7 Facts about EpicDice VS the vanished MagicDice

in #epicdice6 years ago

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Magic Dice has been the big brother and pioneer in the gambling industry of Steem with outstanding achievement that many younger platforms can hardly catch up. Although it is kinda within expectation as the red flags were always obvious with the platform, they decided to leave the community is the most disappointing way ever. Poof, gone like that, probably the last magic performed by the team. It is however painful to watch especially for gambling lovers, read more about it here.

Fortunately, EpicDice is here to fill up the big hole that MD has left empty, in a much better way.

As someone who majorly speaks on behalf of the team, here are the 7 facts that how EpicDice is a perfect alternative to the magically vanished platform.

1. Transparent house profit determination

EpicDice - Since dividend pool availability is solely depending on house profit, EpicDice takes a snapshot of available fund in the house account (@epicdice) at the end of the day and post it in the site's Token page. All the fund movement of between the snapshot is strictly limited to game-related operation only. House daily profit is being shown in Token page real time so it is auditable at all time, even for average users.

Magic Dice - Development and data query skills are needed in order to track how much does the platform is making.

2. Auditable dividend pool

EpicDice - Base on the fact that house profit is verifiable, 50% of the profit will go directly to the dividend pool. House cannot pay even one cent lesser than what it is supposed to pay. Read more about how the dividend works here.

Magic Dice - They mentioned nothing about the generation rules of their div pool. Without a traceable algorithm, house can decide the pool size at will, even at the exploitation of stakeholders.

3. Automatic distribution of dividend and bonus

EpicDice - My personal favourite part is that no manual claiming is needed on EpicDice. It is seemingly odd if you have seen enough of blockchain casinos that all of them requires constant revisit to the site just to collect the bonus. This is one of the tactics gaming platforms use to force users back so it encourages betting behaviour, boosting the volume as a result.

EpicDice has no intention to hold what belongs to users just for the sake of boosting the platform volume. With that said, you get your referral bonus and dividend automatically daily even if you go offline for a year.

Magic Dice - I'm sure more than half of the users have some unclaimed dividend and bonus left in the site. And they are probably gone forever now.

4. Transparency of business-related account

EpicDice

  • @epicdice is the main account to conduct all gaming-related operation, this account also responsible for dividend payout.
  • @epictoken holding all the EPC tokens that belong to the team. Responsible for token distribution to players.
  • @epictester is the official testing account which usually is used in functionality testing.

Magic Dice - @magicdice is the main account. Rumours says that they have some associated accounts for fund management.

5. Simplest and fairest randomness generation mechanism

EpicDice - Instead of complexing the roll number generation process with the common server/client seeding method, randomness of rolling on EpicDice is solely depending on the transaction ID generation on Steem blockchain. It has the simplest and provable fairness.

Magic Dice - Used server/client seeding together with block ID.

6. Active communication and engagement in community

EpicDice - We talk to whoever has something to say whether in our Discord channel or in the comment sections. We respond to most of the feedback we've received. We even extending our reach outside of our realm to see what's people demanding in general so we can keep up with the competition and improvement. We are always eager to hear from the community and appreciate every conversation we could possibly have.

Magic Dice - You have a better chance of winning the Powerball jackpot than getting a meaningful communication with the team.

7. Track record with zero unresolved dispute

EpicDice - Zero dispute was left unattended and unresolved, no matter it is regarding missed bonus distribution or skipped bet. We screwed shits up at times, and we fix it every time.

Magic Dice - You have a better chance of winning the Powerball jackpot than getting a meaningful communication with the team.

Transparency matters

I'm going to be honest with this, none of the above-mentioned matters if house decided to exit, some degree of centralisation is inevitable in all blockchain DAPPs. Let's face the fact, no one can resist when the team decided to get up and leave. As much as we want to build a trustless gaming platform, we can't completely eliminate the necessary centralization control. That's also the exact reason that we're showcasing as much transparency elements as we could, in a convenient way for average users. It would be perfect if we have the attention of community guardians like @themarkymark to watch out for any wrong-doings of the house, so the players could be alerted at earliest timing and minimized the loss when things go south.

Except we have zero plan to exit.

We wanted a perfect casino only to realise that it can only be found in Eutopia, so we decided to build it on our own. All in all, EpicDice is far from its final form and in fact, it is still in very early infancy. It wouldn't be perfect without your participation.

Play with my referral link:
https://epicdice.io/?ref=blocksensei

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"Magic Dice - @magicdice is the main account. Rumours says that they have some associated accounts for fund management."

They have/had at least @magicdice, @magicdice1, @magicdice2 and @magicdice3. Two of the accounts haven't been used for some time now, but it doesn't really matter. They cashed out money to the same account @zombee used, which is probably the main reason for people to believe that he is the one behind everything.

However, instead of talking shit about MagicDice, and how many people who got and will be affected by their exit-scam, let's focus on EpicDice instead.

