?

The more I think about this website, the more I am liking it!

I really hope you can get this thing off the ground because it will definitely be a success if marketed right. If there is anything I can do to help you, please send me a PM and I will do what I can. I really want to be a part of this project. And congratulations on such a fantastic idea 

Yes, you are correct. It will affect the end result as it's used together with the formula as you say. You are able to affect the result because it is part of the formula. But, you don't know how (and is how we want it because then anyone could cheat). And which is why the cake's secret "salt" is hidden, because otherwise anyone could use that and calculate with their salt what the end result would be.

However, I like it like this because everybody affects the results. If you put "H3LL0" it will give one result. If you put "HEllO", it will be a totally different result. But, you don't know what. But one of them could mean you win...

So yes, you can put whatever in there (currently limited to a-z, A-Z, 0-9 characters to make it safe and not use some weird character which could mess things up). So yea, you can put "H3LL0" in there. I've actually been thinking about that, because there is no blocking for profanity (yet)...   But then again, I would only see it as "certain characters in a particular order"...  

Btw, other sites call this a "seed", but I find the name "salt" more suiting for what it's for. In cryptology, when sites saves your password, you use a "salt" with your password to make the SHA different in case same password was used, and to make table lookups harder.


Note to self: Also, I need to get "edit salt" in place, as it should be possible to change the salt as long as time isn't up yet.

Okay I'm nearly there. now there's 1 more thing I don't understand.

What is salt for? Like I understand the explanation, it gets added to the formula to determine who the winner is, but the part that says "you are able to affect the result" I don't really understand.

You will be using a random string or putting your own string in but you wont actually know how you are going to affect the result.  So could I make the salt "H3LL0" ? Or is there a certain set of rules to follow when putting in a salt string?

I get what's its for though, it helps to keep the result random so that you cant affect who wins and who loses. (well, I guess that's what its for )

Tastes good! Well, I bet on wedge 2 now, so one of us will win. Actually, if you loose I can give you extra PlayBTC just for playing along. Remember, if you have more than 10, you have more than you can get other ways. The button to get more only resets to 10 PlayBTC...

Ah, yes, this is a design decision I had to make for the cake rendered there to show correct colors for the wedge. Basically so the buttons matches the wedge. And the needle would point to wrong wedge otherwise. Now, I could disable the order of able to bet on wedge, and everything would be calculated correctly. However, the colors wouldn't line up, and the result page would mix it up in different orders. So instead of neat and clean like this:

0-60
60-100
100-200
200-360

for example, it would be like:
100-200
60-100
200-360
0-60

Again, everything would be calculated correctly (I've tested this), but it wouldn't look as great. Besides, it doesn't really matter, unless you really like one particular color more than the other. Which reminds me that one of the additional features I would add later on would be to be able to select colors yourself (for the wedges).

But I might fix this "design flaw" later, and unlock betting on whatever wedge from start. For now I hope you can live with it.

There needs to be a range so we can decide who wins. But the range is arbitrary. The formula maps to whatever range, so it could be anything really. I just set limit between 0 and 1000 for, in case you have a number in there you like and I have to limit it to something. You can even have a range between 0 and 1, which is kinda funny. I have 0 to 360 as default, because, well, it makes sense for a circle.

The range is then mapped to the wedges depending on the amount of bitcoins compared to the other wedges. This so the more bitcoins than the others, the bigger range, and thus bigger chance of winning.

That is correct. In that case it would be:
Wedge 1: 33.33%
Wedge 2: 66.67%

This basically means that wedge 2 will have double the range than wedge 1, but no grantee to win.

I baked a new cake!!! 

http://www.btccake.com/cake/99c44e59efad2ff9c96e77fcc56855671a4ef656d6b7acecbaeeeef398a22a16 Lets all have a slice of the Blue Doughnut 

I am beginning to understand this now TBH, although I still have a few questions.

1. I see that wedge 2 and 3 are locked until a bet has been put on wedge 1. What if I want to bet on wedge 3 but nobody has bet on wedge 1 yet, then I am  forced to bet on wedge 1. Why is it like this?

