Topic: Coinballer - An open-source multi-player Bitcoin gambling game. (Read 1221 times)

I was trying to make some tests on the game but sadly, OP has closed it due to the lack of gamblers

Hopefully, there will be another game developed by you so that we can have a play and review. I guess it is because of the lack of marketing campaigns so that there are not many people know about the game.

Good luck OP

I opened the Coinballer last day through the Bitcointalk forum. However, I was aware of the site several days ago. I wanted to give the review but I could not manage the time to review the site. I have spare a little time and trying to give my review about Coinballer. Once I opened the site I tried to check the menu and sidebar.

I have seen:
1. Logo
2. Current Games
3. Past games
4. Rules
5. New games and
6. About
While I click on the logo it redirects me to https://decision.casino/ which listed two sites. One is https://coinballer.net/ and another is https://satoshiauction.net/ I think this logo should stand for the site itself. Whether it redirects to the self-site or nothing. It can't be a good sign that while clicking on the logo it redirects to another site. Also, the logo is not enough good. And another point is that the site has no favicon. It is not a big deal but it could be good if you add a favicon.

I have not found any issues with the current game section. It is enough good.

The past games section is also enough good. It is just awesome.


I could not understand why 100 players are worth the game. And it is not mentioned what is the length and how to configure the length. On the site, they mentioned the length is configurable but not mentioned the method. What is the meaning of nth while n=configurable?
Why anyone needs the BTC address of all the players? And how to collect all those wallet addresses?
For a refund of the bitcoin, you will charge 0.0001BTC. Why the fees are fixed while the bitcoin fees vary from time to time? If the transaction fees deduct more than these then how the site will bear the fees?


It is very good that the player can select the block. There is a box and after the box, there is "th" I could not understand why they used it.

A few more options should be added. And those should be terms and conditions, frequently asked questions, and a privacy policy. And also there should have a home page/about us page while entering the site.

Even from reading the OP, the game is easy to understand, Like the name goes "Coinballer", we all know who a baller is in terms of wealth, so the game is all about who is more wealthier, the richer you are, the higher your chance of winning in this game.

From what I understand, there is a coin pot where every player can contribute any amount of BTC they are willing to risk to, and this contribution will go on and on,  and if eventually players stop contributing to the pot, the pot will still be open until 144 bitcoin block pass, ones 144 Bitcoin blocks have passed without any new contribution to the pot, the game will automatically end, and the winner will be the player that contributed the most BTC to the pot, all the BTC contributed to the pot will go to him minus 2% percent of it that goes to coinballer.

I think this game is very easy to understand, i hope this explanation helps you grab with ease, what the game is all about and its mechanics.

So you are telling me to stop calling you Bot? 😉
What next? You are not an AI yet. 😂
No, you don't send it back. According to the game rules you deserve the amount I sent. It was the website error which somehow skipped the code block or missed the code block to execute your payout. Enjoy it brother.

This will be more on testing, user experience than a review.

First impression: the site is so simple yet confusing. People will get puzzled, what is Coinballer? Because the first page or home page doesn't look like the site is a game or gambling. I need to access the About page first but no help for what is the game is all about.

Rules Page
The rules is something lacking and still confusing, a step by step of How-to start a game or how the game works with images or videos will be good addition.

New game page
Errors should be emphasized like having a red font color or background color is better.

About page
About page should explain and define what is Coinballer, what is the game is all about, the advantage of playing on the site, the difference of coinballer to other gambling site, etc.

Again, i will ask to add these pages as i still cannot see it on the site, such as Terms, Privacy policy, Faqs, Contact ^(optional), as these pages are important and some question and doubts should be catered.

Gameplay
Asking someone's wallet ddress before creating a game is a backward move for me, this will take time and realization of why should i play with user xxx if he can beat my ass since i only have this xxx bitcoin. Lol.
But this also prove how relentless someone is when the game started ^{(when participants deposits)}

The waiting of x confirmations always be setback when sending bitcoin, currently, waiting 5 block confirmation from 6 is still a long time to wait. Many gambling sites offers a 1 confirmation time deposit already. Implementation of lightning will be a good addition too, like giving option for lightning wallet to users other than the native wallet address.

