Virtue Poker (Gambling) A P2P Decentralized Poker Platform Built on Ethereum Token Sale ended. $18,550,000 OF $18,550,000 (100%) WEBSITE. The latest tweets from @VirtuePoker. Virtue Poker distributes the shuffling process among all players at the table, as shown in the diagram below. Each player’s app shuffles the deck and applies a layer of encryption. Once the deck is thoroughly shuffled and encrypted, the hand is dealt, and players exchange encryption keys so everyone can see their hands.
Ticker:
VPP
Token type:
ERC20
Fundraising Goal:
25,000,000 USD
Total Tokens:
10,000,000
Available for Token Sale:
50%
What is Virtue Poker?
Virtue Poker bills itself as the future of online poker. It states that online poker is currently stuck as the software is constantly called into question, there are claims of funds being lost, or the games being unfair. The Virtue Poker team is committed to addressing the shortfall of centralized poker and make for a better overall playing experience.
The platform was actually founded in 2021 and is intended to be a decentralized online poker source. It was incubated by ConsenSys, a company with a reputation for building decentralized apps. The platform is build on top of the Ethereum blockchain and provides the ability to transfer all value to escrow wallets on the blockchain using a transparent set of rules. This means that users do not have to entrust a third party to handle their money.
There is a timeline provided through the platform website which highlights some of the big milestones and achievements it intends to reach in the coming year. On March 1st of 2021 it will host a live stream poker game on Twitch featuring professional poker players. By the Fall of 2021 it seeks to release an open beta. By winter 2021/2021 it wants to have a live deployment and launch a tournament.
How Does Virtue Poker Work?
To begin, players simply need to download the Virtue Poker software. The tables are actually smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, and all tables are published to the Virtue Poker registry through the Ethereum blockchain. Players are able to join tables using the funds from their Ethereum wallets.
The gameplay itself is handled off-chin via peer-to-peer connection. Payouts are handled through the table based on the game outcome and are made available almost instantly. When the game is complete the results are published to the Ethereum blockchain in order to uphold transparency.
Meanwhile, Virtue Poker tokens can be used an in-game currency, give access to the special tournaments, can be earned as rake back, and serve as nodes in the platform’s incentive system.
Features and Benefits of Virtue Poker
The platform highlights some of its primary benefits through the website. Among the main benefits are the security of the player funds unlike other online poker platforms. Players do not have to deposit money into a centralized system, and instead can put money into their own digital wallets, therefore no one else touches their money. The payouts from the game happen automatically, with the players receiving the funds they won in less than 60 seconds from the table to the player’s wallet.
According to the site, the gameplay is tamper proof because it all occurs using an off-chain secure implementation of mental poker. This means that all the players that are seated at a table are involved in shuffling and use a Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus mechanism to ensure that the cards are being dealt fairly. Additionally, there are guaranteed tournaments available to players as the platform re-invests the money they make back into the platform to give opportunities to all players.
The Virtue Poker Token Sale
The token sale for Virtue Poker is not set yet but should be occurring sometime in 2021. The whitelist is available to join currently. It does not appear that there are any countries that are barred from participating in the token sale. The tokens will be referred to as VPP and distributed as ERC20. In total there will be 10,000,000 tokens created and 50% of them will be made available for sale.
The fundraising goal for Virtue Poker is set at $25 million, though it also states that it will end once 5 million tokens are sold, and the longer the sale takes, the lower the price of the token will be. The sale will accept ETH and currently there are no minimum or maximum contributions that are set.
Currently, no information is provided regarding the allocation or distribution of the funds raised. As far as the tokens, half of the tokens that are created will be made available in the public sale, 30% will go to business development, and the last 20% will go into reserve for the founding team, locked in escrow and vested for over four years.
Who’s Behind Virtue Poker?
The team behind Virtue Poker is identified through their website. There are twelve members of the core team that are profiled, with links offered to their LinkedIn pages. The co-founded and programmer for Virtue Poker is Jim Berry who also works as a programmer for Consensys and holds a BA from the University of Virginia in Astronomy and Physics. The other co-founder of the platform is Ryan Gittleson who also works for ConsenSys in Business Development and Marketing. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania.
The advisory board for the platform features some big names. The strategic advisor is Joseph Lubin who is the co-founder of Ethereum and founder of ConsenSys. There are several other members of the board who hold positions with ConsenSys, as well as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois and a Senior Martketing Executive.
Virtue Poker also features the involvement of three professional poker players – Dan Colman who is third all-time on the money list from poker winnings, Phil Ivey who is sixth all-time on the money list and a member of WSOP Hall of Fame, and Brian Rast who is tenth all-time on the money list.
Conclusion
The world of online poker is lucrative to many users but also full of potential issues. Primarily, there are trust issues among players who have no choice but to give the big poker platforms access to their funds and trust that they will use them correctly. There have been multiple instances in the past few years in which centralized poker platforms have used player funds in an unscrupulous manner. By making it so players do not have to give the platform access to their funds, many of the trust issues go away.
Virtue Poker being associated so heavily with ConsenSys is a good thing for the most part because ConsenSys has a good reputation online for creating decentralized apps. That said, many of the team members for Virtue Poker also hold positions with ConsenSys, so it is unclear how much time they will be able to dedicate to this project. Additionally, the platform website states that a public token sale should happen sometime in mid-February, but obviously that has not happened.
Still, the appeal of the platform is significant as the online poker industry has continued to grow, Virtue Poker seems to be the first decentralized option being offered and they can potentially take a large share of the market.
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Virtue Poker, a poker network built on blockchain technology around the cryptocurrency Ethereum, is readying for its April 25 token sale and has released a breakdown of some key numbers regarding their proprietary token.
Virtue Poker Points, or VPPs, will be the token of choice for token buyers and users on Virtue Poker, although U.S. residents can't partake in the initial sale. The VPPs can be used in three ways, as outlined by PokerNews in a recent piece:
- Used as an in-game currency at the poker tables
- Used to access special tournaments including freerolls and satellites
- “Locked” in a smart contract called the Justice Registry that enables users to stake tokens and validate hands on the network in exchange for fees from players
While that last point may be a bit confusing to users, it's part of Virtue Poker's unique system of monitoring tables and ensuring fair play. More can be learned through the Virtue Poker white paper.
Mechanics of the Token Sale
The April 25 token sale will see 100 million VPPs distributed to token buyers. That represents 20 percent of the 500 million total VPPs that will be minted by the Virtue Poker team.
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Token buyers can purchase the VPPs by submitting Ethereum to a contract address once the sale begins. Ethereum can only be sent from compatible wallets — Metamask, MIST and Gnosis were identified by the Virtue team — and not exchanges.
The sale will last either two weeks or when $12.5 million worth of Ethereum has been raised, whichever comes first. At that point, the total amount raised will determine the final price per token. Depending on the windfall, it will be between a high of $0.125 if the hard cap is reached and $0.06 if the soft cap is reached.
Proceeds will then be used in the following manner:
- 40 percent used for platform development
- 40 percent used for marketing
- 10 percent for legal costs
- 5 percent for consultants
- 5 percent for business development and partnerships
Virtue Poker's Upcoming Debut
The early adopter token sale on April 25 is the first chance for the public to get hold of VPPs, and a significant chunk of the planned total VPPs will be available. Users who are in on the ground floor will get the chance to participate in alpha and beta testing after getting their hands on their shares of the 100 million tokens.
Just a few weeks remain, and with the likes of Phil Ivey coming aboard the Virtue team, industry observers will be watching closely to see if poker and cryptocurrency could form a strong base for a new player in the online poker world.
Learn about Virtue Poker in the video below:
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