no numbers are random. if you could get the same measurements... throw it threw the same algorithm... or realize background radiation trends at the site... if you could calculate the entire world's flow of particles couldn't you determine all of these "random" numbers?
Ok, this is getting philoshopical.. that's one way of thinking, you might be right. However, there are other opinions also. We can argue if quantum events are truely random or not.. it is even possible to claim that actually all possible every quantum based event happens in some universe (multiversum theory). Well, is it random any longer then?
Quite funny to think that according to multiversum theory, every tournament goes on with every possible tables and hand I could imagine. I just happen to see and experience that particular serie of cards. Actually, If you 'believe' in this theory, you might oppose pseudo-randomness..
But truly vs pseudorandomness is something we cannot prove, so let's just leave it ;-) Actually, my opinion is that we really do not know. There are randomness or not, but we really do not know how it is. Pseudo-random is anyway good for me. And actually, player delays makes pseudo random very truely random (I assume every shuffle is made with a new seed which is generated at the shuffle time, which is dependant on player delays on that table *and* the others).
btw, It's very clear that random.org etc are out of question for a poker site. Getting the numbers outside would be way too risky.
1) IMO philosophy is dead. The answer always lies in science
2) To the uneducated, saying a poker site generates "pseudo-random" numbers likely sounds scary, but it's too long-winded to say the site generates "pseudo-random numbers that satisfy even the toughest statistical analysis, constantly generating numbers well within acceptable tolerances that deal a fair game of poker over and over again"
-- More games [we have plans]
Backgammon?!
Backgammon is solved I thought?
still, I remember when it was on Merge, and while it would be towards the back of the pack here, I remember firing pretty hard on it, always vs. really good players (obv) but still having a lot of fun with it. Backgammon has it's "skill v luck" place in P2P gambling, so I would say it's on the table. I don't mind making Chess for SwC eventually, although I can't see much action there either. We will need to run through all the poker games to get there.
Actually, one thing that worries me, (after what happened to Slush and bitcoin-central), is that even very reliable site could get hacked. Of course, I trust your capabilities and I assume you have done very good job minimising the risk and possible losses. Actualy, I feel quite safe regarding seals. Slush and BC minimized ther losses and I believe you do as good job as they did.
However, I would feel safest, if I could send the BTC to the site before starting to play and then send my wallet back after I stop. I think it is almost impossibe to make it completely work like that, transactions should be immediate to make it happen.
I assume you make manual transactions as a final step to prevent cheaters from withdrawaling the chips and possibly preventing some unwanted accidents. That's good. But how about adding some kind of credit to the system? Let's say, a player has a roll of 2k. He has 2k on the site and makes a 'conditional withdrawal' for that. That request is manually accepted just like normal withdrawal. However, after that, a player has a 'credit' for 2k, so before session, he can send the 2k back to the site, then play and afterwards make *immediate* withdrawal for max 2k. That would make possible to keep roll on player's own wallet instead of the site.
Actually, initial 'credit' could be the deposit amount.
i can imagine one way of abusing it; if player loses all his roll and after that gets the same amount of chips by cheating. Then he could withdrawal the cheated chips without manual intervention.
When I was thinking about how slush and BC was hacked, another idea came to my mind; some kind of emergency transaction, which, when triggered, would send the hot wallet to an offline wallet. So when the site is rebooted unintentionally, or something otherwise weird happens (you know better what could be suspicious), the online wallet would be immediately emptied to an offline wallet, leaving the thief empty handed. Of course, the best would be to have no online wallet (I think it would be possible, if very carefully designed).
Btw, do you have a 'dead mans switch', which would send all player's money to their withdrawal addresses if FBI knocks on your door ;-) ?
1) most coins are stored in a cloud-based cold storage system. We will vigilantly defend against any hacks of any sort, but just in case we always have a fresh backup and all the coins.
2) our exact security measures cannot be divulged for obvious reasons, but we have multiple systems in place securing funds. We plan on being around for a while.