What a game of Steem Poker might look like...
With special guest appearances from @dantheman, @ned, @berniesanders, @lordvader, @eddard, @thecryptofiend, @krnel, @papa-pepper and @fyrstikken-- and of course, @son-of-satire.
This image was cooked up all in good fun, so I don't want anyone claiming to be offended. It did take a very long time to put together, so I hope it's able to inspire a few laughs--especially from those who are featured in it.
STEEM POKER
I may have got a bit carried away with the development of this image, but my initial inspiration for whipping up a STEEM Poker table was because I feel it would be an excellent addition to the 2018 or 2019 roadmap. By then we should have a much larger user base and STEEM poker could serve as a great way to create a demand for STEEM and keep the price nice and high. Let me explain...
Online poker brings in a hell of a lot of business each year. While trying to find out how much profit pokerstars, the biggest poker site makes in profit per year, I came across this estimate which suggests that the site makes between $700,000 to $1,000,000 profit per DAY!
It's clear that there is a very large and very active market surrounding online poker. This in in spite of a google search for "Pokerstars scam" returning thousands upon thousands of results where people are complaining that the software is rigged.
Clearly there are a ton of people out there who are wanting to play online poker, but are not willing to play at sites such as pokerstars. With the inception of bitcoin, there have been some provably fair poker sites which utilise BTC as the main currency surfacing. I was thinking that if there was a STEEM poker site, with a provably fair, open source code, that can demonstrate how the cards are picked at random, there would be those out there who would jump at the chance to buy some STEEM and hit the tables.
Why STEEM poker if they can go to a BTC poker?
STEEM already has an advantage over BTC with its low transaction time and fees. The right marketing could highlight these aspects to create some healthy competition between STEEM poker and other provably fair poker sites. There would also be less need for STEEM poker to take so much money from the rake, or from tournament entries, as STEEM will be benefiting in a number of others ways already, so lower play costs could also incentive users to come across to STEEM poker.
Creating Demand For STEEM
Through drawing in players who are not a part of the Steemit community, the would-be poker players will have to invest in some STEEM before making a deposit on the site. If the site became a hit, the demand for STEEM would be constant as new players--and existing ones--purchased STEEM to play with on STEEM poker. If the site managed to attract some high rollers, we could be seeing $1,000,000 STEEM buys on the market.
Stabilizing the Price:
While the regular STEEM poker user would be getting low rake fees and minimal tournament costs, members of the Steemit community could have the option to play on rake-free tables. This would mean that all STEEM wagered on these tables would be won by the players, and none would be absorbed by the site at the end of each hand. The catch is, 50% of all STEEM which is withdrawn from these types of tables by players, will be transferred to their Steemit wallets in the form of STEEM power. I know that I would certainly be on these tables, as gaining influence through posting takes a very long time. The prospect of winning a nice chunk of STEEM power through playing a bit of poker would certainly be enticing.
If after a while, enough Steemit members were making use of the site, and the rake-free tables, this would dramatically decrease the amount of liquid STEEM in circulation and do wonders to minimize selling pressure and stabilize the price.
Added Bonus
Even with a lower than average rake and cheaper tournament entry costs, the site would no doubt still be turning a profit. Once site maintenance costs were deducted, anything that's left over could be users as either; STEEM interest payments to entice investors, or extra money for the Steemit daily reward pot to attract more users to Steemit and diversify STEEM Power influence.
I actually floated this idea a while back, but at the time I had few followers and my understanding of STEEM was rather limited. Now that I have a better grasp on both STEEM and Steemit, I am all the more adamant that, under the right circumstances, this could be huge for both.
I'm no developer, but I can imagine how huge a task building a poker site would be. It's certainly not something worth doing until Steemit has a larger community and many of the changes we seen in the 2017 roadmap have been implemented. I think for 2018, or 2019 though, this could be an excellent addition to the Steem blockchain that would not only do the things I have just mentioned, but also attract new users to this platform through the poker site.