I am far from the biggest gambler, but I am fortunate enough to be the fourth biggest EPC holder at the time I'm writing this. I have already earned 125 STEEM in daily dividends, even though the house has been at loss on several occasions since the launch of dividends.

Not a single time have the payout been significantly less or for whatever reason, more than what's stated on the website, which was a regular thing on MD.

Due to some shady things I've seen in the past, I was extremely skeptical about many different things when I joined EpicDice, but I quickly got convinced otherwise due to the communication skills by the team. Not even once have my input, suggestions or messages been ignored or felt "overlooked".

Regular updates, whether it's updates on site or just a quick update on Discord to let users know that a planned maintenance will take place is extremely important... And EpicDice delivers.

I hope that people will trust and use EpicDice after this MD-tragedy, even though people will most likely become even more skeptical after it... But EpicDice has some great potential and you've been able to deliver each time until now.

Thanks for the info. Disclosure and giving definition of all the business-related accounts is vital in maintaining out transparency level. We hope there is no need for a long and hard process for any interested mind in spotting injustice in our platform. They can instead, walk in to our Discord and straight question it in our face. Red flag is flagged the moment the team fail to justify the raised issue. We always hope things work this way for most of the DAPPs out there but unfortunately it doesn't exist in reality.

Thanks the trust and everything.

Hi Blocksensei, can you please tell us who owns or operates Epicdice? I am curious why the programmers and beneficiaries choose to remain anonymous. Don't token/share holders have a right to know?

It is a fair request from shareholders, but it doesn’t make sense in current circumstances. You don’t need to know who is behind the scene to use the service. It is not the “real identity” that should gives confidence to the players, instead it should the transparent system design, the smooth gaming flow, the presence of support, the fairness under mutual governance, and more.

You don’t need to know who is running the service to win a bet from the platform, just like the house doesn’t need to know who the player is to distribute dividend/bonus/winning wager. Do we know what is your real name? We don’t even know if you are a cat sitting in front of PC! But the house doesn’t care, as long as you are holding a valid share, your claim for the bonus is valid, and should be honoured as always.

It is possible for the team to expose their true identity, in exchange of that, it will be reasonable for asking users to complete KYC process in order to take part in the game. Just like how all the ICO and exchange is running their business.

Are you willing to turn in a photo of you holding your passport with a paper stating today’s date, for the sake of some casual fun in rolling dice?

I don’t think so. Welcome to world of blockchain gambling.

You mentioned transparency in a few of your points and it was the main subject of your post. Epicdice claims to be transparent, yet you are hiding your identity behind eloquent words. I am just calling you out saying that you are not transparent because you refuse to identify yourself or your employers.

Let's make this clear, hiding your identity when I requested to provide it is proof that you are not transparent. No offense personally. But saying that "transparency matters" yet refusing to identify yourself is hypocritical. You could be good people, then again you may not be, we don't know as you're not being transparent.

Well, EpicDice does not looking for absolute transparency, we make whatever transparent as we could. If people fail to accept that at our best effort, they walk away and we respect that. It is relatively the most transparent blockchain casino, or it is not if you can name a better one.

There is a reason why you are not identifying yourself and that reason is not virtuous. Otherwise I agree that you are relatively transparent.

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Aren't the reason not obvious? EpicDice is not licensed, blockchain gambling is in gray zone, the team rather not expose to necessary risk in real life. The owner is not hiding for a bad cause. This is actually applicable to most blockchain casinos you could find out there.

Thank you for being honest

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Well, if people would've known that zombee was the owner of MagicDice, they would most likely never have been so successful, so being honest, open and willing to reveal the true identities would certainly be in favour for any dApp. That would be truly trustworthy.

I don't see the point of providing any dApp my personal information, not as a customer... But I do see a good point of not hiding behind some anonymous username for a business.

I get it though, not everyone is willing to dox themselves online, for various reasons, but it would be the absolute best trust-building scenario to do so. Any other route would be more time consuming and it would never reach the same level of trust as the identities.

On the other hand, there are multiple individuals on STEEM that are more than capable of gathering information so they could easily dox anyone they wanted too...

Identification works in both ways. You are not walking into the established Vegas casino with a mask on the face.

I'm not trying to tell you that you are doing something wrong or not, I'm just discussing the subject at hand and you have a good point. However, I don't earn dividends from the casinos in Vegas, so the only risk any of them would face by letting me gamble, is if I can somehow cheat the system.

So the identification thing goes both ways in those scenarios. It's for the safety of both parties so to speak. A gambling dApp such as yours, or any other business oriented dApp that allows users to invest though, is a different story.

I am well-aware of the fact that EpicDice is the most transparent dApp there is, and I love it. That's also one of the major reasons for me to like, use and recommend EpicDice. But, whenever a dApp is running a profitable business, and allows users to invest, the risk is at the hands of the investors, not the business.

