phaser

I agree that Payment Channels is a good step forward but there's the hard limit on how many channels can be open. I'm confident that there will be proposals similar to Poon et al. [1] to create a third layer for networks of payment channels where a Blockchain tx can be used only in case of uncooperative channel counterparties.

[1] https://www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/file/a20a865ce40d40c8f942cf206a7c...

I'm here to say the problems in selling games for Bitcoin are not the same for microtransactions.

I'm the original developer of Bitquest[1], where we used to process hundreds of micropayments smaller than 1 cent each day using 0 fee Bitcoin transactions.

When the blocks started to fill up we had to move all transactions off-chain except when players send money to the game and cashing out.

From the player's perspective, it's hard to justify paying $2 each time get Bitcoin in/out of the game. On the other side, there's no cut for Apple, Google, et al. who charge for as much as 30% cut for micro transactions.

I'm now working on a similar game[2] that will take advantage of Segwit and Lightning Network. There's still miner fees involved to send money in and opening a payment channel, however there's no cut to a payment processor and the associated problems of compliance.

I'm not saying it's perfect but there's still important advantages on Cryptocurrency for game transactions and I'm confident that Steam and others will get back to it after it's infancy.

[1] https://github.com/bitquest/bitquest [2] https://hammerco.in

launching a competing altcoin while pumping a solution to the very same disruption a bitcoin fork would cause

proving that some data existed prior to some point in time using blockchain timestamps.

https://opentimestamps.org/

Why is WeChat not an operating system already? At the very least an Android distribution with a WeChat shell.

A more appropriate headline would be "Donating $2,679,001 can will get you a dinner with Warren Buffet" but who would click that bait?

> Realistically, can not be activated (95% support level required, way more than achievable). Means we'll stuck with current 1MB forever waiting for segwit

This is not an argument against segwit, but against the method of it's activation. The rationale behind this high activation treshold is well summarized by greg maxwell [1]

> Upon activation it does not add any benefits. Real increase in throughput will be achieved later, then all major players updated their client code, started crafting segwit transactions and moved coins to new segwit addresses. Means it delays throughput increase even more

If only merchants or services who need to do lots transactions enable segwit, everyone benefits from the compressed output as there is more space on the chain for non-segwit wallets even if they don't upgrade or are aware of what segwit is

> After full adoption, throughput will be increased from 1MB/10min up to ~1.7-2MB/10min while worst-case scenario (useless, specially crafted transactions) is 4MB - miners should be prepared for it. Means "2MB forever" and "hard to increase block size because miners should be prepared for 4x load"

Miners should be prepared to give the service users want and pay for with fees. "Specially crafted transactions" included.

[1] https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017...

When Jobs/Ive was crazy over Dieter Rams designs for Braun, the year was 2001 and music players were designed like if it was a gadget for Batman's belt.

For the years to come all apple designs made look the competition like ridiculous old technology.

Today, Apple designs like the watch and Macbooks follow the same tired idea of curvy, minimalistic Braun-like devices while some competitors are leapfrogging to new design paradigms, maybe trying to pull the same 2001 success of the iPod; Perhaps no one is there yet, but many years have passed and the taste of design is eager for the next thing.

it could be garbage collected when user closes the tab.

The difference is that Flash, being proprietary, Adobe is the only party allowed to fix a memory leak. HTML5, a standard, can have many proposals, discussions and implementations on how to fix issues.

Why it was flagged?

Sidechains can be an open, standard way to have a transaction database, instead of us (and every other developer) with different solutions to this problem.

It's also worth mentioning a sidechain or payment channels can be "flushed" to the Bitcoin Blockchain (syncing up the balances of off-chain debits and credits) and this is not a trivial operation. If there is a community effort to a robust solution to this problem that other virtual worlds can also implement and inter-operate, makes total sense for us to test it and support it.

Hi Eric! You can reach me at bitquest@bitquest.co. We do want to start experimenting with a sidechain

I am very looking forward to SegWit and the Lightning Network and if it makes sense (probably will) to make a sidechain for BitQuest servers we'll try to implement that. In the meantime, we only process a limited amount of transactions per user per second so we don't spam the Blockchain

I can't answer your question but i want to clarify that All Bitcoin spent in items go back to the players in form of 'loot money' and not used for monetisation. I hope that makes the difference,

I will try to get legal help for intepreting the EULA and hopefully if we break it we can modify the server so it meets requirements. (Charging for access? Sell only cosmetic items?)

This concept should be considered experimental (and we should emphasize more this) ànd you're right, there's nothing stopping me to take off with all the money.

Or a hacker.

We suggest to players to keep the minimum stored in their game wallets and cash out frequently as a precaution.

We are experimenting with Wallets that need to be signed by both the Client and the Server to make operations and when the time comes I'll be happy to share my findings.

I didn't. I've been told it's a really good engine.

I've never gambled IRL or online and I won't feel comfortable to write gambling code as opposed to skill based games, which is what i've been playing my whole life.

I'll be happy to help, by making the bitquest repository easy to understand so people who want to make it can use our code.

Hi, BitQuest developer here.

In a nutshell, every item bought from villagers goes to a "loot" wallet where sort of randomly faucets out back to players who kill monsters.

This post explains it a little bit more:

http://bitquest.co/2016/05/19/bitquest-2.html

I prefer a 5 year old computer that is open, repairable, I can run any OS I want than the "Ultimate PC replacement" that can only run software signed (and sold) by Apple.

I hope number 2 ends up to be true, but most likely number one. Phil Schiller described the ipad pro as "The ultimate replacement for the PC", and that means Apple is all-in for replacing the laptop in the mass market, while also very convenient for profits since their closed hardware will only run an OS and Apps signed by Apple, with only one store to buy Software.

They don't have an incentive to support open computing, and for the first time in years IBM and Microsoft have better products (Carbon X1, Surface book) while OSX haven't seen a major update and MacBook Pros that once were the best professional laptops are really past generation hardware and software.

Games developer here. Yes, I do work insane amount of hours and I would get paid a lot higher for my skills almost anywhere.

Why? We use technology not to 'disrupt' some industry, get bigger returns for a financial firm or big data problems with users information. Instead, we create software with the sole purpose of making people happy, And we also get the chance to tell stories that will influence thousands maybe millions of minds.

So we are in a never ending search for big insights about the world and ways to encode them into fun games. I'll never grow tired of that.

It reminds me how a good mario game is about the art style, not graphics.

We use xapo developer services to separate the server code from the bitcoin wallet stuff. They are a legitimate wallet service with a very cool API but you'll be able to transfer emeralds to any other wallet

Finding emerald within the game is actually pretty difficult. We actually had to make it easier to find. But yeah, there would be a problem if no one donates to the server and the game wallet runs out of bitcoin. We are measuring this with high presicion to makepredictions for our second fundraising stage

We are not accepting payments nor selling the in-game currency thus this is not a pay-to-win game or anything outside Mojang's own recommendations for monetizing servers :D

Yes we run 100% on donations and in the future we want to get advertisement. That's the two recommendations the guys at Mojang for monetizing servers

You can't

Yes, you can. We also made emeralds easier to find in this first stage so we have lots of them flowing inside the world.

Emeralds are also good for buying stuff other people craft, tipping other players and entering tournaments, and we are working on more ways to use them. We have found most players don't cash out and use it to have fun

Hi, we heavily modified the way villagers work, and there is a really cool update coming in the next days:

You will be able to buy or sell to villagers. Villagers will have a "wallet" of money to spend and once they buy you stuff thats the very same stuff they will sell to other players.