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You're talking about lotteries. I'm talking about savings accounts. My point is that savings accounts should be held to a higher standard, because obviously.
But this product is literally a savings account with a lottery attached to it. Why would you not use the terminology/methods used by the lottery industry when describing the lottery aspects of the account?
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Thanks for this feedback. What could we do that would give you comfort in the number drawing process? We definitely want to address this concern, so your feedback here would be great.
It is possible to perform "trustable" random number drawing by combining values from multiple third parties such that if any of them are fair, then the results are fair, with everyone publically able to verify the combining step. That means all the third parties would have to be corrupt to corrupt the results. So if you can pick a diverse set of third parties such that everyone is likely to trust at least one of them…
If you get to choose or influence any of the inputs and (for the most part) know the others, you can influence the result. I.e. choose from a set of outcomes, or at least influence outcome probabilities.
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You can do provably fair gambling by using cryptography to show the generation was not tampered with. It was common in bitcoin gambling sites that had no other way to prove they were (somewhat) legit.
While this may be cryptographically sound(I haven't looked into it), it's not a viable solution since it won't be trusted or understood by the majority of their target demographic.
It's also very easy to provide the auditing tool. (I did it, long ago. Basically a form.)
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That's good to hear; thanks for the quick response. (As for the first name thing, just FYI: in my case, my first name + last initial fully identify me.)
Ah that makes a lot of sense. Would first name alone be fine? Is it the combo that is problematic?
How can one ascertain that funds are insured by FDIC up to 250K$ for each depositor? You’re not an FDIC-insured bank, and I assume that from Evolve’s perspective the only depositor is Yotta, so if Evolve fails, FDIC would only pay out Yotta 250K$ total, not upto 250K$ per Yotta customer?
I do have a couple of questions/concerns/comments, which I'm posting here for everyone's benefit:
1) Have you thought about slowly increasing the jackpot as your customer base grows? That would add another fun element to see the jackpot grow every time nobody hits it (could be in very small steps)
2) Is there any way to verify your partnership with Evolve Bank, other than on your own website? That would give me more peace of mind before depositing a larger balance and recommending it.
3) I agree that posting the name of the insurance company would help trust in the lottery system. Live drawings and/or the insurance company publishing the numbers on their website will definitely help, too. Out of curiosity, given that the insurance company doesn't know the picks beforehand, how do they ensure that you don't alter a pick after the fact to hit the jackpot?
4) Privacy: I agree that the default setting should be invisible. Same goes for friends, as the definition of "friend" seems to be anybody who has my phone # in their contacts. I'd like the functionality of adding individual people via an ID and/or QR Code for friendly competitions. Does the invisible setting also allow to stay anonymous in the scenario of winning the jackpot? The T&C's say otherwise but I wonder if it's legally possible for you to disclose customer data without explicit consent (does accepting T&Cs count as explicit consent)?
5) App User Experience: I'd keep the lottery results and winnings of the current week on the main page until Sunday is over and reset on Monday. It was a little weird at first to log in at 9:05PM on Sunday and see everything blank. Also, a fingerprint/password prompt would increase the feeling of security.
Curious to hear your feedback and awaiting tonight's numbers draw!
How can one ascertain that funds are insured by FDIC up to 250K$ for each depositor? You’re not an FDIC-insured bank, and I assume that from Evolve’s perspective the only depositor is Yotta, so if Evolve fails, FDIC would only pay out Yotta 250K$ total, not upto 250K$ per Yotta customer?
Every account holder has up to $250k in coverage from the FDIC. This is individually, not in aggregate. We say this on our website, but anyone who wants further confirmation could email Evolve directly and they would confirm this.
So I'm unable to get confirmation from the FDIC-insured bank that you're using that their FDIC insurance extends to your customers. Sure, I can contact Synapse, but I don't know why I should trust what they say any more than what Yotta says - Synapse isn't FDIC-insured either.
While looking for this, I also found a medium post by Beam (https://blog.meetbeam.com/a-primer-on-fdic-insurance-72fe688...) who explain how their savings accounts are FDIC-insured upto $250,000 for every customer - they would open an account in every user's name at Evolve bank. Perhaps it would help you gain more trust if you did a similar post.
This is an awesome idea, and I intend to try it out. I am a mathematician, and at the same time I can't resist the temptation to purchase the occasional lottery ticket. What most people miss about the lottery is that there can be utility to variance - the opposite of ennui. Have you guys read The Lottery in Babylon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery_in_Babylon
I'm the same way, I know the lottery is a terrible bet but I still find myself buying a ticket every now and then. This was one of the main motivations for starting Yotta for me. Will definitely check out The Lottery in Babylon!