Peer-to-peer sports betting inside the Bitcoin blockchain
xbet.io
xbet.io
But who adjudicates the event outcomes? In other words, who is the administrator that chooses the winning side of a bet when the event is over?
> XBet.IO uses a one of a kind intervention mechanism to ensure that only verified results are broadcasted to settle bets. After every match, the results are displayed for the users to review and file an appeal if they think the result is wrong. If a bet is reported, it would be manually verified by an admin before settling the bet.
And who are the admins? An admin could steal all the funds placed on a winning bet by simply placing a small bet on the losing outcome, then settling the bet on that wrong outcome (and denying the appeal).
Its quite dishonest to claim that "money cannot be stolen or seized by anyone" just because the bets/order books are decentralized. The outcome admin/judging is still centralized. Whoever controls the judging, effectively controls the funds.
Take 10 reputable sports journalists/well known figures. Pay them part of the 1% profit. In exchange for the money they would agree to provide a proof of the result (signed with their key). Craft the transactions so that for example 4 out of 10 confirmations are needed for the transaction to go through.
The better solution is to not to rely on trust or semi-trust (i.e. trust multiple parties not to collude) at all. Instead, incentivize people to act in their own self-interest (the same game-theoretic assumption underlying the blockchain). This is how TruthCoin incentivizes voters to adjudicate decisions (voters are analogous to miners): https://github.com/psztorc/Truthcoin
They charge 5% commission on net profits for a given event (would be reduced to 3% if I had very large volume). They are floated on the stock market, have a decent market cap and I think my funds are likely safe with them. That 5% is a lot, and really reduces my profit, BUT at least I am fairly sure my capital is safe. (Unlike e.g. intrade [0] who I really wanted to use (big arbs on US presidential election vs betfair) but did not trust (rightly so, as it turned out)).
The other positive thing is the market depth - many punters use betfair. This is self-reinforcing - people don't use eg betdaq because people don't use betdaq, even though their commission is currently 3%.
Another thing: I am happy having my capital tied up in bets because inflation and interest rates are low. That is not true of bitcoin. For bets on a given match, made and settled the same day, this might not be a big issue, but for longer-term bets ...
I'm interested to see how xbet does, good luck to them.
Also: https://developer.betfair.com/ http://forum.bdp.betfair.com/
I was careful about using someone else's code for handling my money! So I used basic example code that I understood (I no longer remember where I got it, sorry), then extended it.
From various forums etc, there seems to be a big pool of people doing this sort of thing. Also, from the betting market dynamics, you can see there are other algo traders - watching the in-play betting on soccer matches is quite amazing - the bettors work with such small margins and big volumes, 'predicting' the game in real-time. Most impressive.
also there's no httponly flag on the session cookie
gotta love bitcoin sites
A good reason there is a lot of work being done to separate the two offerings from each other. I'm supporting all sorts of features, but to pay, you gotta send Bitcoin with a client - not my site. Safest that way. Also, see Counterparty.
Edit: From the site in question: "Nowhere do we store or request any personal information." https://xbet.io/why_use_xbet
Another thing: It's not a forgone conclusion that Bitcoin technologies will get better over time, but there is a large amount of pressure to make that a reality. People like their money, above all.