A global lottery project turns the world of gaming upside down. All this thanks to blockchain technology.
“The biggest revolution in the world of lotteries” — that’s just how the SmartBillions project (LEARN MORE AND JOIN: www.smartbillions.com) is being described all over the world. It is the first lottery in the world that is fully transparent and immediate, as the results come approx. in every 45 seconds. Moreover the stakes of the game will be the highest in history: depending on the price of the Ethereum cryptocurrency the maximum win (jackpot) can reach up to 2,5 billion dollars.
What’s equally important is that we’re not talking about some distant idea that will be implemented in a couple of years. At the beginning of October a spectacular test of this new technology’s security will take place: the developers have risked almost half a million dollars of their own money to prove that their platform guarantees funds security. Soon after this (on October 16th) SmartBillions tokens will be made available to the public via a crowdsale process. Just two weeks the lottery will be launched. The creators of SmartBillions aim for it to become the world’s most popular lottery.
Investing in tokens (called ICO — Initial Coin Offering) is the latest trend in the e-economy. Thanks to SmartBillions the lottery world is now joining the virtual world as well. Up till now lottery gaming worldwide has been inconvenient for players, since for example it requires a trip to the lottery retailers.
Since 1500s people have been looking for luck pretty much the same way, by picking numbers and waiting for lottery draw results to be announced. The entourage changes, but the scheme remains the same. Luck seeking players are forced to rely on the wheel of fortune and therefore trust that they won’t be swindled.
Many times in history the lottery draw mechanism has proved itself problematic. One of the largest scandal in the lottery world appeared in the United States. The Triple Six Fix in Pennsylvania was about a highest jackpot at that time, 3,5 million dollars. At the base of the swindle lied a very simple trick: the TV show host made all balls heavier except numbers 4 and 6. The probability
There was a great probability that the machine would only pick up balls with a four or a six. A couple of days earlier the accomplices of the television host bet on all possible combinations for those numbers. As predicted, during the lottery draw three sixes were picked.
In the digital world of today, we don’t even to make any balls heavier. Just a couple of weeks ago Eddie Tipton pleaded guilty before the United States Court. For twelve years (2003–2015) he was a programmer and the chief of IT security in The MultiState Lottery Association. Tipton did a very simple thing: he added a special code to software of a few local lotteries, which enabled him win the jackpot. And so he did: in twelve years he could have amassed over ten million dollars, but the real figure is still unknown.
Blockchain creates a new level of trust.
It is no surprise that the lottery gaming industry attracts such cases. This market is worth 300 billion dollars globally, so every piece of this large pie is impressing. It is so huge, that the governments use it to support their budgets, bringing high commissions and multiple obstacles to the table. Lotteries such as Powerball are forced to transfer as much as half of their income to the government.
SmartBillions turns this pathology prone system upside down. The whole lottery is based on blockchain technology and the cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH). The Ethereum self-amending smart contract guarantees that all the data, as well as all lottery actions and functions will be made public, totally transparent and unchangeable.
All elements of the SmartBillions lottery are decentralized — there is no company or country behind it. After lottery’s launch the whole mechanism will take place on the Ethereum network and no one will be able to change it or influence it. All lottery elements and the exact rules how it works has been defined and described in document posted on the project’s website (READ THE SMART CONTRACT AND THE WHITEPAPER). All the details of Smart contract are known to the public and supported by experts. There lottery will have no person as admin, as even this poses a threat that the system could get manipulated. There will also be no government that would collect it’s share.
500 000 dollars for cracking the code
- There will be no hacker that would be able to break into the network and disappear with the money — say the specialists who created this lottery. In order to prove this, they placed 1500 units of the Ethereum cryptocurrency (approx. 0.5 million USD) in the jackpot. It’s the prize for a hacker, who will break the blockchain security and steal the money. Starting October 2nd, that is when Hackathon starts, the burglars will be able to take it. However, the creators’ confidence shown by betting their own fortune against it makes breaking the system seem particularly unlikely.
A transparent enterprise
On October 16th the investment mechanism will be activated. The SmartBillions lottery gaming platform will operated with specially designed PLAY tokens (called “coins” in the cryptocurrency world), initially priced at 0,001 Ethereum per unit (approx. 30 cents). The maximum of 252 million tokens will be offered to the crowdsale backers.
The value of the offered Tokens is 200 000 Ethereum, which is around 58 million dollars. The investors will receive 73,37 of all the tokens. The rest will end up in the hands of the international, group of developers. Two weeks after the ICO, the developers of Smartbillions will make the PLAY tokens exchangeable on well know internet markets, but their price is likely to be many times higher than during the crowdsale that starts on October 16th.
