Is this technically legal in the United States? The domain is registered at Alpine Domains, Inc., in Australia.
It's probably more likely to be technically legal in the US than Australia.
Show HN: An MMO twist on Battleship where you bet Bitcoins
11–20 of 23 posts
Re: Show HN: An MMO twist on Battleship where you bet Bitcoins
#12The explosion sound is way too loud, my eardrums hate you now.
Re: Show HN: An MMO twist on Battleship where you bet Bitcoins
#13I didn't realize when I was supposed to place my boats at first.
You should have it say "Place your Boats Now" while it counts down during the first phase. I thought I was supposed to wait until the game starts
Re: Show HN: An MMO twist on Battleship where you bet Bitcoins
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
This "provably fair" concept is quite common in the Bitcoin gaming world. Not sure who was the first, probably https://satoshidice.com Bitino.com has a nice page explaining the concept, including an example validation script in Python http://bitino.com/provably-fair-gaming/
I like to point out that this is only fair in the game theory sense of the word, not the economic sense of the word. There is nothing stopping the operator from waiting until the pot is large enough and then announcing: "Oops, crackers comprised my system and stole all the bitcoins. Sorry, guys. My bad." In other words, every time you play you're losing to the house, even though the mathematical analysis doesn't show…
I don't think this is right. I assume the odds favor the house anyway. They can make money without scamming anyone.
I assume the game is "fair" in that they decide where to bomb before you place your battleship, and that can be proven.
Re: Show HN: An MMO twist on Battleship where you bet Bitcoins
#15Cool concept. Worked a few times before it froze in "game ended". According to the chat, looks like it stopped for everybody.
Re: Show HN: An MMO twist on Battleship where you bet Bitcoins
#16Cool concept. Worked a few times before it froze in "game ended". According to the chat, looks like it stopped for everybody.
Curious to know the post-mortem after its fixed. Out of bitcoin? Divide by zero? Too many players? :)
Re: Show HN: An MMO twist on Battleship where you bet Bitcoins
#17Is this technically legal in the United States? The domain is registered at Alpine Domains, Inc., in Australia.
It's probably more likely to be technically legal in the US than Australia.
What makes you think that? The only thing blocking its legality is gambling, right? Gambling is extremely widespread in Australia whereas my understanding is that there are very few US states where it's legal.
Re: Show HN: An MMO twist on Battleship where you bet Bitcoins
#18I don't think it's working any more...
Games seem to be stuck "in progress"
Re: Show HN: An MMO twist on Battleship where you bet Bitcoins
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's probably more likely to be technically legal in the US than Australia.
What makes you think that? The only thing blocking its legality is gambling, right? Gambling is extremely widespread in Australia whereas my understanding is that there are very few US states where it's legal.
Widespread maybe, but highly regulated, for online gambling like this you need a licence and to follow a large amount of guidelines (anti money laundering etc.)
So, no, I would say this is illegal under AU law
Source: I used to work for an online gambling site in AU
Re: Show HN: An MMO twist on Battleship where you bet Bitcoins
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes you think that? The only thing blocking its legality is gambling, right? Gambling is extremely widespread in Australia whereas my understanding is that there are very few US states where it's legal.
Widespread maybe, but highly regulated, for online gambling like this you need a licence and to follow a large amount of guidelines (anti money laundering etc.) So, no, I would say this is illegal under AU law Source: I used to work for an online gambling site in AU
It's Bitcoin, though, which pushes it into another grey area.