I have an idea for a gambling bot on Nostr
I have noticed a gambling bot on Nostr that caught my eye
It's called BitBetBot npub1ynnjxp5clkmuzfdemwxrqntu5u5lerta5hmx8ag2n28x4dmcpygqpuu3gk
How it worksHow it works
You @ BitBetBot
And write UP or DOWN
BitBetBot replies - Zap this note to bet
Zap (100-100,000 sats) to bet
BitBetBot will zap confirmation
BitBetBot zaps (2X sats) original Bet note if you WIN
You win if after 144 blocks (~24hrs) the price of bitcoin is higher/lower than when you paid the bet (depending on whether you chose UP or DOWN)
*text taken from the profile
Now let me be clear, I don't want to be the gamblerNow let me be clear, I don't want to be the gambler
I have an idea of how to improve this bot, but this all hinges on a few things....
ā Is the bot open source
ā Will my idea actually be viable, you experienced devs decide, you guys are experienced in building stacker news, Justin with Shocknet, k00b Scoresby and Sox with SN and all the talented devs that i cannot name
ā Could i vibe code this into existence, or would it need a ground up personal build
We're living in an age where you can literally think of an idea, vibe code it, launch it on SN or Nostr and just make things happenWe're living in an age where you can literally think of an idea, vibe code it, launch it on SN or Nostr and just make things happen
For the meantime let's not worry that this is probably an illegal money transmitter and i could end up in shady territory
Obviously this is for entertainment purposes only right? Feds, right?!
I have a sophisticated improvement suggestionI have a sophisticated improvement suggestion
I am essentially proposing a mix of
Casino Mechanics (House Edge)Casino Mechanics (House Edge)
and
ShitFi Shitonomics (Yield/Revenue Share)ShitFi Shitonomics (Yield/Revenue Share)
I propose that this bot can take a proportion of it's profits and pay it back to the players, so that it creates a marketing play, to create a sense of community and is able to give back to the users
In gambling this is called
Rakeback or Rebate
but automating it via a Nostr bot adds a layer of community engagement that could be very powerful
Reading BlockchainB's post: #1411907 gave me the idea, i like the idea of creating a sat generating business idea, that also gives back to the community
Here is a blueprint of how i could structure this bot, the economics behind it and the technicals i need to solve it
The MathThe Math
Creating the "Pot"
First, I'd need to move away from the "Double your Money" model because it is statistically unworkable for the operator. I need a House Edge
The Old WayThe Old Way
Player bets 100 sats. If they win, bot pays 200. (0 profit for bot, high risk of bankruptcy)
The New WayThe New Way
Player bets 100 sats. If they win, bot pays 190 sats
The SpreadThe Spread
I effectively take X sats (X%) from every winning bet.
The USPThe USP
The Rakeback
Instead of keeping that X% profit for myself, i split it
2% Goes to Server Costs / my costs
8% Goes into a Community Pool
This would need more finesse as to what actually works in reality, more like a floating operating cost, that finds it's true level as the realities of operating show themselves
How I'd distribute the Community PoolHow I'd distribute the Community Pool
I shouldn't just give it to losers (that incentivizes losing). I could give it to
Active Players we'll gloss over that this is wash trading but we'll call it a loyalty program for now š
The MechanismThe Mechanism
Epochs
Instead of paying out the community share instantly (which I'm guessing would clog Lightning channels with tiny fees), I could run Epochs (e.g., every 24 hours or every Sunday)
Tracking
The bot tracks the total volume wagered by every Pubkey during the Epoch
Calculation
User A does this User B does that, I'm guessing if I can get the source code, then the calculations will already be mapped out, seeing as this bot seems to successfully operating and paying out regularly
Payout
At the end of the Epoch, the user receives their proportion of the Community Pool
The Result
Even if a player lost all their bets that week, on Sunday they get a Zap from the bot saying...
Thanks for playing. Here is your share of the community pot
Gamification FeaturesGamification Features
The Breadcrumbs
To make it unique i could vibecode specific usp's
The just missed itThe just missed it
Reserve 1% of the pot for the player who lost their bet by the smallest margin, e.g. they bet UP, and BTC went down by only $1
Whale AlertsWhale Alerts
Automatically publish a note tagging a user when they make a large bet or win a large pot
Streak BonusesStreak Bonuses
Higher community payouts for players who have played X number of days in a row
The difficult partThe difficult part
If the bitbetbot source is FOSS i can fork it I assume? If not, would this be massively too complex to rebuild?
