We don’t know each other - how would we trade or bet or do something that requires trusting each other? For example what would be your current solution to have a $10 bet on the outcome of a sports game tomorrow, between me and you?

I'd send you $10 by paypal if I win, and expect you to do the same if you lose. If you don't, I'd call you out on these forums. If you wanted to bet more money, I'd use an escrow service. But also, why would I want to bet on sports against a random stranger?

It's a use case I happen to like, doesn't mean it's for everyone. Another way to view it - how large a project would it be to program this? It's basically given to you for free when money is programatic such as in crypto!

I don't think that turning the world into a casino for the minority of people who would enjoy that is a good tradeoff for the rest of us.

Silk road, an illegal enterprise, basically ran on trust and reputation (and USPS) and that part of it actually had nothing to do with crypto or blockchains.

I don't have a solution for trading but betting can be fixed by parimutuel wagering. Since that form of betting and payout is entirely algorithmic (and not based on the event itself), it can be done safely and transparently in software.

For anyone not familiar, this style of betting (used in horse racing) pays out based on the relative amounts waged on the winners. The house takes a cut of the entire pool and (in theory) isn't interested in the outcome.

Either neither party can trust the other, and you need an intermediary to at least verify who won, and possibly to transfer the money; or both people are trustworthy and you can have a simple agreement. If it’s a third party, you have to trust that third party. We can’t get rid of the trust requirement. If the third party is software, what if there is a bug ? More like, when there are bugs

There are services (startups) for betting on games. The solution is essentially an escrow or third party to mediate the transaction.

Sure but now we need a company to maintain this stuff! And that means staff, fees, etc... It could very easily be an open source contract with a list of oracles that are voted for/against adding.

> For example what would be your current solution to have a $10 bet on the outcome of a sports game tomorrow, between me and you?

Are you really asking this question as though this isn't a thing that's already happening, right now, today, without the need for crypto snake oil?

Why is that useful to do?

You've never said "Hey, I know you're wrong, let's bet on it!" on the internet but never been able to go much further? I know I have! Plus I've definitely wanted to play 1v1 games for a bit of money (video games that is). And many others have, as people solving this issue are raising millions and have thousands of users already :)

You may not personally find it useful but it's much harder to solve on the "Web2 stack" than the "Web3 stack" if such descriptions exist.