EtherPot
Finance and crypto
blockchain lottery
SHOW HN2015
61points
25comments
#465of 2,565 in 2015
Top 19%of 2015 by points
How HN took it
RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical
3 positive, 3 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 6 critical, out of 12 comments about the project. Thread score -0.14.
Privacy: 0 for, 2 againstPerformance: 0 for, 2 againstIdea: 2 for, 0 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clear explanation of Ethereum and the idea is exciting.
From 4 comments
This is fantastic, straight from cyberpunk stories! Thanks for a reason to look into ethereum.
vdaniuk on HNThanks for the English description for the rest of us. :)
nickpsecurity on HNIn one paragraph you've given me a better understanding of Ethereum than several blog posts and even the Ethereum website itself. Good job and thank you.
Nadya on HNWow, that's a really good, easy-to-understand description of Ethereum.
tinybike on HN
Objections
Winner selection via block hash modulo ticket count is biased.
From 4 comments
This is really cool, but I think there might be issues with this: 1) The "random" selection of a winner seems to come from the modulo of the hash of a determinidtically selected…
doomrobo on HNAh, gotcha. I'll try to explain and correct my claimed in #2. So the winning ticket index is chosen as H % n (read: H mod n) where H is a uniformly distributed number between 0…
doomrobo on HNI think the bias is much greater than that. The number of "extra chances" that are created from random H and the number of tickets n is 2^256 mod n. So if there are 6 tickets in…
doomrobo on HNMy apologies. Yes that's correct. My mistake was reducing the set of choices to n + (|H| mod n). Your worst-case estimate of a total bias of n/|H| seems to be correct. I guess…
doomrobo on HN
Miners could rig the outcome by withholding blocks.
From 2 comments
This is really cool, but I think there might be issues with this: 1) The "random" selection of a winner seems to come from the modulo of the hash of a determinidtically selected…
doomrobo on HNThe entropy comes from the mined hash. Could a cartel of miners all decide to not submit hashes where they don't win? Wouldn't that make this technically exploitable?
coderzach on HN
May be illegal gambling under US law.
From 2 comments
I have some questions about the legality: Since the miners mine this contract (or include it in the blockchain, or whatever it is for Ether), does that make them violate the…
computer on HNI think this would be illegal. Could this be considered a raffle?
nadams on HN
Questions
Is it legal under gambling laws?
From 2 comments
I have some questions about the legality: Since the miners mine this contract (or include it in the blockchain, or whatever it is for Ether), does that make them violate the…
computer on HNI think this would be illegal. Could this be considered a raffle?
nadams on HN
Alternatives named
Bitcoin scripting
From 2 comments
You have no idea how hard this would be to do with a normal blockchain OP. In fact, I have spent literal months just thinking of ways to hack Bitcoin to do more complex smart…
Uptrenda on HNAs I'm sure you know, Bitcoin's scripting language, as originally designed, is deliberately not Turing complete[1]. That's one of Ethereum's key points of difference with…
FatalLogic on HN