What do you think?

https://virtue.poker/#video

A few questions, since you mentioned the future:
1. Is it open source?
2. Is it free?
3. Is it legal?

Yes I'm pretty sure it will be open source just like all other Decentralised applications running on ethereum. I don't know think it will be exactly free but the transaction fees should be minimal compared to current rake systems. As for legality, it will be pretty hard to make it illegal due to its decentralised nature. There is no central server or company running the application. Everything is peer2peer from what I understand. I'm not an expert but I've been reading up on block chain technology and it seems very promising. There are so many applications for it.

Sounds like original Napster

I am the Napster

I think it is worth a look. Unfortunately, if you click on their WhitePaper tab, all it says is "coming soon".

Aside from that, I signed up for their updates, as I think smart contracts can be adaptable to a variety of gaming channels. The Ethereum White Paper itself was filled with discussion of sports-betting applications for illustrative purposes. Poker may be the toughest gaming channel to implement however.

I'll be interested if they resolve some key issues. Until they publish a White Paper addressing how the ETH blockchain can accommodate validation of the multiple decisions/actions in even a single hand of poker, in a tolerably timely manner, it is just a promising lead. SatoshiDice caught huge flack in 2013 for "clogging up the tubes" of the bitcoin blockchain because it was > 60% of all transactions submitted.

A simple interim fix to winners getting paid is to submit buy-in funds at stake to a 3 party escrow, with release upon agreement of two parties.

"Trust everyone, but cut the cards" need not sacrifice the quality of an in-game experience, so long as the funds are secured with a turstworthy third party in the escrow arrangement.

However, at a minimum, an Ethereum blockchain solution should be better than 1990's Rec online poker, as it will add real money.

(I thought Ethereum was promising enough, in its explanation of sportsbetting applications, to subscribe for a pre-sale offer, for the BTC equivalent of 1 $1-2NL buy-in. The eventual return was much better than I've ever seen from actually playing $1-2. I just don't think the ETH Blockchain is ready for an entirely chain-driven poker experience.)

Just my .000002 ETH worth.

I do think the future will see this venture move from its current base in Brooklyn.

Okay, here is something to read up about.... you can start off the NVG crowdsourcing contribution to this effort:

1. How long does the ETH blockchain currently take to validate a transaction ?

2. Can the gameplay run on a side-chain, and would that minimize delay in the game, i.e. otherwise the game stays static every time a player makes a decision (which has to be communicated to all other players, active in a hand or not) for example ?

The poker market will require a solution better than chess-by-email speed.

If they can get this to work and have a good system against collision/bots this could be huge. Hope it works out.

Pretty interesting. I could see lots of private games running in this format (especially higher stakes cash games between people that know each other), but hard to imagine this platform offering a high volume of action in a wide variety of games.

Been waiting for a while for this. Awesome that someone's finally doing it. Looking forward to see where it goes.

It would work fine for cash games, but the site would have trouble attracting a lot of players without guarantees on tournaments.

You could only schedule tournaments with certain buy in amounts and structures, but no company would be there to guarantee prize money in MTTs that would encourage growth in the player pool. Unless, Virtue has large backers that guarantee large prize pools in tournaments....

well all the wallets i use cost money for transactions at a very high rate , so idk who there going to use for that

RIP Phil Galfonds site

According to their website: "we put our marketing resources into guaranteed tournaments."

Decentralized poker is the future of online poker, indeed. Supplying rec players with a dummies video on its advantages as well as providing them some cryptocurrency is critical.

From the little I understand, the lightning network upgrade for bitcoin will fix this issue entirely, allowing for nearly fee-free off-chain channels. I'm not sure how this works for ETH or whether transaction fees are even an issue.

this startup + galfond's site are pretty much only good news in three years

In what parallel universe does anyone think any meaningful volume of fun players would go thru steps and/or use an alt currency site?

Maybe a few?

Thus likely to be 5 regs and 1 fun on each alt currency table at best.

Bitcoins in ones own computer? Superuser, rng, bot, collusion friendly. Whats the rake?

drop the "the", just Napster.

Live professionals are going to need to introduce this to rec players and send them some crypto to get them started. Wear promo t-shirts and play online poker while you're at the table.

Bitcoins in ones own computer: use paper wallet.

Superuser / rng: open source / provably fair.

Bot & collusion friendly: legit concerns. Openbazaar, the decentralized marketplace has moderators / escrow. So could this (for a small fee).

Rake should be greatest of all time.

No rake, no profit, no investors, no business, no players, no game.

https://openbazaar.org

???

Try: amazon.com

You just made my point. People use Amazon.com not Openbazaar.