Developed within Consensys, Virtue Poker is a decentralized peer-to-peer poker platform that combines P2P networking with the verifiable nature of the blockchain to deliver a safe, honest and fun gaming experience. Backed by Consensys, DFG Group, Digital Strategies, Fenbushi Capital, Flurry Capital, JRR, Pantera Capital and stakeholder Phil Ivey, the company endeavors to bring blockchain-based betting to the mainstream globally with its recently acquired Malta Gaming License. With the launch of its new multichain poker application, Virtue Poker is positioned to become the first licensed blockchain-based gambling application in the world.
The startup was among the first projects to be incubated by Consensys founder Joe Lubin, who saw online gambling as an industry that could benefit from the decentralized nature of the Ethereum network. In addition to its own native token, the poker application will also utilize Ethereum smart contracts and sidechain infrastructure for next-generation security and transparency for players. The application aims to revolutionize the poker industry by eliminating shady and dishonest algorithms and costly third-party payment processor middlemen, especially for withdrawals. Twitter is also a good platform to learn more on multichain poker.
The platform has recently completed its IDO on SuperStarter and will be publicly launching for real money on May 28th, with a celebrity tournament featuring NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, YouTube phenom MrBeast, ConsenSys Founder Joe Lubin, Ethernity Founder Nick Rose, SuperFarm Founder Elliotrades, Crypto Banter stars Ran Neuner and Winston Wolfe, and poker legend and 10 times World Series of Poker winner Phil Ivey. As part of the initial investment round, the company was able to secure $5 million from strategic investors including Joseph Lubin’s Consensys, DFG Group, Pantera Capital, Jez San from FunFair and other notable names. The funding was a part of Coinlist’s Seed Winter 2021 Batch and comes on the heels of a token sale that raised over $20 million in 2018.
Mental Poker: An Academic Challenge
The blockchain-based poker application has to tackle an important theoretical challenge when it comes to ensuring privacy, especially if players are encrypting their cards using zero-knowledge proofs. This cryptography requires specific software that is simply not available on Layer-1 platforms such as Ethereum, and requires a Layer-2 solution for the computation to be run off-chain. You can see posts to get details on mental poker.
Fortunately, this problem has been studied extensively in the academic literature and there are various solutions to this computational challenge. One of these is known as Mental Poker, which is based on a set of zero-knowledge proofs that allow two players to shuffle a deck of cards in such a way that they cannot know which card is which unless they collaborate. Another solution is to use a cryptographic algorithm to record player interactions, and replay the entire game in order to determine whether the outcome was correct or not.
The result of this computation will be stored on the blockchain and can then be verified by an off-chain Cartesi Compute Validator Node. This is a complex and time-consuming process, but the results can be verified by an off-chain node in minutes instead of hours or days. This enables Virtue Poker to provide a more accurate and faster service than its rivals. Moreover, the company’s Cartesi Compute Validator Nodes can be distributed to ensure that no single node can control or manipulate the results of the computation. In this way, the system can be scalable and reliable. You may need to check out this article: https://www.britannica.com/topic/poker-card-game to get more info on the topic.