Topic: Blocks of Crypto -- a Minecraft-Crypto Concept - page 3. (Read 804 times)

Interesting. Will look into doing this programmatically -- not sure if the library I'm using right now supports it or if I'd need to code this myself (more work).

I see. I'll definitely look into this.

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Just an update on the project as a whole: still on a work course till the 23rd, expect to resume development on the 25th after a day's break.

You don't need to open a channel to every single user. You could open a single large channel to some medium/large sized node which could take care of payment routing for a small fee.


You could even open a direct channel to BlueWallet node to make sure that there would not be any failed routings. In such a case, you would not have to pay any transaction fees for withdrawals made to BlueWallet.

I'm not sure we'll start out with sufficient funds to do that for each user.

Yeah. I think paying in an altcoin or having a high payout threshold will be the solution I'll go for.

Yes, you need to lock up a certain amount of coins in a multi-signature address beforehand.


You also need to worry about inbound/outbound liquidity. When you open a channel, all funds are on your side of the channel. Unless someone opens a channel to your node or you spend some coins over the Lightning Network, you won't be able to receive any payments.

I know it's complicated. An average minecraft player would not bother to do all of that. That's why you could recommend BlueWallet to your players. This way, they would be instantly able to receive Lightning payments without any extra configuration. It's a custodial wallet, though.

LN contracts require a pre-payment, though, don't they? And a contract is between max two parties.

Meaning an additional amount will always be tied up in open LN contracts.

I am not sure what you are trying to say here. A channel is maintained between only two people. A node can have multiple channels. When some node routes a payment, it receives coins in one channel and uses some other channel to send the same amount of coins (minus the fee). If there was only one node which could route a payment from you to the player, it would not be necessarily more expensive than an on-chain transaction. The LN was designed for micro-payments, so you would end up paying a couple of satoshis or even less.


In other words, the player can receive payments over the Lightning Network as long as they don't close their channel.

Correct. Furthermore, my understanding of the Lightning Network is that for channels with < 2 recipients (other than sender) the fee is actually bigger than if the main network was used.... didn't really read much into the technical side of the LN though.

The LN might work if the player requested multiple withdrawals without sending coins between each withdrawal to an address/recipient not on the LN.

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Just a development update, haven't gotten much done. Been on a course for work since the 28th and I've been arriving home around midnight, leaving home again at 6+ in the morning, so no time or energy to work on this project.

Will begin working on it again end July. Will be drawing up proper timelines and plans for the project soon.

Wouldn't a solution that uses LN fix issue 1?

Cheers mate.


I agree entirely.


The fantasy "token" is worth a set amount of Bitcoin, the in-game cash ("Playcash") which is used as the primary economy of the server is not.

Playcash must be able to be generated freely (i.e. from quests, selling items to the server shop, etc) -- it can therefore NOT be pegged to a Bitcoin balance... unless you're willing to sponsor me unlimited Bitcoin.

The issue is, your probably restricted by Mojang's EULA. They probably won't authorize the ability for a real life currency to be earned, and sold via in game. I haven't checked the EULA in a long time, but most games have similar policies in place which restrict the purchasing, and selling of in game items, and I'm sure a lot of them have extended that to cryptocurrencies ever since they have emerged.

By creating a in game currency, it'll probably be easier to work with the EULA. Also, it does save a butt load of work trying to implement Bitcoin into the server. The virtual currency could operate the exact same, and is probably a more secure implementation, since you aren't storing Bitcoin on the server. Instead, users would earn the virtual currency, and then request a withdrawal at x time.

Its just like how your bank account works. The money that you see on your screen isn't actually cash/good or whatever. Its just a number, which is processed later on down the line, rather than immediately as you push withdraw or send.

Many services already offer a setup, and most users won't even know the difference. 

 

I see some users are suggesting that you should create some in-game currency that can be converted to Crypto, but for me it kind of defeats the purpose. I want to see a server where you can use Bitcoin (BTC) as the economy and not some kind of fantasy token. (We see lots of games where in-game currencies are created and in some of these games, people pre-mine them to enrich themselves)

Minecraft still has a huge cult following and we can tap into a group of people that are very passionate and would appreciate some real world reward for their time and effort. (That are not linked to Fiat currencies)  

Something like this : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/minecraft-players-win-bitcoin-treasure-160033197.html

Always interested in hearing about it, as Minecraft is probably one of the only games which gives enough freedom to implement something like this. In fact, I believe many have attempted, and partially succeeded in the past. You are probably aware of it, but I believe there was a server which integrated Bitcoin, and had Bitcoin payouts for things like mining in Minecraft. There was also a casino inside Minecraft, which I believe might have closed down due to legal issues, I'm not entirely sure on that though.

I do absolutely believe though, that the best way of making this a success is to focus less on attracting those already involved in cryptocurrency, and instead trying to entice the general Minecraft playing demographic, but offering the ability to earn money that can be redeemed to real life cash.

 

Damn bro, I had that idea like in 2013

Best of luck! It will be tough to make, but it's very much possible.

I just checked it out. Doesn't seem very popular. As Welsh said, the size of the demographic that both plays Minecraft and is into Bitcoin/cryptocurrency is already notably small. The Minetest x crypto demographic is very likely even smaller. I want to build off an existing, accessible playerbase -- namely, the Minecraft community. After all, you don't need to know jack shit about crypto to join the server. One could join and learn while playing.