I don't like the idea of sending the same amount of pot to the >1 winners, when the fact that you deposit the most ^{(well, i deposit the most in game 21  )}. There should be a ratio of amount for the highest bidder, to the lowest if there are >1 winners.

Conclusion
The idea of the game is unique, this prove how blockchain can be used such game/gambling like the lottery of guessing the end digit of a block.
But the game is not really fun for me, its indeed time consuming when more gamblers like the instant results except for sportsbetting. Well, considering this is based on bitcoin blocks, so users should understand about this game first before proceeding.

Lastly, for those users of "first impression last" updating the UI to modern look should be prioritize.

I'm human
I was wondering why I received 0.00049 BTC, since Coinballer already sent me 0.0005 BTC when OP did the payouts manually. Judging by the blockchain, he sent you back your 0.001 BTC. This manual fixing is confusing, so now what? Shall I send it back to you again?

I confirm that I received the coins I sent. I did not check my wallet yesterday but discovered it today earlier. It took me sometimes to figure out from where the BTC came until I read it.

 
@Bot, because of the bug although now it's showing correct share on the site but you received only the half of the coins you sent. Which means you deserved more 0.00049 BTC from the game which I sent few minutes ago.
dfef6ca653710fa8f0e5a4ff5d8ac79cf215fcec2b50db16e652dfd09e55a4e0

I did not take the fees and things in considering since it's something better ignoring than taking the hassle of calculation.

How about you read the OP and correct it yourself?

This game is as transparent as it gets!

 -  In all the auctions or bidding or bet that I have seen and read, this is the only auction or bet that I have seen that increases the price without any item being contested. I'm just being realistic, if I look at it, it looks like a scam but it's not. Because who has the highest bids all the amounts that gave bids, right?

Apart from that, the only ones I have seen that will benefit from this a lot are the whales or rich people who have the ability to control the auction or bidding price. It's a win-win for the host here because he has a 20% commission if I'm not wrong, please correct me if I'm wrong. It's clear that there is manipulation here, I just don't know if I'm the only one who thinks like this.

Hi there! I was interested in potentially participating in the review campaign, but I wanted to check if there are still openings available.

I took a quick look at the gaming site, but I have to admit that I'm still not completely familiar with this type of game – it seems like a new concept to me. The instructions on the site are somewhat limited, so I'm planning to spend some time studying all the details and reading through the comments of other members in this thread before I make a decision about testing out the game. Is it still possible to join the review campaign at this point, or are all the spots already filled?

Much appreciated!
Sent you a pm for refund.

unfortunately i can't find the time atm to check Coinballer.net thoroughly and leave a decent review. therefore i would like to send the 0.0025 back to the sender and apologize again for depriving someone else of the opportunity to participate in this review campaign...
shame on me

The game obviously is going to interest people to know what a block height is. Which means it's easier to introduce bitcoin to new people, not just introduce but to tell them here is a raffle, you can join and the pot is currently xxx amount, if you join with yyy then you are going to win a prize which is guaranteed. Who does not like free money (when win of course). We all do. The person then visits the site, learn about block height. He is one step ahead now. He is also learning the use of bitcoin knowing that it's an alternative currency which has a good use (not just to use it in the raffle).

In summary, there are a lot to learn about bitcoin than to play the actual game. But the current site is missing such information. The site needs a knowledge base section. Where it can have few articles about bitcoin, it's history, how blockchain works. It can cover all technical and economical aspects of bitcoin too. This way the site can be another bitcoin ambassador to spread the words out.

It's more effective because imagine in a corporate event where there are few hundreds or thousands of people are joining the event from around the world or even say from a local area. We see in such events they host raffles. They can introduce coinballer raffle or coinballer can sponsor a raffle. Result will be outstanding. More people will practically learn about bitcoin and it's use.

There are another important information pages are missing. Term and condition page, privacy, gambling aware information. Most of the people do not read it at all but eventually these terms protect the business. I understand right now the main focus is to develop the game but once the game is fully working then the next thing to focus will be to improve the information around the site before the commercial launch.

Thanks Coinballer and everyone else who were involved in this testing especially Edwardard and the Bot.

