Why not use Ethereum?

The concept of distributed games using blockchains is not new. Many projects including poker have tried, but to my knowledge non have been sucessful.

Some poker sites that accept bitcoin exist, but they are centralized. Users need to create an account and give the site owners custody of their bitcoins to play.

Ethereum has been touted a solution to this problem. However, there are a few issues. The ethereum blockchain is its too slow. Even 10 second block times are too slow for a good user expereince.

The second is the cost of running the contract. With the current rise in ETH price too, the problem is compounded. If you where to program the rules of Texas Hodlem into a smart contract, the cost of executing the method each time would require a significant amount of gas, making the project not financially viable.

With bitpoker, the approach is to use established, secure p2p networking protocols like whisper, and use bitcoin or etheruem just as the ingame currency or chips.

The approach solves the areformentioned problems. We can think of them as side chains. Just like Lightning network “bar tab” annlogy, the ingame transactions are really only important to those who are involved in the game.

We can continue to make in game transactions or actions. In our case, these actions are bet, call, fold etc. Most attached with a financial transaction. Those actions must also reach consensus among the players, within the game and to the agreed rules of the game. In our case, Heads up No Limit Texas Holdem.

We are confident with the technologies mentioned, that we can deliver a fun and fast true p2p poker client.