☯️ A vs B

Until January 15th, 2022, you (yes, YOU) can (secretly) put your Ethereum in either the letter A or B.

Why should you give your ETH to a letter, you ask? Because, if your side is the least popular (has the least ETH), you win the other side’s ETH.

Choose a letter here.

How it works

There are 3 phases. We follow a Commit-Reveal scheme (all dates 2022).

1st: Hidden Voting

  • Until January 15th, players put ETH behind A or B (in increments of 0.01Ξ)

  • Choices are hidden (only cryptographic commitments posted)

2nd: The Reveal

  • After January 15th, players have 5 days to reveal what side they chose

  • Reveal verified by checking cryptographic commitment

  • Side with less ETH revealed decreed winner

3rd: Payout

  • After January 20th, players of the winning side can claim their prize

  • Only players that revealed in Phase 2 can claim

  • Prize is proportional to the ETH they put in

  • 95% of funds are paid out to winners, 5% fee taken by app

And of course, all of the above happens trustlessly. For the only definitive and meaningful information on rules, read the smart contract on Etherscan.

Why does this exist

TLDR; this exists to pit people against each other and see what we can learn about each other in the process.

There are a number of miscellaneous, somewhat unrelated reasons we think this should exist in the big bad world.

  • we were bored

  • will people play both sides (lower variance, possibly negative EV due to fees) or will only people with a strong conviction play?

    • keep in mind, one wallet address = one vote

  • what sort of reasoning will people use to choose their voting side and amount?

  • how will people choose when to reveal during the reveal phase?

  • will people vote multiple times? if so, is it always best to reveal all votes?

  • crypto should be used to scalably test game theoretic questions

  • how rationally do crypto users behave?

  • are people more concerned with profit, or community and narrative?

Besides, maybe A and B represent something else. Something larger. Maybe A is mAinstream and B is suBversive. Maybe mountAins are better than Beaches. Amazon vs Blockchain. cAr vs Bike. Or maybe A is just A, and B is just B.

Implementation Quirks

As with smart contract applications, there are some minor implementation details and edge cases that players should be aware of.

  • technically, players can reveal their vote anytime before January 20th (including before January 15th)

    • however, revealing early is shooting yourself in the foot ... unless you do it on purpose for a reason 🤔

  • a 5% fee is collected at the end, during the first payout

  • if only one side reveals no ETH, then the other side wins

  • if there is an equal amount of revealed ETH behind both sides, everybody wins and can claim their remaining share of the total

With love,

some bored kids