Also, just a few features I'd like to see since we don't hear from you all as often on telegram anymore.
- I think the feature that needs to be emphasized the most is the peer to peer nature of the exchange. I think it would be a cool addition if you could add people as friends, and send them bets directly to accept or decline. This would make it much more interactive for friends to enjoy, and thus, spread that much more virally. And, it could become one of those things where people's casual bets that they never follow through with would be enforced on the blockchain. So you could never say "oh well we never shook on it so it doesn't count."
- Much like the bitshares system, Bookie needs a dollar-stable currency. I think a ppyUSD would be a great way for newbies to mitigate their risk of using the ppy system and remove the volatility, while allowing those of us who believe deeply in the project to shoulder that risk/reward by creating ppyUSD. I don't think the cryptocurrency world will adopt a good betting platform unless this is an added feature. The casual bettor just wont accept betting $5, winning, and then getting $5 back because the cryptomarket tanked like it is now. I'm guessing this should be a relatively easy addition, considering ppy's roots in bitshares/graphene. I have said this before, but have never heard back on how/if this will be implemented, but I think it would be a very strong selling point to potential users.
I may chime in with other features if/when I think of them, but thanks for your time.
Welcome! I’ll reply to both of your messages here.
1. The Masters - This is a great event. We actually ran a non-binary Super Bowl betting market during Bookie Beta Phase 1 this past weekend - "Which player will be named MVP?". The results were positive, so this is absolutely the type of event we can target in the future. That said, another key element of bringing certain sports on board is to have resilient data feeds in place that allow automated market management in that sport. As a Witness you are particularly well-placed to help make this happen in the run-up to Bookie launch. We look forward to your participation in making your suggestion a reality!
2. When PBSA began thinking about sports betting, we wanted a model that could be easily decentralized and where there was already an existing market to disrupt. Betting exchanges fit this perfectly - they are already P2P and have carved out a huge market for themselves during the past 15+ years now. Betting exchanges anonymize your bet and make it fully fungible in a standardized marketplace. Introducing a feature that allows users to place bets directly against each other would be cool but there is simply no existing market for this kind of product. PBSA is dedicated at this stage to bringing provably-fair product to the Peerplays blockchain - product that will scale up and disrupt existing gaming markets. Head-to-head betting may be something to look at further down the line.
3. This is an interesting idea and, of course, something we have spent a lot of time thinking through. Bookie is one of many crypto-projects that would benefit from a resilient, scalable stablecoin. As a Graphene chain, the possibility of something like a ppyUSD is there, as you say. Although it is unlikely to be something you see on Bookie at launch, we are continually looking at ways that Bookie (and other Peerplays DApps) can be made more accessible for the casual market.
Thanks again for your ideas. We look forward to hearing your future thoughts when they pop up!