Unprecedented token value guarantee
The value of the tokens is guaranteed by a mechanism that is a real masterpiece. Apart from October’s public offering, there won’t be any more PLAY tokens in circulation (and there is no possibility of any additional „printing”). In addition to that, anyone who decides not to use their purchased tokens (after ICO) will be able to “give them” back. They will receive 71,43 percent of invested money. This is an unprecedented investor protection mechanism, never before seen in any ICO process. The possibility of token redeeming is a form of investor protection in case of unforseen events. They can withdraw their money at any time.
PLAY tokens can not be only traded. They are also linked to the payments in an unprecedented dividend mechanism. They have been recorded in smart contract in accordance with the formula in which funds received from players are divided: 94–95 percent gets into the jackpot for wins payouts, whereas 5 percent is paid to token holders as a dividend. Additional 1% goes to affiliates, who will recommend the lottery in their media. The first dividends will be transfered to inverstors on November 30th and be payed every month and forever.
Today the PLAY token costs 30 cents. But every investor would like it to cost 5 or 10 dollars- that’s what is underscored by the creators of SmartBillions. From an investor’s perspective PLAY tokens will gain value together with the development of the project and the dividend will grow at the same pace as the number of new players of the lottery. It is sure they will be lured by prizes (200 thousand Ethereum), that’s supposed to come from investors in October, is roughly 58 million dollars. 90 percent of that sum will end up in the jackpot, the rest will be used for marketing.
Ultimately the share of SmartBillions is predicted to reach 10 percent of the online lottery gaming market within the first year (the market is worth 4 billion USD). The initial jackpot will be the highest in history — depending on the Ethereum price it may hit the 2.5 billion USD mark very soon.
Any person who owns the Ethereum cryptocurrency may become an investor. Recently the best tokens were gaining even several thousand percent, a few days after the end of ICO.
Incredible excitement of offline and online society
SmartBillions is singled out to be a star of the upcoming public emissions of tokens (ICO). The project has been announced merely ten days ago, yet it has already attracted a wide community of cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Over 2000 people signed up for the so called “bounty campaign”, where each one of the participants promotes the project on his own.
The community of enthusiasts is translating the project materials from English into more than 10 languages, including Korean, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, French, Dutch and Turkish. — We constantly receive applications from all over the world from people willing to take part in the project. Beacuse of this we are able to remotely build a global structure clustered around the idea of decentralization of the lottery — say the creators of the project. — Media from all over the world contact us and thanks to that our global exposition should be rapidly visible in the so called mainstream view — they add. Certainly such a huge interest in the investment of SmartBillions will have great influence on it’s popularity from the start on the 30th of October.
A draw every 15 seconds
It’s only the start: using Ethereum the players will be able to purchase chances in different variations, up to 75 draws. The draws will take place every 15–20 seconds. Players having the will and funds, will be able to use SmartBillions all the time. All the necessary actions associated with buying the lottery coupon and picking the numbers won’t take even a minute. In barely one minute the draw results (based on Ethereum blocks hashes) will be shown. The winnings will be paid immediately.
The players will be choosing combinations of 6 numbers- from 0 to 15. The winnings wil be paid for every correctly picked „pair” up to the sixth number. The expected amounts to be won are much higer than in any other lottery in history. — The chance to win in American lotteries is 1 to 292 million, but in our case it is roughly 1 to 16,7 million — stresses one of our creators.
The ratio of the coupon’s value to the winning amount is very important. It is over twice higher in SmartBillions than in other offline and online lotteries. This will be a strong case attracting players. However the players should take into consideration „the security valve” written in smart contract. even if somebody wins the jackpot and rakes in all the winnings, the first payment will be only 50 percent of the jackpot. The rest will come in monthly payments, value of which can not exceed half of the current jackpot value. At the end of the day, the payment of winnings can not exceed half of the current jackpot value. The potential Jackpot has to be always of substantial value in order to attract potential players.
And let’s not pretend: accessibility is what’s really important. SmartBillions will take off as a website, using the Ethereum. Soon it will be possible to play from a mobile application. — In the longer perspective, we can consider the improvement of accessibility: through special mobile device dedicated for playing the game, which would exchange traditional currency for Ethereum and thus enable to buy tickets and pay the possible winnings and transfer them back to traditional currencies. Decisions concerning such projects depend on the pace of growth of SmartBillions — say the creators.
- Today 3 things count: decentralization, transparency and no superior administrator — we hear. -That’s why the SmartBillions project creators wish to remain anonymous. Finally upon debuting SmartBillions will become an independent operating online body. But in this project we will be the same kind of investors as all others — they say. If there is to be a revolution in the lottery gaming (both offline and online) industry, it will be a result of collective work of the cryptocurrency community, and not only the project creators.
