6 ms·

Bet anonymously with Bitcoin on Bitbet.us

28 points by orkaa 14y ago

Anyone can anonymously place a bet - no account needed.

Beat-O 14y ago
Awesome idea! I'd like a bit better browsing by categories and specific areas of betting. Hope it picks up!
Murkin 14y ago
Who resovles bets ?
- orkaa 14y ago
  Bets are resolved by moderators.
rshm 14y ago
interesting to see .us domain name, given online betting is illegal in us.
- jany 14y ago
  Im sure they have failbacks in place.
  - pfisch 14y ago
    Why are you sure of that? Do you know who it is that is running this market? Have they somehow earned your trust in the past?
    - jany 14y ago
      Yes.
- morsch 14y ago
  Well, they're not betting with real money, are they?
  - mikeash 14y ago
    Doubt it matters. Any commodity that has value ought to be covered, and value is simply determined by people's willingness to pay, so bitcoins clearly have value. You can't get around gambling laws by gambling with chickens rather than dollars, so why would bitcoins be any different?
DanBC 14y ago
You might want to change a couple of words on the FAQ. Anything that mentions POTUS and death threats is taken seriously. There's nothing to say where you're based, or if you're obeying their laws. Where are you based? Are you obeying their laws? What have you done to protect yourself from vigorous US law enforcement attempts? EDIT: For the silent downvoters - which part is controversial? People who say 'bomb' in an airport are dragged off. People who mention, even jokingly, death threats to POTUS attract extra investigation. This website is doing several things which are not legal in the US. Betting on sports games; financial transactions for off-shore gambling; etc. This website has a domain registered in the US for US residents only.
- mootothemax 14y ago
  I think that that's an attempt to try and prove that they're not an assassination market: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market An assassination market or market for assassinations is a prediction market where any party can place a bet (using anonymous electronic money, and pseudonymous remailers) on the date of death of a given individual, and collect a payoff if they "guess" the date accurately... It has been argued that the feasibility of an assassination market precludes the acceptance by governments of any form of anonymous electronic money.
- Cthulhu_ 14y ago
  Well, that kinda depends on whether Bitcoin is recognised by the US government (or whichever) as legal tender; if not, it's virtual money, and you can do whatever you want with it (like ISK in Eve Online, for example). Which is also the main problem with Bitcoins; you get the 'open source' money, but without the existing banking system and its securities, or the governments and their laws behind it. Your Bitcoin exchange gets hacked and you lose your coins? Your problem. You bet money in a dodgy bitcoin betting site and lose it? If the 'owning' government doesn't recognise it as legal tender, your problem.
joelthelion 14y ago
If only one of these fifty bitcoin betting site developers created a prediction market instead, he'd have my money.
fastball 14y ago
Has this been done before, but without BTC?
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
Evbn 14y ago
Since when is bitcoin anonymous?
wtn 14y ago
Why would they register that domain? From Wikipedia: Under .US nexus requirements .US domains may be registered only by the following qualified entities: • Any United States citizen or resident, • Any United States entity, such as organizations or corporations, • Any foreign entity or organization with a bona fide presence in the United States To ensure that these requirements are met, NeuStar frequently conducts "spot checks" on registrant information.
sakopov 14y ago
It's a neat idea and I'm glad bitcoin is moving forward, but to me this is really dirty business to be in.
xanados 14y ago
This betting site has a really stupid betting system. It appears that the amount of money you receive isn't based on a pricing of the bet, as is done on all real prediction markets, but based on a simple payout of all the bets received on the other side of the bet by the end of the bet date. This system has two practical consequences: 1. You can't determine the markets current probability estimates from the current state of the market, as you can with priced markets. 2. You should never bet until the last second so you can know the odds for the bet. In fact, it would make sense to create a sniping bot that would programmatically calculate the odds, compare them to your probability estimate, and only make the bet if it is favorable. There is another site called Bets of Bitcoin (http://betsofbitco.in/ http://betsofbitco.in/) that has similarly dumb rules. Edit: It appears that they actually tilt the payouts of bets based on an arbitrary weighting factor towards earlier bettors (arbitrary in that it doesn't at all take into account changing risk circumstances or likely levels of risk decay as a real market would), in some undisclosed fashion. I recommend that no one bet on this highly flawed system.
- kirian 14y ago
  I have to agree, I was trying to work out how the odds are calculated and it makes no sense. Why not copy what Betfair or Intrade or something like that do.
- DanBC 14y ago
  Isn't this just parimutuel betting? What's the difference? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parimutuel_betting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parimutuel_betting)
- jany 14y ago
  http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/i-would-like-to-address-that-question-at-this-time/ http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/i-would-like-to-address-tha...
  - ellyagg 14y ago
    http://lesswrong.com/lw/frm/prediction_sources/7yr0 http://lesswrong.com/lw/frm/prediction_sources/7yr0

28 points by orkaa 14y ago

Anyone can anonymously place a bet - no account needed.

