Why is bitcoin.com "scammy" ?

[cypherblock]

Replace "Silk Road" with "Bitcoin.com", and you will get the idea of what we are about here.

But Silk Road was quite clearly an online market place for "stuff". It is clear from the outset to a casual user what it's intention is, and to anyone familiar with these things it is fairly obvious that they will likely be trying to make some money off of their site.

What is Bitcoin.com? Is it a place to get informed about bitcoin with information, links to wallets, shops, and a discussion forum? The answer is likely, "Yes". However the problem comes when that is mixed with the desire for the site to generate income by directing people to things like the Casino or showing them "Featured" exchanges and such where it is not entirely obvious that those are featured because that site paid for the spot. Google has started showing "Ad" or "Sponsored" next to ads, and also shows its usual unpaid results right along side.

Can you not admit that one has to be very careful about conflicts of interest when a site is both an "informative" site and is also trying pretty hard to make some freakin money? Would it be appropriate for Wikipedia to have a link to a Casino in their top bar? Why would that be bad? Maybe that would eliminate all their dumb fund raising campaigns, right, they should do it.

I did not start this thread. I sought to explain to you why some people were having a problem with the site and how I thought it could be improved. You might want to ask yourself, what could you possibly put on the site that would be bad? Is there any wrong thing you could do at all, or is the site (since you own it) above reproach, discussion, improvement? If you owned Wikipedia would you put the Casino in the top bar? Why or why not?

I do not criticize the goal of making money off of a web site, I'm all for it. My criticism is more about the mix of a site that seeks to be informative "Getting started with Bitcoin", "Inform yourself", with money making activities. Is the site showing a list of the best bitcoin wallets/exchanges or the ones that have paid to be listed? Is the site showing me the Casino because that is an awesome thing that many bitcoiners love or is it because it is owned by the site operator and they are making nice money from it (or want to)?

So it is the mix of what is being presented and the way that is done that I see as the main issue. Please continue with the "global revolt", but do it well.

[rogerver]

I spent millions and millions of dollars on Bitcoin.com so far, so I intend to turn it into a profitable businesses.
There will be a fine line to walk, but I see the best way to do that, is to turn it into the most useful and informative bitcoin website in the world.
We are hard at work with lots more cool features coming soon.
In case you missed it, here is a good example of something super useful, that will make money at the same time that is spreads awareness of Bitcoin: post16677.html#p16677

[BTCpoker#1]

Are you accusing the Bitcoin.com casino of being a scam?
If so, please present your evidence.

No not at all, please read my post again and my previous posts on this thread. I have no evidence of any scam with the Bitcoin.com casino.

However, Online gambling has a few issues, like, as a player...

1) You have no idea if you are playing against other real people or against bots/AI. After all we know have computers that can beat people at Go and Chess. Bots in online gambling I think are fairly common and I'm pretty sure many of these have an advantage over humans.
2) You have no idea if the House is not running their own bots or passing information to certain players, or adjusting the odds in other ways.
3) Large sums are often left stored with the Casino, which can lead to Gox like situations (this is true at all Exchanges today as well of course).

Hopefully at least you've solved point 3 and people can send their balance to their wallet at any time (or maybe this happens in realtime?).

But points 1 & 2 will always be problematic. Now I guess you can argue, that anyone can run a bot/AI, etc so it is a level playing field, and all is fair. And you could argue that these bots may be flawed and a smart player could exploit those flaws. Both points have some merit but still many a player will try online gambling without realizing what they are up against. As for point 2 well there is no way to know for sure, unless you've developed some decentralized mechanisms for the server/client and card shuffling/dealing etc that somehow eliminate this possibility.

The point is Online gambling is "scammy" in the sense that it is likely to be connected to scams or at least in the past was linked to numerous scams. It does not mean there is actually a scam taking place at the moment.

If you're talking about Online Poker, bots do exist. However a bot will NEVER beat a really good player in most poker variants. The only reason bots can profit is by taking advantage of "tilters" or people that are not in the right state of mind making insane and unprofitable bluffs.

With that said the majority of online gambling platforms are legitimate. It's the minority of sites that puts a stain on online gambling.

[cypherblock]

However a bot will NEVER beat a really good player in most poker variants.

You've got to be joking. You think bots with the ability to try millions of different scenarios combined with neural nets and heuristics can't beat humans? That is what they thought about Chess and Go. Both fell to the machines.

[rogerver]

AI is going to out perform humans in everything.
One day, they will even be able to build a better Bitcoin.com than I can.
For now, I'll just continue doing the best that I can.

[BTCpoker#1]

However a bot will NEVER beat a really good player in most poker variants.

You've got to be joking. You think bots with the ability to try millions of different scenarios combined with neural nets and heuristics can't beat humans? That is what they thought about Chess and Go. Both fell to the machines.

I said most variants. You're thinking about fixed limit poker. Show me a bot that can beat a good player in no limit heads up or pot limit.

[piebeyb]

somehow they say it, but I think it's not a scam many who need to know it will continue to grow gradually and through the process

[defcon23]

another non-sense & stupid accusation .. just sad..

would be interesting to ask gmaxwell to develop a bit..

[cypherblock]

another non-sense & stupid accusation .. just sad..

would be interesting to ask gmaxwell to develop a bit..

Maybe you didn't read my comments on the topic above.

[cypherblock]

However a bot will NEVER beat a really good player in most poker variants.

You've got to be joking. You think bots with the ability to try millions of different scenarios combined with neural nets and heuristics can't beat humans? That is what they thought about Chess and Go. Both fell to the machines.

I said most variants. You're thinking about fixed limit poker. Show me a bot that can beat a good player in no limit heads up or pot limit.

Maybe you should read this: http://gizmodo.com/why-it-matters-that- ... 1791565551

Given the early results, it appears that we’ll soon be able to add Heads-Up, No-Limit Texas Hold’em poker (HUNL) to the list of games where AI has surpassed the best humans—