2.What is the cake value range for?

3. If wedge 1 has 0.2BTC total bet on it, and wedge 2 has 0.4BTC total bet on it, does that mean that wedge 2 has double the chance of winning compared to wedge 1?

I'm really glad you say that because if you just knew much much time I put into this. Way too much if this fails. I hope it will be worth it though. That is why I'm taking it slow now and easing it in so it can be properly tested. With time this will be even better!

Btw, @gordoh check the cake now at http://www.btccake.com/cake/f6e6eaa50e3bc52444f0079e0414fdfd0928631d7e8954ca6cde6167908c9d05 and click the "Results" tab! There you have even more details. Might be too technical, but still.

Edit: And I just checked the database, and everybody got their PlayBTC back. So that works. What's great here is that PlayBTC and real bitcoins go pretty much the same path in the code, so if it works for PlayBTC, it works for real bitcoins too. For the code, it's the same thing.

Looks great. Inspiring to see how much work you've put into this.

I love this feedback! Sounds to me like I should make a nice explanation page on there somewhere.

Basically, you bet on a wedge.

If the cake has 2 or more wedges, a wedge chance of winning is based on amount if bitcoins for that wedge.

The winning wedge is calculated based on input from a secret string concatenated with all users input, so its not really random, but quite impossible for anyone to know what it will be before hand. I really like that way because the result can always be calculated anytime by anyone (well, after the secret is revealed when time is up).

As for winnings, for example, the current cake has 0.3 PlayBTC on wedge 1. 0 on wedge 2. So, if time goes out, we just get our PlayBTC back because no one else bet against (basically Wedge 1 has 100% chance of winning )

Now, if someone put a bet on wedge 2 at, say 0.1 PlayBTC, that would be:

Wedge 1: 0.3 PlayBTC - 75% chance of winning
Wedge 2: 0.1 PlayBTC - 25% chance of winning

Also, the users in the winning wedge share the winnings based on bet too, so it's all fair.

Makes more sense now?

Okay I tried it. Bet on the first wedge. But to be honest, I have no idea what I'm betting on. Is it like a lottery where the winner is chosen at random. Sorry, Im sure you went through all of this already but its really not as simple as the title implies.  


**Edit: Please know that I only have limited PC skills, no programming knowledge and I have no idea what Jquery is. So probably in the majority of people who will be using your site. (maybe your target audience??)

Sounds pretty good you should give away some mbtc though to get it rolling.

Actually, I just created this: http://www.btccake.com/cake/f6e6eaa50e3bc52444f0079e0414fdfd0928631d7e8954ca6cde6167908c9d05 and placed a bet. Anyone wanna join or bet against me? It's PlayBTC, so not real money. But fun anyway. And you have 10 when you start.

Thanks! It's up right now at www.btccake.com actually. And if you happen to get a "not available" just refresh after a while, because you might be unlucky and trying just when I restart the server.

I can't stress enough that I want to test this out a bit first before people send bitcoins there like crazy. I've done many tests myself, but still. Could missed something. That is what you get when you can't really test with blockchain.info. Well, you can test with real bitcoins, but I don't understand why they don't have testnet3 support.

Feel free to play around with the fake money though. PlayBTC. I've actually set it to be able to reset to 10.0 BTC every week. This way it will have some value, as if you have more than 10 you are on the plus side. And, you can't just reset it if you just lost. I think I might have some nice prices for this later on.

Oh, and I need to get email in place. But you don't need that as long as you save your unique url. (which is http://www.btccake.com/user/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

This looks awesome. I would try it out if you had a website up and running. Layout looks very good.

Yea? What do you find particularly complex? I guess the "Create New Cake" can be daunting at first, but really, all those values are necessary and more importantly, important. Note though that you really basically only need to set time range and then you could create a cake. But anyway, what do you find most confusing/complex?

I think I will do a giveaways actually. First people will get a sum of btc just for using it and giving me feedback.

For something that claims to be a piece of cake it actually seems quite complex. I'd recommend offering giveaways for users to build up some momentum with the project.