You made a really good point and got me deep. I guess the introduction of token system and dividend pool makes the platform “investable”. But that was never the intention of it since we just wanted to find a way to share profit with users. And I’m afraid removing those elements for the sake of making EpicDice “uninvestable” is the most stupid idea one can come up with.

You are somewhat right about the part that “investable” business ought to be identified and hold accountable. We couldn’t do that. Since investment comes with risk in nature, why not putting the message EpicDice telling to its shareholder in this way:

“We honour every wager and promise a fair payout as always. On top of that, token holders get to share the house profit as a bonus. We also promise to keep on improving the platform while remain anonymous.”

Now it is time for the investor to make their call whether or not to take the risk with statement above.

Well, as this type of gambling is in the grey area, I can totally understand why you don't want to reveal your identities. It's actually a very understandable decision all things considered.

It would've been an amazing, key element for having a superior trust factor though, but you're basically doing the next best thing, and I support that decision.

Just having these conversations makes a difference for people, I'm certain of that, so keep up the good work. :)

This doesn't make sense, you are running a business and you can run away any moment, that's what identity is for.

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As players are under constant risk of house running away, so does the house is under the same risk should any players found any bugs/loophole in the system and exploit on it, resulting a serious damage to the house. House is not superior to the players, both side bears the same amount of risk, if house is not more vulnerable.

Again, are you ready for giving up your identity so you can be classified as legitimate player to have direct interaction to the house fund?

Again your argument makes no sense.

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House edge of 2% more than makes up for the risk of bad coding and loopholes. I understand with dividends, referrals and various betting strategy house edge can be reduced, but no matter what house still has edge.

There are lots of registered casinos that take crypto. Just not on Steem.

Eosbet.io is a registered casino business. If they can do it on EOS, they can do it on steem. Infact it's easy to change Steem to Eos, so there is no point in delay. They also have a ton of games and way better ui.

You guys aren't transparent because you can make an acceptable profit given the risk of not being transparent. Also development is minimal.

However to say we should trust you for this reason is absurd. You are better than magicdice and probably a few others, but it's like arguing about which poisonous snake I would prefer to bite me.

Obviously trust has become an issue running a DAPP on whatever chain, especially sensitive business like gambling. I get it. Thanks for your voice and we really appreciate it while trying to explore options in strengthen the relationship with community.

With @magic-dice exitting Steem after bagging tons of cash,I feel so anxious of other betting platforms to follow.

I like that you fully assured everybody with the words. But how can you actually assure us that the tragedy will not happen again? Are there any smart pledges, or what?

If you care about transparency, MD was a bad place to start with. No explanation how the house determine the profit and dividend pool, no actually showcase of house holding on the token, close-to-none communication and customer service, the list goes on.

There is no assurance in blockchain to be frank, just like Steemit.Inc can promise us a brighter future tomorrow, but will the whole team exit on the very next day? I wouldn't say it is not possible, I speaking of this as a considerable amount of stakeholder.

One should believe what they do, not what they said. And EpicDice has been keeping the standard high all these while.

It will be very much valid if there's something @epicdice can offer that will let the platform assured that they will stay, or let's say a locking of earned Steem via staking (in the form of Steempower).

I like @epicdice initiative and I just wanted to solidify the "trust" or "better" or "assured" word.

We shall start exploring option in enhancing the trust part, good points. Thanks for the feedback.

No worries and looking forward for a better gaming experience. Do you have any idea regarding token rewards/share for @epicdice sp delegators?

Sure I do. It is 2 EPC per 1 SP on daily basis.

We still have no idea who you are. My name is Rick Nuthman. I live in Los Angeles. If I start a business, blockchain or otherwise, I an not going to conceal my identity.

This is really the only reason that magic dice got away with it. People on these crypto platforms don't have the guts to reveal themselves because they want to maintain the option to run.

If you really want to be transparent, tell us who you are and give us your business address like a normal company. Otherwise stop expecting us to just trust you.

This is not meant to be a personal bash, because I don't know you or your personal values. But I have been screwed over in crypto enough to know that everyone claims to be transparent; until they aren't.

Glad to hear that, Rick. However, if your blockchain business happens to be a casino and the jurisdiction you reside in is not so gambling-friendly. You probably won't say the same.

And that's the very reason the team chose not to reveal their identity just yet for unnecessary troubles in real life. I believe the owner would love to stand in front of the crowd, announcing that he owns the wonderful platform without a mask on the face. Why not? The business wasn't build to run away after all.

While we are striving hard to gain enough resources for a license, hopefully the "transparent" mechanisms would sooth the skepticism well for the players. I hope the shameful exit of MD didn't bite you hard.

Have a great day buddy.

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#wow . Epic or magic ... thats really #hot post . I think Epicdice best for the feauture. Great . Keep it up @blocksensei

Join the fun, will you?

Does epic work on mobile?

So far nope, but it will soon integrating with Steemconnect after the next major release.

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Good post!! 👍

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Good comment!