I checked the transaction and couldn't work out why it wasn't processed. My best guess is that we received this transaction whilst I was manually upgrading the system and it somehow skipped over the transaction.

I've manually processed this transaction and made manual payouts accordingly. Sorry for the mistake.

I made a script to audit the other transactions and everything seems like it's working. Please anybody let me know if there are any other problems with transactions not being received.


Sorry for the bug, I have made the payouts manually. Please let me know if something like this happens again.


That's correct, the game is only extended if the bet is equal to or exceeds the maximum bet. If you think the game is taking too long, you can always make a bigger bet, to make it harder to extend the game.


Yes this is correct.


This should be fixed for all currently open games, I made payout manually again for games that finished.

If you are still seeing this bug, could you please let me know which game is effected?


I've added short video, FAQ, ToS, PP, short explanation about open-source, contact info, display unconfirmed tx, and time approximations to the feature list for us to work on. Thank you so much for your review.


The game between LoyceV and BitcoinGirl.Club was manually adjusted. I couldn't find the bug that caused this so if it happens again please let me know.

I've added automatic refund of transactions past the deadline to the feature list to work on.

Thanks for your review.


I've added displaying unconfirmed transactions, usernames, countdown for remaining blocks, returning deposits made after games finished to the list of features to work on.

You're right about the play not being very attractive at the very beginning, I will think about ways to improve this.

Thank you for your review.

The owners of both the games are the same, but both  (coinballer and satoshiauction) are very different from each other. You'll know if you actually try them out. Also, both are open sourced.

Jayce has been working with them as a graphic designer for the site(s). Its still in an early stage. Hang on!

  - They are almost the same as the satoshi auction, who is the original of the two? So why is the interface design of this platform like that? He's so plain and simple that it's a bit unattractive, to be honest.

Then there seems to be a lack of information on what its mechanics are, then from what I can see there is still a lot to improve on this website as well.

Coinballer.net Review

I have looked at Coinballer's service repeatedly over the last few days and can give the following review:

---

Domain:

First of all, I have to say that I find the domain very appealing. Although it is only a .net domain, the name Coinballer.net is easily recognisable and stays in your head once you have been on the site. Good job. IMHO, it is a key point if you want to attract new players/customers in the future.

Afterwards I checked the site (as I do with every new service I visit) once on virustotal and again everything looked fine. Very nice. Testing could start straight away.

---

First Impression and Game Rules:

The first impression of the website is simple and clear. That is good. You can find your way around the clearly laid out main menu. The concept looks new and unique (very cool!). However, you are soon faced with the question: What is Coinballer exactly and how does the game work?

And this is where the problems start, unfortunately. If you click on the menu item "Rules" (https://coinballer.net/rules), the rules are worded so briefly that an "every day user" is completely unable to follow. I showed the website to a friend of mine who knows very little about crypto. And he doesn't understand a thing.

And if a user does not immediately understand how things work, he will only very rarely take the time to do so (Remember: Most of us are no tech geeks, we need explanations!). As a result, he usually leaves the website and Coinballer loses a potential player.

IMHO, that's why the "Rules"-section urgently needs to be reworked! Preferably with a detailed (!) description that includes either screenshots or videos of a complete game sequence.

Furthermore, pages such as a FAQ, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer or ToS are missing completely. In addition to that there is no support or contact form in case of problems during play. Okay... there is a short about page with a link to a LinkedIn profile and a note that the website is open-source, but IMHO this part also needs some rework. Don't forget to add an email or this Bitcointalk thread. If you want to do some support here (plenty of other projects do that too!).

Play on Coinballer:



I wanted to start a quick game (Game 30) that ends in 10 blocks, but then realised that at least 12 blocks are needed. Unfortunately, nothing was written about this in the rules. But there is an error, if you try to go below 12 blocks.

Error: An invalid length was provided. Length must be between 12 and 525600 blocks.

Furthermore, the maximum value of 525600 is quite high. Inexperienced users could accidentally start a game that will take months to finish. However, the high maximum also gives the possibility to start games that run over a longer period of time. As a provider, you have to weigh this up carefully. If a long game period should also be possible in the future, I would include a disclaimer that tells the player:

"Be careful, you are about to start a game that may not end for several months/years!"

