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Topic: Bitcoin Lottery with Trusted Escrow Holding Private Key and all funds (Read 448 times)

member
Activity: 76
Merit: 10
The solution is using a probably fair method which is what https://brafflr.com does.

You can read more about it on their FAQ.
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 502
The problem with all the bitcoin lotteries is how do we know that the person who wins every week is not just an alt of the person organizing the lottery? The problem is not the escrow holding the funds but determining if the winner is legitimate in the first place. That's why all the 'official' lotteries have audits and committees overlooking the process. Because the escrow could be releasing the wins to your alt accounts and no one would be suspecting a thing.

Agreed,

If there was a way to make this more transparent it would be good. as you say. the random number generated by the site could be the site owner alt himself.

Maybe somehow we could involved https://letstalkbitcoin.com/ and draw from a hat on their podcast or something.... i dunno, idea.
sr. member
Activity: 350
Merit: 251
Shit, did I leave the stove on?
The problem with all the bitcoin lotteries is how do we know that the person who wins every week is not just an alt of the person organizing the lottery? The problem is not the escrow holding the funds but determining if the winner is legitimate in the first place. That's why all the 'official' lotteries have audits and committees overlooking the process. Because the escrow could be releasing the wins to your alt accounts and no one would be suspecting a thing.
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 502
1. There's a site that picks a winner daily (even though sometimes they seem to pick someone real and pay, recently the haven't paid anyone since most bitcoin addresses they choose is either new or very old and it seems more of a cheating IMO)
2,3,4. All good

My concern is, how winners would be chosen? Will it be in a completely transparent way in which a software will be used and everything will be video recorded for everyone to see if it's purely legit? If yes then you might have a chance, If no, then forget it.

I was going to choose a winner using a pseudo-random number from an array of address/names I pull out of a database. I have no access to Hardware RNG.
legendary
Activity: 2968
Merit: 3406
Crypto Swap Exchange
1. There's a site that picks a winner daily (even though sometimes they seem to pick someone real and pay, recently the haven't paid anyone since most bitcoin addresses they choose is either new or very old and it seems more of a cheating IMO)
2,3,4. All good

My concern is, how winners would be chosen? Will it be in a completely transparent way in which a software will be used and everything will be video recorded for everyone to see if it's purely legit? If yes then you might have a chance, If no, then forget it.
legendary
Activity: 1344
Merit: 1251
The idea in itself isn't exactly bad. But it seems like mutliple persons tried this and it didn't work.

I can relate to that, no matter the lottery I would have no intention to participate Wink
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 502
Good idea you have there. However, why dont an escrow hold a lottery game themselves when they "can" hold lottery funds? Also taking 25% fees is somewhat too high. For my free Bitcoin lottery site I only take 10% of the total revenues.

Sorry, I didn't mean 25% fee, I meant a quarter of the monthly hosting cost. so if its $8, then take $2.
legendary
Activity: 1484
Merit: 1001
Personal Text Space Not For Sale
Good idea you have there. However, why dont an escrow hold a lottery game themselves when they "can" hold lottery funds? Also taking 25% fees is somewhat too high. For my free Bitcoin lottery site I only take 10% of the total revenues.
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 502
I believe so yes, but they are multi-sig wallets.

Multi-Sig wallets themselves don't mean security, it depends who holds the keys.
member
Activity: 76
Merit: 10
I believe so yes, but they are multi-sig wallets.
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 502
There is already a site like this https://brafflr.com

Thanks, I had not seen this before, how are the funds escrowed, just trusted by site holdings?
member
Activity: 76
Merit: 10
There is already a site like this https://brafflr.com
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 502
Okay,

So I seen many attempts of bitcoin lottery's start and fail but I am wondering whether it would be a good idea to do the following.

1) Create site which shows lottery address every week and chooses a winner every saturday.
2) This address is created by one of the big three escrows and no-one else has access.
3) escrow gets his fee from pot, lottery site gets a quarter of the monthly hosting cost so the site can be made.
4) rest of pot goes to winner via manual payment from escrow

(or something more complicated but around the same method)
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