Part of the complete guide: Crypto lottery: the complete guide
A to F
- Address: A public identifier for a wallet on a blockchain, like an account number. Safe to share.
- Arbitrum One: A layer-2 network built on Ethereum with low fees. Used for wallet payments here.
- Audit: An independent review of code or processes to find problems.
- Beacon (randomness beacon): A public service that publishes fresh random values on a schedule, such as drand.
- Block: A batch of transactions added to a blockchain.
- Block explorer: A website that lets you look up addresses and transactions on a blockchain.
- Bridge: A service that moves tokens from one blockchain to another.
- Cancelled draw: A draw that did not reach the minimum number of tickets. All tickets are refunded.
- Chainlink VRF: A service that supplies verifiable random numbers to smart contracts, with a cryptographic proof.
- Cold wallet: A wallet whose keys are kept offline, such as a hardware wallet.
- Commit-reveal: A method where participants publish a hash of a secret first, and reveal the secret later.
- Confirmation: A block being added on top of the one that holds your transaction. More confirmations mean more certainty.
- Cut-off: The moment ticket sales for a draw close. Here, Sunday 20:00 UTC.
- Depeg: When a stablecoin trades away from its target price, usually one dollar.
- Draw: The event where winning tickets are selected.
- drand: A public, distributed randomness beacon run by independent organisations.
- ERC-20: A standard for tokens on Ethereum and compatible networks, such as USDC and USDT.
- Ethereum: A blockchain that supports smart contracts and tokens.
- Expected value: The average result of a bet per play, weighted by probability. Negative for every lottery.
- Fingerprint: A short hash that identifies a set of data. We publish one for each ticket list.
G to O
- Gambler's fallacy: The mistaken belief that past random events change the odds of future ones.
- Gas: The fee paid to a blockchain network to process a transaction.
- Hardware wallet: A physical device that stores private keys and signs transactions offline.
- Hash: A fixed-length fingerprint of data produced by a hash function such as SHA-256.
- Hot wallet: A wallet connected to the internet, such as a phone or browser wallet.
- Layer 2 (L2): A network built on top of another blockchain to make it faster and cheaper.
- League of Entropy: The group of organisations that run the drand network together.
- Lottery number: The unique number each ticket receives, like CD-7K3M9-QXA2B.
- Lucky draw: A prize tier here: 10 winners each receive 2% of the pool.
- Mainnet: The real, live version of a blockchain, as opposed to a test network.
- Network: A blockchain, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Arbitrum.
- On-chain: Recorded on a blockchain.
- Order number: The reference starting with ORD- given to each purchase.
P to Z
- Payout share: The percentage of ticket sales paid to winners. 90% here.
- Plisio: The payment provider that powers the "Pay with crypto" page.
- Prize pool: The total money paid to winners in a draw.
- Private key: The secret that controls a wallet and signs transactions. Never share it.
- Provably fair: A system where outcomes can be verified from published data.
- Public key: The part of a key pair that can be shared and used to verify signatures.
- Recovery phrase: 12 or 24 words that can restore a wallet. Also called a seed phrase.
- RNG: Random number generator.
- Rollup: A type of layer 2 that bundles many transactions and posts the results to the main chain.
- Runner-up: A prize tier here: 3 winners each receive 10% of the pool.
- Seed: A starting value for a random number process. In our draw, built from the random value and the ticket fingerprint.
- SHA-256: A widely used hash function that outputs 64 hexadecimal characters.
- Signature: Data created with a private key that proves an action or message came from that key.
- Smart contract: A program stored on a blockchain that runs automatically.
- Stablecoin: A token designed to keep a stable value, usually one US dollar.
- Ticket list: The sorted list of all ticket numbers in a draw.
- Tickets hash: The SHA-256 fingerprint of the ticket list.
- Token: A digital asset issued on a blockchain, such as USDC.
- Transaction hash: A unique ID for a blockchain transaction. Also called a TxID.
- USDC: A dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle.
- USDT: A dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Tether.
- UTC: Coordinated Universal Time, the fixed reference used for draw times.
- Verifiable random function (VRF): A function that gives a random-looking output and a proof that it was computed correctly.
- WalletConnect: A protocol that connects mobile wallets to websites via QR code or app link.
Terms that are often confused
| Pair | The difference |
|---|---|
| Wallet vs exchange account | A wallet holds your own keys. An exchange account holds funds on your behalf. |
| Hash vs encryption | A hash is one-way and cannot be reversed. Encryption can be reversed with a key. |
| Provably fair vs audited | Provably fair is checked by players on each draw. Audited is a review by experts at a point in time. |
| Seed (random) vs seed phrase (wallet) | A random seed starts a number sequence. A seed phrase restores a wallet. Different things with a similar name. |
| Layer 1 vs layer 2 | Layer 1 is the base blockchain. Layer 2 is a network built on top for speed and low cost. |
| Gas vs ticket price | Gas is the network's fee. The ticket price is what the lottery charges. |
How the draw terms fit together
- 1Tickets are sold during the week and each gets a lottery number.
- 2At the cut-off, the ticket list is sorted and fingerprinted with SHA-256.
- 3A random value is taken from the drand beacon for the draw time.
- 4A seed is built from the random value and the fingerprint.
- 5The seed produces positions in the ticket list, and 14 different tickets win.
- 6The result is published with everything needed to verify it.
Ready?
A weekly draw you can check yourself.
$5 tickets, a public random value, and every result published with the data to recompute it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a seed phrase?
The same as a recovery phrase: 12 or 24 words that can restore your wallet. Never share it.
What is a hash?
A fixed-length fingerprint of data. The same input always gives the same hash and a tiny change gives a very different one.
What is gas?
The fee you pay to a blockchain network to process your transaction.
What does provably fair mean?
That outcomes can be verified from published data instead of trusting the operator.