In addition, I would also add the note that transactions require 6 confirmations on the Rules/FAQ pages. Moreover, it would be helpful if transactions that do not yet have 6 confirmations are also displayed somewhere on the Game page (e.g. TX bc1... - Betting Amount 0.001 BTC - 3/6).

Another cool feature would be a big button/text letting the players know how much is in the pot and how much the winner would receive (prize money minus fees). This of course needs to be updated once a new bet is placed.

In addition, it would certainly make sense to move all played games to a separate page (perhaps "Played Games" or similar). Of course, later on you could also add pages like "Highest Games/Jackpot", "Most Players", "Most Bets". If players see that a lot of BTC is being wagered on your site and that there are a lot of other players, this should act as a great incentive for many to try your service.

Conclusion:

My experience with Coinballer is mixed. The product doesn't seem mature yet and it might need some work to turn this website into a real game that people actually play. Nevertheless, I find the idea exciting and with dedicated devs, a great product can certainly be developed here.

I also think the basic game idea is plausible. If players are willing to keep increasing their stakes, the pot can grow pretty quickly. And then players are likely to bet more and more to win the game (We all know this from auctions, where the bidders go into a frenzy and keep bidding each other up - even if they were initially only prepared to put down a much lower amount.).

The UI/UX needs to be reworked, of course. I don't want to list all the points I mentioned here again - but I think my review and the other reviews here will show that there is no shortage of points in need of improvement.

Anyway, I hope my review helps and you guys will create a cool game in the long run. Good luck!  

First: it felt more like testing than reviewing. I know the site is still in development, but in my opinion there are still too many problems to go live. The Rules don't cover some of the possible scenarios I can think of. My first impression after being happy to see a new type of game was confusion. It took me a while to realize for instance sniping isn't possible.

I started my Review yesterday:

I can complete my Review now that (my) Game 22 ended. See:
It took me a while to realize a game with 2 people and 2 winners makes no sense: you'll get back 49% of anything you deposit, and so does the other player. That means there's no incentive to deposit anything, but it did it as a test.
There was a problem with the game: one of the deposits wasn't registered, despite having many confirmations before the game ended. The final prize was based on only the first deposit, the second deposit is still unaccounted for. Needless to say: this shouldn't happen. Update: it's fixed.

Suggestions

• I get that you don't want to work with unconfirmed transactions, but can you at least add a notification when one of the addresses has an incoming deposit?
• Add a warning when someone creates a game with the same number of winners as players. Such a game makes no sense.
• The maximun number of blocks 525600 between the last bet and the deadline is very large. Not everyone knows blocks take 10 minutes, and if someone accidentally sets it to 10 years, they'll complain. I'd say lower the maximum number of blocks. See Game 27:
  
  

• With multiple winners, can you (optionally) make their prizes pro-rated? So if there are 5 players and 2 winners, each winner gets a prize depending on how much they deposited.
• Ask for less confirmations, waiting an hour on average for 6 confirmations makes the game very slow. And most websites don't require that many confirmations, usually 1 is enough unless there are large amounts involved.
• Add (optional) labels to the addresses when creating a New Game, to make it easier to distinguish addresses for the players. Or at least number the rows with addresses.
• The "Current confirmed block height" is 6 less than the current block height. I get that the difference is 6 confirmations, but this can be confusing. Example: if the deadline is 800000, and the current confirmed block height is 799995, it's already too late to make a deposit but that isn't clear from the game.
• I know it shows the current block height and the deadline, but comparing large numbers isn't trival. Can you show a countdown for the remaining blocks?
• I get that you don't want to work with unconfirmed transactions, but can you at least add a notification when one of the addresses has an incoming deposit?
• Maybe you can you add a FAQ with some screenshots of finished games, to make things clearer. And add more information, what happens for instance if a deposit confirms after the game ended? Will you return it?

