What is it?
A permissionless lotto sponsored by ProofOfWriting.com and the POW eToken.
When are the drawings?
Every 1000 blocks (~1 week).
How do you participate?
All you need to do is hold at least 10 POW tokens. You can purchase POW tokens here.
How do you win?
Before each drawing, a transaction will be made airdropping a small amount of XEC to every address holding a minimum of 10 POW tokens. This will assign an output number to each qualifying address. If your output number matches the last several digits of the UNIX timestamp of the designated block, you are the winner. Currently there are over 600 addresses holding at least 10 POW, so the last 3 digits of the UNIX timestamp will be used. For example, if your output number is 36, the timestamp must end in 036 to win. If at any point we exceed 1000 qualifying addresses, this will be modified accordingly.
Which blocks will be the designated blocks?
The first designated block to determine the winner will be 890000, followed by 891000, 892000, and so on.
When will the airdrop transaction be sent?
It can be sent at any time before each drawing. First one will be sent this Sunday.
How do you claim the prize if you win?
Each week a new article will be published announcing the address that won and a message for the winner. In order to avoid sending the prize to a dead address, the winner must come forward and reply with a valid signature to prove they hold the private keys to that address. Your identity can remain private, all you need to do is provide a signature, and this must be done before the next Lotto article is published or you forfeit your winnings. If you don’t know how to sign a message, you can learn here.
What will the prize be?
Each drawing will be for 1M XEC. If no one wins in a given week, the amount will be rolled over and added to the next drawing just like a regular lotto.
What if nobody wins?
See answer above.
What are the odds of winning?
For every 10 POW you hold in a unique address, you will have a 1 in a 1000 chance of winning each week given the current distribution. This may change if we exceed 1000 qualifying addresses. But please note that the chances of the amount getting rolled over are high since it can be assumed many POW tokens are sitting in dead addresses (addresses where the owner has lost the private keys) or addresses belonging to people who may not want to participate.
How long will the lotto continue?
The lotto will continue until the end of the year. If it catches on, I may choose to extend it to eCash block #1000000 by selling more POW assuming there is sufficient POW liquidity.
Why do you need 10 POW?
This is for Sybil resistance since anyone can divide their POW between unique addresses and give themselves more opportunities to win. For example, if you hold 100 POW, you can spread them out evenly across 10 addresses to get 10 chances to win. Also, 10 POW is still cheap enough that just about anyone can afford to participate. I decided 100 POW was too expensive, while 1 POW would make it possible for one person holding 1000 POW to have 1000 entries, which wouldn’t be ideal. Keep in mind it would also mean that person would have to track all 1000 of their addresses to see if they won.
Is it cheating to divide your POW tokens into several addresses to increase your odds of winning?
No. It is well within the rules to do so.
Why do you call it a different kind of lotto?
Unlike other lottos where you purchase a ticket and any non-winning ticket becomes worthless as soon as the drawing is over, POW tokens have the potential to not only hold, or even increase, their value after each drawing, but they can also be sold on Cashtab Agora at any time. Have you ever heard of a lotto where the tickets themselves can be valuable? Also, unlike other lottos, anyone with internet access can participate and can claim their prize without having to provide identification, only a valid signature. Oh and also when you win this lotto, they don’t take out any taxes.
Is this a Ponzi scheme?
No. While I can understand why you might think so, this is not a Ponzi scheme because there is no fraud here. I am not trying to dupe investors into buying POW tokens so I can pay off earlier token holders. What I am trying to do is find new customers to the POW blog. The goal is to attract new readers and listeners and convert them into paying customers. The POW lotto is merely a way to market ProofOfWriting.com to find a wider audience.
Sample airdrop transaction with outputs:
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.