For The Win (FTW) is a decentralized gambling platform on the NEO blockchain. The initial launch of FTW will feature a lottery decentralized application (dApp) built into a smart contract, but the team eventually intends to release a wide range of games alongside support for mobile devices.

FTW is currently holding an airdrop in partnership with O3 Labs. 2,000,000 FTW tokens will be airdropped to users of the O3 wallet, evenly distributed amongst eligible participants. To be eligible to receive the tokens, users must sign up through news feed on the O3 wallet, and meet the following criteria:

  • Have an O3 wallet address that has been used to make a transaction or GAS/ONG claim
  • Hold a minimum of 2 NEO at time of registration
  • Hold a minimum of 2 NEO at time of snapshot on August 13th

Tokens will be distributed on August 15th.

This will mark the fourth FTW airdrop, following a token sale that wasn’t widely publicized. The first airdrop was a Telegram exclusive event with email verifications to help filter bots.

The second airdrop was performed in partnership with the Master Contract Token (MCT) team, providing all addresses that were holding NEO, MCT, and sent at least one NEP-5 token between June 1st and July 13th with 100 FTW tokens. The snapshot was taken at block height 2,499,487.

The third airdrop was in partnership with Aphelion, with 100 FTW sent to NEO addresses that contained 50 or more APH at a snapshot taken at block height 2,549,928.

An Introduction to FTW

The FTW team found the trustless database and concept of decentralization fascinating, initially leading to a dive deep into the inner workings of Ethereum. It was here in February 2018, where the team originally intended to launch the FTW gambling platform.

However, with Javascript and Python as his programming languages of choice, FTW eventually made the transition over to NEO to take advantage of its multi-language capabilities and supportive development community. In an interview with NEO News Today, Ed, FTW lead developer commented: “I love the community. I could get fast responses whenever I had problems. City of Zion’s hard work is very impressive too, they are such a great team.”

The FTW team currently consists of eight members, with the project raising approximately USD $120,000 through the FTW token sale. FTW commented that it did not want to focus on advertisements and simply wanted to raise enough to pay for development – a stark contrast to many other dApp projects that launch multi-million dollar public token sales.

For The Win Lotto

The first game to be released by the team is the FTW Lotto, which is accessible through the FTW wallet. Unlike conventional lotteries, FTW Lotto is designed to be decentralized, meaning there is no trust required to use the app or claim rewards. In addition, there are no commissions taken by the development team, with the smart contracts designed to be self sufficient and operated entirely by the users.

One of the key differences between FTW Lotto and traditional lottery apps is the attainment of decentralization by splitting the number draw (Lucky Wheel) and number verification (Match Mine) processes into two separate games, each with its own incentives. This means that participants in the lottery manually trigger these smart contract functions, rather than being executed automatically. Not only does this enhance the decentralized nature of the game, it also helps to keep execution costs low.

The development of this application has been completed, though according to Ed, refinements are still being made. The source code for the FTW Lotto smart contract can be found on the GitHub repository listed below:

https://github.com/ForTheWinn/smart-contract.

Buying Tickets: Dream Balls

Users can participate in the lottery by purchasing game tickets called ‘Dream Balls’ at a cost of 1 FTW token each. These tokens can either be paid directly from the FTW wallet, allowing users to pick their own numbers for the draw, or they can also be sent to the pool address from other NEO wallets, which will result in randomly assigned numbers. Matching more than two numbers in a draw will award the user with prizes, which can be found here after logging into an FTW wallet.

Number Draw: Lucky Wheel

In order for the lottery numbers to be drawn, a participant must spin the “Lucky Wheel”. There can only be one drawing of winning numbers every 12 hours, with one lucky applicant winning the right to spin the wheel. Spinning the wheel is free, and the spinner will be awarded FTW tokens equal to 5% of the total number of game tickets sold, which incentivizes users to keep the game running.

Ticket Verification: Match Mine

The ‘Match Mine’ verification game is how the number-matching process is handled. It’s free to play but can only be accessed by applicants that hold more than 1,000 FTW tokens in their wallet. Using the Match Mine option allows users to check Dream Ball tickets against the winning numbers for that round. If no winning ticket is found, the verifier is awarded 0.05 FTW. If they discover a winning ticket, they receive 5% of the winning prize. As with the drawing reward, this incentivizes users to participate and keeps the system decentralized.

The Lotto app is expected to launch after FTW takes steps to comply with applicable gambling laws and regulations. Despite the team not collecting any commissions or benefits from the lottery, decentralized gambling is a blue ocean market which needs to be handled responsibly.

In addition, in light of a recent spam attack, FTW is also taking time to ensure it will not flood the NEO blockchain with free transactions. FTW is looking at including transaction fees into its model, and will not launch the dApp until it is certain it will operate efficiently.

More information on For The Win can be found at the links below.