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Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

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Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#91

Post by itishappy »

samatman wrote: post #86
GuB-42 wrote: post #30

Just curious, is there really a "trading" aspect or is it more for deck-building type games? Trading card games usually have a notion of rarity, collection, and, well, trading. It is a controversial aspect so I understand that you want to stay away from that as much as possible. But if you embrace this aspect, how would it be implemented?

I'm aware that mentioning this tends to get you crucified on HN, but making something like this fun is a good use for blockchain technology. Blockchains create digital scarcity, and in fact, are the only decentralized way to have digital scarcity. So having the "cards" represent tokens on e.g. Ethereum would be a clever way to do that, I'm sure the processors can provide a secp256k1 signature, and the rest is read-on…

Why choose this approach over a traditional centralized database?

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#92

Post by spywaregorilla »

samatman wrote: post #86
GuB-42 wrote: post #30

Just curious, is there really a "trading" aspect or is it more for deck-building type games? Trading card games usually have a notion of rarity, collection, and, well, trading. It is a controversial aspect so I understand that you want to stay away from that as much as possible. But if you embrace this aspect, how would it be implemented?

I'm aware that mentioning this tends to get you crucified on HN, but making something like this fun is a good use for blockchain technology. Blockchains create digital scarcity, and in fact, are the only decentralized way to have digital scarcity. So having the "cards" represent tokens on e.g. Ethereum would be a clever way to do that, I'm sure the processors can provide a secp256k1 signature, and the rest is read-on…

> decentralized digital scarcity, which is a useful property

Complete loss of control over your game's ecosystem is, in fact, not a useful property.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#93

Post by samatman »

itishappy wrote: post #91
samatman wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm aware that mentioning this tends to get you crucified on HN, but making something like this fun is a good use for blockchain technology. Blockchains create digital scarcity, and in fact, are the only decentralized way to have digital scarcity. So having the "cards" represent tokens on e.g. Ethereum would be a clever way to do that, I'm sure the processors can provide a secp256k1 signature, and the rest is read-on…

Why choose this approach over a traditional centralized database?

Because you have to pay to keep a traditional centralized database running, you have to trust the people running it, and when those people don't want to run it anymore, it's gone.

With a blockchain, you pay to modify it, so moving stuff around costs cybercoins, but even if no one wants to mint blocks anymore, you can still read your copy, which has your cards in it. And in that event, if you want to move stuff around, you still can, because anyone can set up a validator, even if they're the only one interested in keeping it going.

But I think this is reasonably unlikely to happen to any of the top blockchains on a reasonable timeframe. Whereas a game company shutting off its servers is virtually assured.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#94

Post by samatman »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #92
samatman wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm aware that mentioning this tends to get you crucified on HN, but making something like this fun is a good use for blockchain technology. Blockchains create digital scarcity, and in fact, are the only decentralized way to have digital scarcity. So having the "cards" represent tokens on e.g. Ethereum would be a clever way to do that, I'm sure the processors can provide a secp256k1 signature, and the rest is read-on…

> decentralized digital scarcity, which is a useful property Complete loss of control over your game's ecosystem is, in fact, not a useful property.

I don't see how you're deriving that quality from the suggestion. Losing complete control over your game's ecosystem is not an essential property of the technology I'm suggesting.

Perhaps if you explain what you mean, I'll understand the point you're attempting to make.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#95

Post by inhumantsar »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #92
samatman wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm aware that mentioning this tends to get you crucified on HN, but making something like this fun is a good use for blockchain technology. Blockchains create digital scarcity, and in fact, are the only decentralized way to have digital scarcity. So having the "cards" represent tokens on e.g. Ethereum would be a clever way to do that, I'm sure the processors can provide a secp256k1 signature, and the rest is read-on…

> decentralized digital scarcity, which is a useful property Complete loss of control over your game's ecosystem is, in fact, not a useful property.

in what way would that loss of control be complete?

the contract developer would still have knobs and levers for adjusting rarity, issuing new cards, etc.

they wouldn't control the secondary market, but that's no different from Magic The Gathering or Pokemon or good old fashioned baseball cards.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#96

Post by vermarish »

Zelphyr wrote: post #8

I really hope the Bay Area keeps this attitude, and that other places adopt it if they haven't already: "I live in the Bay Area. I'm biased, but this place is full of awesome engineers building things and you can just walk up to them and ask them to explain everything about their project and they will." Edit to add: It reminds me of Jobs calling up Bill Hewlett at his home as a teen and asking him questions, and Hewl…

I don't know. I think the younger 20-somethings all have this same kind of dream, but the older people get, the more comfortable they seem hiding behind NDAs at FAANGs or staying in "stealth mode." They really don't owe anyone anything.

Disclaimer: I'm one of the younger 20-somethings.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#97

Post by spywaregorilla »

I've thought about this concept a lot.

Cards are kind of tricky because you probably have a good number of them that will require many updates, and I suspect having a configurable board would actually unlock more cool stuff. Something like RFID cards that an EInk board could detect when placed and render game impacts would be nifty.

Smart cards (and of course just plain old video games) let you do a bit of fun stuff like interact with piles without everyone seeing that you interacted with a specific pile.

My real dream is to have it on dice to have on the fly configurable distributions of outcomes.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#98

Post by spywaregorilla »

inhumantsar wrote: post #95
spywaregorilla wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> decentralized digital scarcity, which is a useful property Complete loss of control over your game's ecosystem is, in fact, not a useful property.

in what way would that loss of control be complete? the contract developer would still have knobs and levers for adjusting rarity, issuing new cards, etc. they wouldn't control the secondary market, but that's no different from Magic The Gathering or Pokemon or good old fashioned baseball cards.

If you, exclusively, can control the rarity and issue new cards then it's hardly a decentralized market and there's no reason not do just make it a centralized system.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#99

Post by bpiche »

Zelphyr wrote: post #8

I really hope the Bay Area keeps this attitude, and that other places adopt it if they haven't already: "I live in the Bay Area. I'm biased, but this place is full of awesome engineers building things and you can just walk up to them and ask them to explain everything about their project and they will." Edit to add: It reminds me of Jobs calling up Bill Hewlett at his home as a teen and asking him questions, and Hewl…

I live here too. I'm biased, but 1) this place is not full of awesome engineers, it's mostly full of overworked contractors and newbies with eighth grader syndrome. And 2) you can't just walk up to them and ask them to explain everything about their project. That's a huge security issue and if it were true it would be a lot easier to social engineer places today. Not to say that it isn't possible, but this comment paints an unproductive, idealized, and inaccurate view of the bay.

edit: it is a very cool e-ink project, and there are some cool communities like the maker faire. Reflexively reacting against the generalization

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#100

Post by spywaregorilla »

samatman wrote: post #94
spywaregorilla wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> decentralized digital scarcity, which is a useful property Complete loss of control over your game's ecosystem is, in fact, not a useful property.

I don't see how you're deriving that quality from the suggestion. Losing complete control over your game's ecosystem is not an essential property of the technology I'm suggesting. Perhaps if you explain what you mean, I'll understand the point you're attempting to make.

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