How Binary Games Work on Bluff Kingdom

What Counts as a "Binary Game"

A binary game on Bluff Kingdom is a game with exactly two possible outcomes. Common shapes:

• Yes / No — "Will the project ship by Friday?"
• Higher / Lower — "Will BTC close above this price?"
• Left / Right — used for any 50/50 framing.

Every game on the platform is binary. There are no multi-choice questions, no scored quizzes, no tournament brackets disguised as games. One question, two answers, one pool. That narrowness is intentional — it makes the fairness model and the fee math simple enough to verify by hand.

The Roles in a Game

A binary game has two roles, and you can play either.

Creator

The creator writes the game. They:

• Author the description.
• Define the two possible answers.
• Pick the correct answer privately.
• Set the closing time.
• Fund the game pool from their balance in USDC or USDT.

Once the creator hits publish, the game cannot be edited or deleted. That immutability is what makes the answer commitment meaningful.

Player

A player is anyone (other than the creator) staking on a side. Players pick the answer they think is correct, choose a stake size, and confirm the play. Plays cannot be reversed.

The same account can be a creator on one game and a player on another. The roles aren't tied to your account — only to the specific game you're participating in.

The Creator-Funded Pool

This is the part that makes Bluff Kingdom slightly different from a traditional peer-to-peer betting market.

When you create a game, you don't just open a market and wait for liquidity. You fund the opposing pool yourself, in the token (USDC or USDT) you choose for the game. That pool is the maximum total amount players can stake on the side that turns out to be correct.

A worked example:

• You fund a 100 USDC pool on a "Will X happen by Friday?" game.
• You privately mark Yes as the correct answer.
• Players see the game and start staking on either side.
• One player stakes 15 on Yes, another stakes 30 on Yes, another stakes 50 on No.
• The total played on the winning (Yes) side is 45. That's how much of your funded pool actually gets used.
• The remaining 55 of your funded pool — the unplayed portion — is returned to you in full with no fee when the game closes.

That last detail matters. Creators don't pay anything on the part of the pool nobody bet against.

Stake Sizes and Pool Filling

Players choose their own stake size, subject to the remaining capacity of the funded pool. One player can take the entire remaining capacity, or just a portion of it, leaving room for others.

When the funded pool fills completely, the game stops accepting new plays and closes early at full capacity. If it doesn't fill, the game closes at the scheduled end time with whatever was played.

The 2% Fee, Concretely

The platform takes a flat 2% on the played amount at settlement, split across each side's winnings. Practically: 2% of what the creator wins, plus 2% of what players win. Together those add up to 2% of the played amount.

Continuing the worked example:

• Played amount: portions of the funded pool that drew opposing stakes — anything outside that returns to the creator unchanged.
• Player fees: 2% of what winning players take home.
• Creator fee: 2% of what the creator wins at settlement.
• Losing stakes are not charged a fee on top of the loss.
• The unplayed remainder of the funded pool is returned to the creator with zero fee.

The platform takes its 2% from the played amount, distributes the remaining winnings, and returns unplayed funds to the creator. That's the entire fee model.

How the Correct Answer Stays Honest

Every binary game has an answer that the creator selected privately at creation time. Bluff Kingdom needs to make two guarantees about that answer:

1. The creator can't change it after the game is live.
2. The platform can't change it either.

The fairness model handles both with a hash + salt commitment:

• At creation, the correct answer is combined with a randomly generated secret salt and hashed.
• The hash is stored publicly. Anyone can see it on the game page.
• The salt is kept private until the game closes.
• When the game closes, the salt is revealed.
• Anyone can take each possible answer, combine it with the now-public salt, and recompute the hash. Whichever option matches the original hash was the locked-in answer.

We have a separate, longer post on the verification flow at Provable fairness with hash + salt.

What Happens When a Game Closes

A game closes in one of two situations:

1. The end time is reached. The most common case. The game closes automatically and resolves using the creator's original commitment.
2. The pool fills. If players collectively stake enough to fill the creator's funded pool, the game closes at capacity and resolves immediately.

In both cases:

• The salt is revealed and the result page shows the verification details.
• Winners receive their stake back plus a proportional share of the losing side's stakes (minus the 2% fee).
• The creator gets paid out from the played-side stakes if their answer was wrong, or pays out from their funded pool if their answer was correct.
• Any unplayed portion of the creator's pool is returned in full.

Tips for Creating Strong Games

If you're going to create games rather than just play them, a few things make a big difference:

Tips for Playing Smart

A few principles that hold up across most binary games:

• Read the description twice. Half of all losing plays come from misreading the resolution criterion, not from being wrong about the outcome.
• Check the funded pool size. Tiny pools mean small upside even if you win. Larger pools support larger plays.
• Look at how much is already played. Heavy one-sided action might reflect insider knowledge — or it might reflect a herd. Decide which before joining.
• Stake what you'd be fine losing. Plays cannot be reversed. Don't click confirm on a stake you'd want back.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a game have three outcomes? No. All games are binary. If you want to ask a question with more than two outcomes, restructure it into multiple binary games.

What if both possible answers are technically correct? Avoid framings that allow that. The creator picks one answer at creation; the hash commits that one. If your description is ambiguous, you may end up paying out to a side you didn't intend.

Can I be both the creator and a player on the same game? You fund the pool as the creator. The system tracks plays separately, and your participation as creator is what funds the opposing side. You don't stake against your own pool.

Does the closing time use my timezone or the platform's? The closing time is stored in UTC and displayed converted to your local time on the game page.

What happens if I disconnect during a play? A play is only confirmed once the platform records it. If your network drops mid-confirmation, refresh the game page and check whether the play landed before retrying.

Where to Go Next

For the cryptography behind the answer commitment, read Provable fairness with hash + salt. For the strategy of staking on a side, read Picking the right side. And if you've never published a game, the fastest way to learn is to publish one in demo mode.