These aren't games, they're just random number generators. Things that hold peoples attention give the illusion of more depth than P(payoff).
The Bitcoin protocol already has a blockchain-validated (non-Turing) scripting language. You could probably write genuinely interesting games in it, that are financially self-enforcing, without any new protocol needed.
It would thence (uh, can i use that word this way?) be possible to e.g. implement three-party escrow using 2-of-3 signatures (second bullet point under Motivation, etc.) Two signatures would be enough to conduct a fund transfer from buyer to seller. If either buyer or seller defects (or there's some kind of a problem), there'll be <=1 signature present. The third mediating/escrow party would then choose whether to place their own signature or not (thereby validating or nullifying the transaction, accordingly.)
iirc there's also some BIP-level stuff (or an idea to implement it using bitcoin Script, anyway) to have things like NashX[1] work within bitcoin. Basically a Nash equilibrium based transaction scheme with no human 'escrow' party required - everything is formalized. If either the buyer or the seller fails (i.e.: if any of the two report 'failure'), all funds are burnt (e.g. sent to some provably bogus bitcoin address, whatnot.) Both parties have to chime in so that the risk is distributed accordingly/appropriately. There are nuances and gotchas here to be had, of course.
Our for-contract bitcoin dev team already uses 2 of 3 multisig escrow for all bitcoin payments.
Its better than anything else I've ever used cross border. The weekly price volatility is currently lower than the cut any good professional escrow service would take. Furthermore the transaction goes through in an instant.
Once crypto assets which track USD, Euro, Yen, RMB pop up with turing complete scripting build in... man that's going to be a different world.
The crazy thing is that nobody really knows what team/technology will win the race. There several blockchain 2.0 projects out there, all with different technological inovations. Bitcoin itself will almost certainly be eclipsed in a few months/years.
I have a hunch that we'll see Bitshares DPOS consensus algorithm partnered with Ethereum's turing completeness combined in one DAC. Open Transactions will most likely become the equivalent of the web browser to TCPIP.
We're still at the veeery early stages of the blockchain development. Our team is extremely excited to have caught the wave so early and to work with such great startups and people.
please please consider hiring me.. Im at GS this summer and I really want to work in the crypto area when it is so important to me to be working in an area that can actually benefit humanity. Really, I want to help.
People say that it might be possible with a SchellingCoin like approach, I see too many issues with this approach.
I personally believe we'll end up with DPOS [1] based DACs, all with bitUSD/EUR/YEN/RMB/etc with cross-chain trading. Each DAC will have core code specialized for one or two specific tasks (e.g. distributed domain name system, distributed naming system, commons based IP/patent system, lotteries, notary systems, share issuing (most likely in a general Ethereum-like chain), distributed supercomputing and file storage, etc.
Ethereum's turing completeness will likely become standard in all DACs at some point (commoditized).
Open Transactions [2] will facilitate HFT and non=legal but financially binding cross-border contracts.
The Bitcoin protocol already has a blockchain-validated (non-Turing) scripting language. You could probably write genuinely interesting games in it, that are financially self-enforcing, without any new protocol needed.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script
(Digression: are there any technically-interesting protocols built on top of BTC script validation?)