Mental Poker [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Mental Poker [pdf]

people.csail.mit.edu

145 pointsatamyrat16 comments

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I love solve this problem, is such an interesting point were trust and cryptography comes in place.

I even try to build a prototype my self for p2p poker. I don't have anymore the code to share.

Anyway I will also recommend this video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mthPiiCS24A

the video actually features the second author of the paper.

What if I use a different key for each card?

I found the answer in the youtube comments:

> Dan McNeill: What if I use a different key for each card?

> MrBawn: In the physical version, you could absolutely identify each card by which of your keys unlocked your lock without unlocking your opponent's lock. In the crypto version, you can't tell which of your keys works on an encrypted card because your opponent's lock has turned it into gibberish. So an incorrect key would be indistinguishable from a correct key.

> Can two potentially dishonest players play a fair game of poker without using any cards － for example, over the phone?

> This paper provides the following answers:

> 1. No. (Rigorous mathematical proof supplied.)

> 2. Yes. (Correct and complete protocol given.)

We at Cartesi (https://cartesi.io) are also building out a fully decentralized poker game called Texas HODL'em on Ethereum which implements mental poker using our technology.

We've just released the tech article here: https://medium.com/cartesi/how-cartesi-is-changing-the-game-...

If you want to play mental poker with an arbitrary number of friends/enemies, I built a prototype with a really basic UI that extends the SRA81 protocol to support more than two players and that also removes the need to reveal the hands at the end of the game. https://secret.cards/

"We would like to thank Robert W Floyd, Michael Rabin and Albert Meyer for their motivation and invaluable suggestions"

That's the Floyd from Floyd-Warshall Algorithm and Rabin from the Rabin-Karp string search Algorithm.

I wrote a library for this in Go: https://github.com/cretz/go-mental-poker. The algorithm has general purpose value amongst untrusted peers reaching conclusion while mutating a common blinded subject.

This article is particularly interesting in light of the various lotteries and other gambling devices which are available on the Ethereum Blockchain. They approach a similar problem from a slightly different direction, not always successfully.

Just sharing, there's a live real money poker room that implements mental poker with an actual gaming license implemented on Ethereum. https://virtue.poker

Not true, and they are more of a investor scam than anything else.

By Rivest, Shamir and Adleman, as in (creators of) RSA

Which is not a coincidence since the protocol is an application of public-key crypto.

Anyone interested in the subject should also look into https://zkga.me. It's an incomplete information p2p game (just as mental poker). They utilize zksnarks, among other crypto tools.

How to teach someone RSA without talking about RSA

Published ~1981

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