Techy StuffTechy Stuff
What language would be best for the code
LightningLightning
Obviously I'd need a Lightning Node, actually i could integrate Cashu, joking Justin š¤£š¤£
DatabaseDatabase
How would this track and record bets, I'm assuming current bot has a solution for this
Price OraclePrice Oracle
Even for me, this is probably the easiest part, just grab an api from a big cex
The WorkflowThe Workflow
Hopefully as said before this should be mostly ironed out if source code available
Risks & ChallengesRisks & Challenges
Gaming the System
If my Rakeback is too high, players will realize that if they bet UP and DOWN at the same time with two different accounts, they lose very little but gain a lot of rewards
SN has encountered this with the sybil attacks and self zapping
SolutionSolution
Ensure the House Fee (the % I keep) is always higher than the cost of the Rakeback
LiquidityLiquidity
Im assuming this is the hardest part, i imagine Justin has encountered this running shockwallet and when SN had the wallet integrated before cc's
If a player wins a massive amount of satsIf a player wins a massive amount of sats
Well, first of all, i should have a hard cap on a single winning bet, which BitBetBot does already
ConsiderationsConsiderations
Would my Lightning Node have the liquidity to pay out
Would i be constantly rebalancing channels
Regulatory/LegalRegulatory/Legal
By taking a fee and redistributing it, i am as said before arguably running an unregistered casino or a security, depending on how a regulator views the setup
Since this is SN/Nostr, im a nym, but it is a consideration if i am doxxed
ImportantImportant
I'm not asking for any serious help, this is an exercise in creative writing, i love the long form style of SN
This is an idea I've had, but I'm proving that, where you guys spent years in your bedrooms learning code, there are or is opportunities for anyone to just build stuff
Now obviously, vibecoding can be an utter car crash and my idea might not of been the best, seeing as it's probably totally illegal š«£
But if you feel like commenting, or critiquing, then please go ahead
There's a few components to this that will creep the scope, but if you re-use stuff it should be manageable. Lighting.Pub could obviously provide the Lightning interface and is already nostr-native.
Some of the ideation may be ambitious, creates a lot of conditional logic, pare down to base functionally than expand later as needed.
Long lived nostr services are a bit tricky as nostr-tools really sucks at that, but its doable. Making it reliable is an order of magnitude harder than making it demo.
Depending on your architectural knowledge it may be fairly difficult, but if you have some good foundations or some help it should be doable in a few days.
Would highly recommend iterating in a coding tool with a planning mode. Cursor is good at this, use planning mode iteratively to really nail down an implementation plan with all the minutia before running code gen. Do this over days so you can look at it with fresh eyes a few mornings in a row.
You'll need nostr-tools in some form so just stick with nodejs / typescript
Quick search and I can't find the source
curl -s https://rates.shockwallet.app/v2/prices/BTC-USD/spot {"data":{"amount":"96187.195","base":"BTC","currency":"USD"}}(coinbase mirror)
sqlite should be adequate, use the
better-sqlitenode module.Planning mode may ask if you want to use an ORM or query builder... in my experience the llms are better off raw-dogging SQL than using them.
If it really takes off and has growing pains with sqlite then upgrading to postgres will be trivial.
Lightning.Pub accounts use atomic transactions and locks to prevent drainage attacks, but the application itself could still be gamed. You'll need to think carefully about house edge and ensuring the house can't lose if the game is sybil attacked.
You also may want to dynamically hedge your exposure with an external exchange if the market gets one-sided, that introduces an exchange API to market-make into your back-end.
Not a problem for me since users are just using their own sats, and Pub will programatically lease channels... though this is still in early stages and may require some touch with high volume.
The liquidity issue the game bot will face is what I mentioned above, one-sided markets, where for example you may be net short Bitcoin if a lot more users are betting HIGHER and few bet LOWER
You may want safety conditions to freeze new bets altogether, or only allow one-side of the market if its out of balance. This may be wiser than jumping into exchange integration initially.
Not legal advise, but I'd view it as a prediction market, and would cap bet sizes so you've made a demonstrable effort to prevent abuse by people using it to mix or transmit to others
Amazing answer thank you JS š
Glad I can be an inspiration
THE MOST IDIOTIC IDEA EVER.
Betting / gambling is a total immoral thing.
Gambling doesn't produce anything.
I almost added this in because I knew or know your response to gambling š° sats, it is some stackers ruin, but alas we see stackers using predyx and other PMs, disagree with it you must