Game play
I haven't seen a game that's attractive to deposit if nobody else deposited yet, and that could stop people from starting a game.
Takes for example Game 21:
This game has a minimum of 3 winners out of (up to) 10 players. If you're the first to deposit, and nobody else deposits, you get back less than 33% of your deposit. That's a huge risk to take!
If 5 others have deposited (that's the current state of the game in the screenshot), you'll need to deposit at least 0.00010000 BTC to get a prize (or 1 sat more to eliminate another player). That a much more attractive bet.
If there's only 1 winner, it's still not attractive to be the first, but at least you'll get back 98% if nobody else deposits.
I can't think of a way to improve this, and it may be inherent to this kind of game, but shouldn't a game be attractive from the start?

I wanted to be fair, so I sent 0.6mBTC (half of the bug bounty) to your wallet. We both played a role in finding the bug, so I thought it was appropriate to split the reward.


It appears that the issue has been fixed for everyone. Based on the outcome of Game #22, it seems that LoyceV and BitcoinGirl.Club shared the pot. However, upon further inspection, it looks like the second deposit was not taken into account in the total balance. This could potentially be another bug, or at the very least, a flaw in the software that needs to be addressed.

@jackmurray, perhaps the simplest solution to this problem would be to automatically return all transactions that are confirmed after the deadline to the sender (minus the transfer fee)?

My review about Coinballer (Done)

First visit

Using Tor Browser, i visit Coinballer website. I don't see annoying "security check" or CAPTCHA which is a bit nice compared to few casino i've visited. The website design is extremely simple which reminds me of 90's website, although slightly modern design would be great and could attract more people. I have slight positive first impression.

Just like other member, i have difficulty understanding the rule. I had to re-read the rules few times and read discussion among member in order to understand the rule. Even so, there's one point i misunderstood (more detail below). So it'd be great if short video or example of game session with some explanation is exist.

Exploring other page, i didn't find few important page such as FAQ, ToS (Terms of Service) and PP (Privacy Policy). Many people would either perceive it as red flag or doesn't take your casino seriously. You really should add those page since it also could save you from answering similar question many times.

As open source user, it's nice addition that the website is open source. But most people either don't care or don't know the benefit of open source software, so adding one/two paragraph explanation about it could give user better impression. And while we're at it, the "About" page should include another ways to contact you (such as email address or this Bitcointalk thread).

Play a game

Since the game require you to include Bitcoin address of all players in advance, i decide to include Bitcoin address of all reviewer and see who joined. It's more convenient and took less time compared with contacting each potential player where. As you can see on game 21, i set it to have 10 player, 3 winner and 576 blocks (about 4 days) length. Initially i mistook 576 blocks as length of whole game rather than length between last bet and deadline. Had i known about it, i would set it to only 288 or 432 blocks (about 2 or 3 days).

Checking other games, there are many finished game and unfinished game with empty pot. It'd be great if list of finished game only can be seen on different page. And since there are many unfinished game with empty pot, personally i'd like the website to emphasize game with non-empty pot.

Now about UI/UX, there are few lacking things. While now we know 6 confirmation is needed, it'd be great if the game show transaction/balance which doesn't have 6 confirmation yet. It'd be nice assurance for user that the system already detect the transaction and they send Bitcoin to correct address. The website also only use block height/total block count as time reference. Adding different time unit such as "576 blocks (4 days or ended on 10/01/2023 10:00 AM)" would give user better idea and saving their time from using calculator and looking at calendar.

Game 21 finally finished after 4.5 to 5 days since the creation. I sent 10K satoshi during the game and received ~11K satoshi in return which is nice. I briefly checked the transaction on certain Bitcoin block explorer and found out each transaction only send Bitcoin to one winner. I would recommend you to perform batching in the future to reduce satoshi spend on TX fee.

Conclusion

I have not so positive experience with Coinballer. The game itself isn't really fun since i have to contact people in advance, which is cumbersome when people around you isn't willing to bet with real money. I also feel the only suspense/adrenaline comes from player who're willing to keep make a raise. But take note i'm not gambler.

From UI/UX and marketing perspective, some effort is needed to attract average player/gambler. Aside from what i've mentioned above or already mentioned by other player, here are few additional recommendation.

• Coinballer source code has no license yet, so you should add one. MIT is simple and popular option, but AGPLv3 also works if you want to put few restriction.
• For game with multiple winners, having option to share the pot evenly or based on deposit amount would be great option.
• Let player know that amount on "Currently each winner will receive" doesn't consider Bitcoin transaction fee.