Inspiration
eSports is exploding as a market, with a highly-engaged, global fanbase. These fans are increasingly interested in interactive experiences and incentives, including betting on outcomes of the major events (see skin gambling for a unique gaming spin on this). As the vast majority of eSports fans cannot legally bet on professional matches, there is a massive opportunity to provide a similar experience, while remaining compliant and mitigating the many issues that plague betting markets.
What it does
Flashpoint is a zero-loss eSports betting game that allows fans to predict the outcome of popular professional matches.
Sponsors deposit cryptocurrency into an interest-generating Ethereum smart contract the week ahead of a match. Once the match concludes, fans that correctly predicted the outcome of the match then split the interest.
Sponsors gain publicity for very low cost (they can withdraw their entire original deposit post-event), and fans earn crypto without risking capital.
How I built it
Flashpoint is built using Ethereum smart contracts to handle sponsorship deposits, generate interest via lending (using Compound), lock in user bets, and award the winners. The frontend uses React.
Challenges I ran into
I wanted to make betting entirely free for users using a pattern called "metatransactions", while also requiring users to create a phone number based cryptocurrency wallet to prevent spam (using Fortmatic). Definitely possible, but took way longer than expected, and I had to use an email/password based wallet instead.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
Managed to get a basic version of the contracts deployed to a test network, and get free transactions for the users working!
What I learned
It's still a huge pain to get all of the awesome Ethereum-based products to play nicely together.
What's next for Flashpoint
Finish integrating Compound, switch from using ETH to DAI or USDC (USD-pegged cryptocurrencies). Swap out Portis (wallet) for Fortmatic. Use Augur or another oracle to make the match outcome reporting more trustless.
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