Quote from: OTK47 on May 24, 2014, 03:37:55 PM

As someone who uses betfair exchange frequently I can see the benefits of Countersports (no credit record or commission are big ones for me) but I have a question:

Do you have a specific plan for marketing this to your average user? The benefits seem clear to me but I am someone who owns xcp and bitcoin. Most of my friends would happily continue using betfair regardless of the disadvantages because they know it, trust it and can use fiat currency to bet. Many wouldn't like the idea of even using bitcoin let alone heading over to poloniex or bter to get some xcp to bet with.

So correct me if I am wrong but it seems like the use of Countersports will be relatively niche (i.e. used by those who are into crytpocurrencies) until bitcoin becomes more mainstream. Traditional bookmakers have elaborate advertising and marketing, luring people in with all kinds of free bets, so you're tackling giants here.

With all that said I am very impressed and will be placing some bets myself on the World Cup. I know this is just the start but I'm interested to hear how you think widespread use of Countersports will occur?

Personally, I feel that obviously it's a long way away from mainstream recognition, but gamblers who are familiar with cryptocurrency understand turning 1 DOGE, or 1 BTC or 1 XCP or whatever into 2. The underlying token is not so important, although there is a little extra friction to acquire it that's offsetted by some of the benefits.. They may no have a requirement for XCP beyond this, but they can then cash in/cash out back to BTC afterwards or trade on DEX for whatever else as adoption picks up..Buy XCP, gambl, trade to digital asset representing gold, that shit is amazing. It should have positive effect on liquidity, let's not forget XCP is not being consistently inflated by mining.

I think that betting platform built upon counterparty offers many benefits to a gambler. for example, no longer do you have to trust the operator of a site once you've deposited BTC to their wallet. and there have been some large scams in the past mostly due to counterparty risk undertaken by sending your btc to a wallet some other untrustworthy or incompetent owner has private key to. no longer do you have to make 'withdrawal requests', or pass over sensitive information. Some countries do restrict gambling and anyone residing in those countries may naturally value their anonymity a little more.

Countersports enables you to be your own bookie in the same way bitcoin enables you to be your own bank. And this is one application, built upon one subset of the protocol feature set. It benefits Bitcoin as much as it does Counterparty. Fantastic to see that someone has taken the initiative to put this project together. So many of these 'coins' today are clones with added gimmicks, their popularity is based on short term speculation and creative marketing, XCP stands head and shoulders above the rest. Truly believe it's a dark horse. Good job Countersports team on your project. Really excited to see some of the future projects built upon counterparty platform!