Hacker News Reader

>an atomic bet guarantees that the winner will be paid no matter what.

How is this possible? is there an Oracle all parties agree to trust?

edit:i see how this can work for some sort of bet where the result is calculated on the blockchain itself but outside of that?

View on HN

It relies on the parties to take an action (that they are both incentivized to take in order to see if they won). This is similar to atomic swaps - they setup a time boxed window when people must take an action. If one of the parties fails to act in time, they will, in fact, lose their coins.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com