Maybe I'm insane. Maybe this is way too optimistic. What I do love though, is that I'm now part of a community where the average user is able to propose ideas and everyone is helping to develop the community together.
Let me know in the comments whether you think is crazy, ingenious or something entirely different.
There's already a blockchain-based, provably fair solution for gaming in the works within the Graphene ecosystem. It's called Peerplays (link below). It's been in development for almost as long as STEEM, and it will soon enable on-chain, provably fair poker, lotteries, and sports betting...not to mention enabling in-game purchasing/economies for existing and future gaming platforms.
What I don't know is whether they've considered integrating with STEEM blockchain in order to power what could be a very compelling "free play" experience for those that are not ready for the "real money" games.
I believe this could be a great benefit for both blockchains, and for the Graphene ecosystem (including Bitshares) as a whole.
http://www.peerplays.com/
Do you think PeerPlays Poker will accept steem/sbd deposits? or will their token be exclusive to their platform?
That'a awesome. I hadn't heard of the project before. I hope they do add a free-play version as it would be a great way to bring more members of the community together.
"Steem Rollers" - Hottest Poker Games Around! Just a thought.. 😊 Or does that already exist??
If it does exist, I have certainly never heard of it. Catchy as fuck though!
probably a little sooner than that.
Let's hope so. But, there is so much already on the 2017 roadmap to achieve. So it's going to a busy one.
If you refer to @tombstone's comment on this post you will see that they have been working on something to this effect for quite some time now, so hopefully you're right and we will see it implemented before long.
I like the idea but I'm afraid @lordvader would win every time using his force abilities!
https://twitter.com/Soul_Eater_43/status/822970392377757697
unless xibalba was in the hand
Lol. Well, I haven't showed how the next hand goes down yet...
Thanks a lot for the share-
You're welcome:)
I'll go with "ingenious"..!! Upvoted and also tweeted. Stephen
https://twitter.com/StephenPKendal/status/822974142886580224
Thanks a lot !
No problem. Good luck with the idea. Stephen
Very interesting transmission. I am preparing a response. I would like to use the image you created in my transmission. The Empire's team of lawyers suggested that I ask you before resorting to using the Force to obtain it. I was meeting with them anyway over this issue...
Haha. Feel free to download it and edit it as you please.
FLAGGED because I am not at the table!
Ha, kidding, but really I love me some online poker.
There isn't a good place to play for bitcoin anymore, anyway not one that is like Full Tilt or Pokerstars. I used to play tournaments on betcoin all the time, but the user base seemed to take a dump.
I will still half asleep when I first glanced at this and thought you really did flag me lol.
I never played any of the provably fair BTC ones so I didn't know this.But, it means they may be in a gap in the market waiting for STEEM to fill it!
LMAO!
Yes I hope so, I know I would play day 1!
No girl were invited to this poker game? Not even @stellabelle?
I don't know everyone's gender. For all I know there might be a couple females in the game. But, I didn't go out of my way to find someone I knew to be female. It's only poker, not strip poker.. So don't worry, you're not missing out on any titties. lol
I would participate. Like a 50 cent buy in SBD game. I would prefer a freeze out mode. None of that rebuy stuff!
You wouldn't be saying that if you cleared everyone out on the table would you? Surely you'd be eager for them to rebuy so that you could take some more SBD from them?
True but I think it takes some of the strategy away. I see way too many all in type poker when you can just rebuy for so long. Maybe just less late buy in would be better
That's a fantastic idea. As an ex online pro I applaud the idea!
I still play nowadays, though a lot less as Steemit takes up most of my time.
Why did you stop?
The online games are dead, incredibly tough and less liquidity than before. My winrate started to go down and long term, I started to enjoy it less. It's a fairly stressful living especially when you're going through a big downswing. I played for 8 years!
A blockchain based poker site could be a game changer in that respect, it may get more players to play with a lower rake structure and increase competition to the monopoly that is Pokerstars.