HN Explorer

Ask HN: Functioning smart contract platform to settle HN-inspired wager?

1 points by listenallyall ↗ HN
Two HN commenters with different views about a certain event want to make a wager. Neither knows nor trusts the other. Seems like the perfect opportunity to use a "smart contract" to guarantee the eventual winner will in fact get paid. Anyone out there who can facilitate this? Thanks.

8 comments

[ 0.18 ms ] story [ 23.5 ms ] thread
leesalminen
Seems like the difficult part would be for the contract to determine a definitive outcome. Is the wager a true/false Boolean? Can you get the answer from some 3rd party API?
listenallyall
Yes it is a true/false. No there isn't an API, however the bettors could probably agree upon a set of verifiable websites, the result would be true if one of those sites confirmed it.
verdverm
one would think a consensus amongst several verifiers would be more appropriate, given this is a blockchain solution after all
listenallyall
several verifiers, great! just seems that at some point, the admin costs of involving multiple verifiers would outweigh the cost savings compared to a basic escrow service.
verdverm
Basic escrow will have a much better user experience and case law, should one need to decide in court or arbitration.
leesalminen
Check out the concept of Oracles in a smart contract https://fravoll.github.io/solidity-patterns/oracle.html
listenallyall
Thanks. I guess that given so much hype about blockchain (especially ETH) and ability to create smart contracts, there would be a startup (or many) that was already all set up and ready to go for something like this. I know there's already blockchain-based sports betting, this isn't much different.
gostsamo
The Long Now Foundation might be an option, but I think that they accept bets only under certain conditions.

Otherwise, you can lock the money for a long time with a block chain but you don't have reliable way to insure that the right person will get the money without a third person as a judge and effectively money depositor.