http://www.fastcolabs.com/3035723/app-economy/smart-contracts-could-be-cryptocurrencys-killer-app
I don't know how people consistently overlook XCP. I commented to let the author know.
I'm quite curious - how does a smart contract actually check an obvious fact? The articles mentions getting the superbowl results from a news agency - does this mean that the contract is actually smart enough to read the contents of a URL and determine the winner of the Superbowl?
This particular case might be easy to write code to verify, but what if I wanted to bet that a member of congress would be indicted on fraud charges in the next six months, or something like that - from what I'm reading this would require that someone is broadcasting this information on some feed. But how do we know to trust this feed?
Maybe what I'm asking is, how do I know that a feed operator is actually neutral?
[quote author=wayne link=topic=633.msg3509#msg3509 date=1411448097]
I'm quite curious - how does a smart contract actually check an obvious fact? The articles mentions getting the superbowl results from a news agency - does this mean that the contract is actually smart enough to read the contents of a URL and determine the winner of the Superbowl?
This particular case might be easy to write code to verify, but what if I wanted to bet that a member of congress would be indicted on fraud charges in the next six months, or something like that - from what I'm reading this would require that someone is broadcasting this information on some feed. But how do we know to trust this feed?
Maybe what I'm asking is, how do I know that a feed operator is actually neutral?
[/quote]
Trusting feed operators is just like trusting many other entities in crypto. You want to review their reputation, know that they have something to lose by cheating (i.e. an OpenBazaar-style proof-of-burn, good domain, nice/powerful website), and that they use good security practices. So once again, it's buyer or in this case bettor, beware.