That's precisely what I intend to do. I spent a good 25+ hours this last week working on the project and I'm happy to say I'm well into the standalone server that'll run the wallet. The only thing I've touched on the plugin is the code implementation to get it to talk to the wallet/account server.

I'm currently running it on the testnet network and I've gotten deposits and withdrawals to work. I'm planning to finish the standalone server before working on the plugin and in-game mechanics. I'll be creating a simple web interface as well for users to access their accounts and tokens, so in case the Minecraft server is taken offline for maintenance there will still be a way for them to retrieve their funds at any time.

I'm not always at my computer and I'm usually quite busy, so also looking into (minimally) having logging integrated into a Telegram bot. May add notifications through Telegram in the future, things like confirming deposits, miner under attack, plant growth progress, etc.

I've planned out a rough development road map for the Minecraft plugin, researched the libraries I'll use, and out down the base code as well. The current version can be loaded by the latest version Spigot server and will start and connect to the standalone server.

I'll post a proper update or a link to more updates in the OP soon.

This is a massive project, and while it could definitely be possible to do. You might want to try appealing to the more casual Minecraft player, rather than users of Bitcoin. I don't know what the demographic would be for Bitcoiners that also play Minecraft. Instead, you should try promoting it as a way of earning money while playing Minecraft. That would likely appeal to the general public more, and therefore you would generate more players.
This is something that is probably more hassle than its worth. Depending on your country of residence, you would likely have to register with a gambling commission, get licensed, and wouldn't be able to accept users from certain countries unless you have a sufficient enough license.

I understand you wouldn't be providing the services exactly, and just using an API. However, I do still believe that would require being licensed. Not to mention, this likely goes against the Mojang EULA.

You might want to consider Minetest, which comes without an EULA, and has gained quite some traction lately. Having a fully open sourced codebase would be more alongside with Bitcoin's transparency anyway.

Spent the night up with some friends yesterday brainstorming how the economy could work. Updated OP with a lot more detail about playcash, tokens, etc.

Added some ideas to my OP.

I think players are generally quite saavy when it comes to pricing. In-game economy is usually very simple. If we implement a floating/dynamic value in the server-shop, it will reward attentive players who also manually vary their personal shop prices.

Let me very quickly explain the common setup for Minecraft economies.

• Server runs a shop. It buys and sells usually at hugely uneconomic prices, i.e. it sells diamonds at $500 per diamond but only buys them at $50 per diamond.
• Players can setup their own physical shops. These are either in protected areas like a rentable "stall" in a safe, server-managed shop complex OR out in the wild but on protected plots of land (this would be the case on our server, most likely) OR out in the wild and unprotected.

As for ours:

• In the economy I'm thinking about, the only way to directly earn Bitcoin will be to convert a special item into a premium currency balance in-game. Call it... blooptokens... whatever. One emerald = 1 blooptoken. Let's say.... 100,000 blooptokens = mBTC. Something like that.
• Non-premium in-game currency is measured in virtual dollars. The virtual dollar to blooptoken rate varies and is controlled by the server. In that sense, blooptokens are like a centralized token.
• Blooptokens can be spent directly with the server to withdraw BTC to an address.
• Blooptokens can be sent directly to other users without first converting to virtual $.

Went off on a little tangent there, but just had to get the idea out.


Not possible in Minecraft. Items all look different and named items are italicized. Very obvious what's what, so this is not a concern. There aren't different rarity diamonds, for example, just diamonds, emeralds, gold ingots, etc. They're all skinned differently and can be told apart quickly. Maybe naming an item would fool someone logging on for the first time, but any reasonably experienced (~a few hours?) Minecraft player would be able to pick up such an obvious scam immediately. It has the same chance of happening as someone falling for a Nigerian prince scam.


Having run my fair share of Minecraft servers in the past (including a network I still host but is pretty much deserted due to lack of advertisement), I'm aware of how to counter this. Simply put, there are plugins like this (https://dev.bukkit.org/projects/orebfuscator) that obfuscate nonvisble blocks, changing them into random blocks / other valuable blocks. Blocks are "revealed" or unobfuscated when exposed to air. This makes x-ray cheats redundant as suddenly every block is valuable until discovered legitimately.

The link is to a plugin that's outdated. There are newer alternatives, many of them. Not a problem to code, either, though I'm sure there are open-source options out there that the community has heavily refined or optimized. Would definitely be installing one of those, as well as an anti-cheat plugin to ensure fair play on the server as far as cheat/hack clients go. I use Spartan (https://www.spigotmc.org/resources/spartan-anti-cheat-advanced-cheat-detection-hack-blocker-1-7-2-1-17.25638/, link requires login on SpigotMC) on the network I run and it works well.

Possibly. But then how will the server get its balance in the altcoin? Unless you're suggesting we hold a hot wallet stocked with the altcoin of choice... which is risky if the altcoin dips. What's the transaction fee like for ETH? That's one of the most stable altcoins I know. Will check it out.


No doubt about it. I'm sure we can find a way to moderate in-game transactions, however, to prevent or dissuade/discourage scams in-game. What kinds of deceptive tactics are you thinking of?