What is this?

This is a Bitcoin Binary Options broker website based on the prices from Bitstamp. It allows you to buy an option on whether the price will go up or down for a given period of time, directly with the Bitcoin blockchain acting as an interface.

Which wallets are compatible ?

We personnally recommend blockchain.info because we verify timestamps with them.
All standalone desktop wallets (bitcoind, bitcoin-qt, armory, electrum) are also compatible.
Hardware wallets such as Ledger and Trezor should be compatible but we haven't tested it ourselves.
Xapo and exchanges like coinbase, bitfinex, bitstamp, btc-e wallets are not compatible. Do not use them directly!
If you use another wallet, make sure to try it first with a small option to make sure it's compatible.

Can you give me an example?

If you buy an option for 1 Bitcoin on up3h (thinking that the price will rise 3 hours from now) with 1.9 price multiplier, and the price on bitstamp is 124.27$ at that time, then:
- If the price is 128.13$ after 3 hours (the option expires in-the-money), we send you back 1 * 1.9 = 1.9 Bitcoins.
- If the price is 123.87$ after 3 hours (the option expires not in-the-money), your Bitcoin is lost.
We look for the price at the exact time of the creation of the option. (The last trade before the option creation timestamp determines the price at a given time)
Even if your option starts at 123.12$ and the price at the expiration is 123.13$, then you win.
Conversely, we look for the exact price to check whether you lose.

How does it work?

Each option type has a corresponding address. To create an option, simply send Bitcoins to one of the addresses.
It is very important that you use an address that you control because we are sending the Bitcoin back to the same address you used to create an option.
After the option is closed, we will send nothing back if you lost or you will get back the corresponding amounts based on the odds.
Your option can be shown as won in the web interface but the Bitcoins not yet send.

Can you trust us ? Who are you?

Don't trust us blindly.
We believe in complete transparency and we are two french co-founders (Adrien Lafuma & Emilien Dutang). We have known each others for years and have complete trust in each other integrity.
We processed more than 3000 options already since April 2013.
We have been to several Bitcoin conferences and IRL meetings and many old community members know us and trust us.
We believe frauds and scam harms Bitcoin as a whole and we are firm believers it will be a success in the long run.
We have strong moral values and would never steal or cheat anyone.

Is it fair?

The currents odds are specified on the main page.
All our options results are verifiable as we base ourselves on well respected Bitcoin websites.
We use the time of the transaction from http://blockchain.info/ to determine the exact second where the option was created, and then we use the list of bitstamp transactions that is available via the https://www.bitstamp.net/api/transactions/ bitstamp historic API to determine both the opening price and the closing price of the option.
So any result on any option we create can be verified.
In case of lag from blockchain.info timestamp, we will use the timestamp from our own client. We will always check for the earliest possible timestamp we can get to ensure you have the smoothest experience possible.
If your option starts at 09:00:00, we take the last trade that occurs before 09:00:00. If your option is expected to expire at 12:00:00, we will take the price from the last trade that occurs before 12:00:00.

How can I check the prices you attributed to my options?

We are working on making a tool for bitstamp as well for it.

What happens on a draw?

We send you back your Bitcoins. No fees applied.

Do you have fees?

We don't have fees. The odds that we propose on the site is the exact odds we are offering you, even the fee is integrated within the odds.
We plan to make profits by having a very small edge integrated within the odds we offer.

What happens if I send an amount outside of the fixed boundaries? ("denied" options)

We won't create the option. It means that it will be sent back to you minus the 0.0001 BTC transaction fee the Bitcoin network requires after the option expires (3 days for a 3day bet, 15 mins for a 15 mins bet.) and your transaction gets 3 confirmation. If the amount is smaller than the minimum allowed, we will simply ignore it.

My option should be finished already but still show as "pending", what is happening ?

To prevent double spend attacks, we wait for 3 confirmations before closing the options, so maybe your option is not yet included in a block and confirmed.

Why can't I see my option?

We check for new options every minute. If you don't see your option, be sure to wait at least 2 minutes.
In any case, don't worry: You will get the price from the time you sent your Bitcoins.
Also be aware that some Bitcoin clients will generate many addresses to handle transactions and change.
It can happen that your Bitcoins are sent from several addresses. In that case we select the first address we read in the blockchain as the sending address.
If you use a compatible wallet such as a desktop wallet or the web wallet at blockchain.info it won't be a problem.
We are also compatible with Coinbase wallets.

Are my Bitcoins safe with you?

We are very aware of the security issues when dealing with Bitcoin and we are doing our best to be as secure as possible.
We both have a computer science engineer degree and many years of professional experience.
We keep coins for a limited time anyway since they are sent back to winners on a regular basis.

Why are the sum of the odds not a sum of 50%?

Odds are determined in real time by a set of quantitative trading algorithms, which takes market data and past performances as inputs.
We can see that our most skilled players are right most of the time, so the result is not a simple coin flip as one could wrongly assume.
This is reflected by our odds being quite different from the 1 for 2 factor players could expect on a pure random bet.

Are you not afraid that users might manipulate the price to profit from your service?

Not really.
Of course it might always happens that some users will plan to drop 10000 Bitcoin at bitstamp while getting a few extra Bitcoins with our service, but it is not even a 100% guaranteed plan for him and it is probably not worth his focus to cheat us for a few Bitcoin while he is dumping some million dollars amounts. As we can not verify who is trying to manipulate the market and who is not, we consider this is part of the game and won't try to deny options based on strange markets operations. This danger is included in our odds.

What happens if I open multiple options in a row?

You are allowed to create options exactly as you want.
However, take note that we have automated mechanism in place to prevent abusive behaviours and price manipulation, so if you create many options in a row on the same option type, your odds will be lower and lower with each consecutive option.

How can I contact you?

E-mail us at support@btcoracle.com.