Beat-O 14y ago

Awesome idea! I'd like a bit better browsing by categories and specific areas of betting. Hope it picks up!

Murkin 14y ago

Who resovles bets ?

orkaa 14y ago
Bets are resolved by moderators.

rshm 14y ago

interesting to see .us domain name, given online betting is illegal in us.

jany 14y ago
Im sure they have failbacks in place.
- pfisch 14y ago
  Why are you sure of that? Do you know who it is that is running this market? Have they somehow earned your trust in the past?
  - jany 14y ago
    Yes.
morsch 14y ago
Well, they're not betting with real money, are they?
- mikeash 14y ago
  Doubt it matters. Any commodity that has value ought to be covered, and value is simply determined by people's willingness to pay, so bitcoins clearly have value. You can't get around gambling laws by gambling with chickens rather than dollars, so why would bitcoins be any different?

DanBC 14y ago

You might want to change a couple of words on the FAQ. Anything that mentions POTUS and death threats is taken seriously. There's nothing to say where you're based, or if you're obeying their laws. Where are you based? Are you obeying their laws? What have you done to protect yourself from vigorous US law enforcement attempts? EDIT: For the silent downvoters - which part is controversial? People who say 'bomb' in an airport are dragged off. People who mention, even jokingly, death threats to POTUS attract extra investigation. This website is doing several things which are not legal in the US. Betting on sports games; financial transactions for off-shore gambling; etc. This website has a domain registered in the US for US residents only.

mootothemax 14y ago
I think that that's an attempt to try and prove that they're not an assassination market: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market An assassination market or market for assassinations is a prediction market where any party can place a bet (using anonymous electronic money, and pseudonymous remailers) on the date of death of a given individual, and collect a payoff if they "guess" the date accurately... It has been argued that the feasibility of an assassination market precludes the acceptance by governments of any form of anonymous electronic money.
Cthulhu_ 14y ago
Well, that kinda depends on whether Bitcoin is recognised by the US government (or whichever) as legal tender; if not, it's virtual money, and you can do whatever you want with it (like ISK in Eve Online, for example). Which is also the main problem with Bitcoins; you get the 'open source' money, but without the existing banking system and its securities, or the governments and their laws behind it. Your Bitcoin exchange gets hacked and you lose your coins? Your problem. You bet money in a dodgy bitcoin betting site and lose it? If the 'owning' government doesn't recognise it as legal tender, your problem.

joelthelion 14y ago

If only one of these fifty bitcoin betting site developers created a prediction market instead, he'd have my money.

fastball 14y ago

Has this been done before, but without BTC?

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

Evbn 14y ago

Since when is bitcoin anonymous?

wtn 14y ago

Why would they register that domain? From Wikipedia: Under .US nexus requirements .US domains may be registered only by the following qualified entities: • Any United States citizen or resident, • Any United States entity, such as organizations or corporations, • Any foreign entity or organization with a bona fide presence in the United States To ensure that these requirements are met, NeuStar frequently conducts "spot checks" on registrant information.

sakopov 14y ago

It's a neat idea and I'm glad bitcoin is moving forward, but to me this is really dirty business to be in.

xanados 14y ago

This betting site has a really stupid betting system. It appears that the amount of money you receive isn't based on a pricing of the bet, as is done on all real prediction markets, but based on a simple payout of all the bets received on the other side of the bet by the end of the bet date. This system has two practical consequences: 1. You can't determine the markets current probability estimates from the current state of the market, as you can with priced markets. 2. You should never bet until the last second so you can know the odds for the bet. In fact, it would make sense to create a sniping bot that would programmatically calculate the odds, compare them to your probability estimate, and only make the bet if it is favorable. There is another site called Bets of Bitcoin (http://betsofbitco.in/ http://betsofbitco.in/) that has similarly dumb rules. Edit: It appears that they actually tilt the payouts of bets based on an arbitrary weighting factor towards earlier bettors (arbitrary in that it doesn't at all take into account changing risk circumstances or likely levels of risk decay as a real market would), in some undisclosed fashion. I recommend that no one bet on this highly flawed system.

kirian 14y ago
I have to agree, I was trying to work out how the odds are calculated and it makes no sense. Why not copy what Betfair or Intrade or something like that do.
DanBC 14y ago
Isn't this just parimutuel betting? What's the difference? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parimutuel_betting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parimutuel_betting)
jany 14y ago
http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/i-would-like-to-address-that-question-at-this-time/ http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/i-would-like-to-address-tha...
- ellyagg 14y ago
  http://lesswrong.com/lw/frm/prediction_sources/7yr0 http://lesswrong.com/lw/frm/prediction_sources/7yr0