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Bitcoin History Part 14: The 1,000 BTC Poker Game
Bitcoin and poker have a history that stretches back to the very start. Perhaps, even, to before the start of Bitcoin as we know it, for there is evidence that Satoshi had a background in poker. What's beyond dispute is that in March 2010, the world's first bitcoin poker tournament took place, with the nascent digital currency serving as the unit of account. The buy in was set at 50 BTC, with the victor walking away with the then-worthless prize of 1,000 BTC.
How Bitcoin and Poker Became Bedfellows
Following the inaugural bitcoin poker game, follow-up tournaments were planned on the forum and IRC. "Until a Bitcoin poker client is set up we will need to manually transfer all entry fees and winnings," noted user "FreeMoney" in July 2010. What they, and most other bitcoiners, didn't know is that Bitcoin had already shipped with a poker client of sorts built in. The original Bitcoin code includes the beginnings of a virtual poker game that Satoshi is believed to have started but never finished. Its code is neatly annotated with comments such as "These are your Bitcoin addresses for receiving payments. You may want to give a different one to each sender so you can keep track of who is paying you."
Poker references are included in Bitcoin's first code.
Did Satoshi have a background in gambling, and was this his inspiration for creating Bitcoin? He never alluded to it in his public writings, but it seems credible. Although Black Friday, when the U.S. government shut down the web's three largest poker sites, didn't occur until 2011, by the time Bitcoin came along, online poker was already massive, and already plagued with problems caused by payment processors that were apt to pulling the rug from under their users at the behest of the U.S. If Satoshi had been a poker player, he would have recognized the value that an unseizable P2P currency could bring to the industry. To this day, poker remains a mainstay of the cryptocurrency industry thanks to sites such as Cash Games by Bitcoin.com, which provides provably fair video poker and other casino favorites, with a payout of 99% or greater.
Source from Bitcoin.com, author Kai Sedgwick
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