A strategy board game about Bitcoin mining and stacking sats, rocking Lightning wallets and packed with Bitcoin culture and education pills!
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Buy power stations and fire up your Bitcoin miners, hodl your hard-earned sats to survive through halvings, bear markets and difficulty adjustments, avoid getting rekt by black swans or government regulations and build the most profitable Bitcoin mining operation to win the game!
Bitcoin Difficulty is about building a profitable Bitcoin mining operation to earn as many sats as possible while crushing the competition. To do so, players must acquire and operate power stations to power their Bitcoin miners and mine sats as their main source of income.
While growing their Bitcoin mining business, players must keep up with the total hash rate and difficulty adjustments, survive through halvings and Bitcoin price volatility, and avoid getting rekt by black swans, government interventions, hacks or third-party bankruptcies.
While the most risk-averse will simply hodl their sats, others may try to time (or manipulate) the market by trading them for fiat bucks, or even hope to earn a so called "risk-free" yield by staking them on a centralized exchange. On the other hand, playing the fiat game could be a good strategy as the bank will print unlimited amounts of bucks to finance players who consistently honor their interest payments.
To play the game you'll need the physical game board with two dices and a pawn for each player. Each player will also need a smartphone to run the Bitcoin Difficulty web app.
Players play one after the other and move their pawn on the physical board by a number of squares determined with a dices roll. Each square on the board is presented with a QR code which can be scanned using the Bitcoin Difficulty web app running in the player's mobile browser.
The app keeps track of the state of the game and embeds an automatically generated Lightning wallet for each player. The app is used for all game interactions: scanning QRs on the board, mining blocks to earn sats, making payments, drawing cards, etc...
All payments are made with real Bitcoin on the Lightning network, although given the tiny amounts typically used to play the game we'll use the sats denomination (100,000,000 sats == 1 Bitcoin). The player who creates the game is required to fund it by paying the game's funding invoice from any Lightning wallet, but can also ask other players to chip in any amount by paying the funding LNURL. Provided they don't get fully rekt, players may go home with some sats in their wallet at the end of the game.
To create a new game go to https://dev.bitcoin-difficulty.io/play (public access is not open yet, please get in touch with our team on X or Telegram if you would like to get access).
Once a new game has been created and funded by paying the funding invoice, the player who created the game can generate an invite QR code and invite up to 5 other players to the game.
In order to join an already created game, just scan the invite QR code with your device camera an open its URL in your mobile browser.
Upon creating or joining a game, all players are given an illustrious Bitcoiner's name and an empty LNBits Lightning wallet.
It is recommended that all players bookmark the game URL in order to be able to restore their wallet if needed. Remember to keep that URL for yourself as anyone with that URL could steal your funds!
Once all invited players have joined, the player who created the game can start the game for everyone.
While players earn sats by mining blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain, most goods and services are priced in bucks ($). The Buck is a classic government-issued fiat currency subject to unlimited monetary inflation.
The price of sats in bucks is updated at every block and can be impacted by black swan events, government regulations and trading happening on the Bitcoin exchange (see: How does the Bitcoin Exchange work).
When paying for goods and services priced in bucks throughout the game, players can pay directly from their Lightning wallet(sending the corresponding amount of sats based on the current sats/$ exchange rate) or they can choose to pay from their bank account if they have one (see: How does the Bank work).
Mining a block requires the player to provide a proof of work in the form of hashes (#). The more hashes are included in the proof of work, the most likely it is for a player to successfully mine a block with it.
Hashes (#) are produced by miners and miners have to be powered with energy. To power their miners, players acquire and operate power stations which are represented as squares on the game board. There are various kinds of power stations, each with their own characteristics (base cost, cost per miner, scalability, inertia, capacity).
Operating a power station and its miners comes with a power bill that has to be paid every time a player attempts to mine a new block by providing a proof of work.
Before they start their journey in the Bitcoin mining industry, players are only able to mine on their personal laptops from public libraries or their parents basement. Although it is not much, it still counts as proof of work and players get to start the game with 10 free hashes each.
When a player successfully mines a block, the player is rewarded with sats (sent to his Lightning wallet) corresponding to the block reward as well as transaction fees from all the transactions included in that block.
The block reward value is halved every 21 blocks. The transaction fee is paid when a player sends any sats transaction. This transaction fee accumulates into the next block to be mined and its value increases exponentially with the number of transactions already included in that block.
As players bring online more miners and the total amount of hashes produced increases, the Bitcoin blockchain automatically adjusts its difficulty in order to regulate blocks production. This difficulty adjustment happens every 7 blocks.
As the difficulty increases, it is therefore critical for all players to increase the amount of hashes produced by their mining operation in order to maintain their profitability and avoid going bankrupt.
The probability p of successfully mining a block, given the provided number of hashes # and the difficulty D is:
p = #/D.
Difficulty D is adjusted every 7 blocks such that, given the total number of hashes H provided by all players at
that point in the game and the number of players n: D = 3*H/n.
This value was chosen such that the sum of all players' probabilities to successfully mine a block equals n/3 when
difficulty is adjusted, i.e n/3 blocks should be mined on average every time all players complete a lap around the
board.
There can be cases where the probability p of successfully mining a block increases above 1. In those cases, the
player successfully mines a first block and then gets a chance at mining a second (empty) block with a probability of
success equal to p - 1.
At the start of the game, each player must mine one first block (and earn the associated sats reward) before being allowed to roll dices and start moving his/her pawn across the game board.
If you get rekt and are unable to pay your bills, you lose and are kicked out of the game while other players may keep playing until the last player to remain solvent wins the game.
If you pass over a Proof of Work square you must either provide a proof of work and attempt to mine a block, or switch your miners to pool mining or solo mining (see: How does the Mining Pool Work).
If that square is a solo-mining Proof of Work square you'll provide a proof of work only if you are solo-mining. If that square is a pool-mining Proof of Work square you'll provide a proof of work only if you are pool-mining.
If you land on a Proof of Work square you must provide a proof of work and your probability of successfully mining a block is doubled.
In case you are unable to pay for your power bill when providing proof of work, you are rekt.
If you land on a Power Station square you are allowed to:
- buy it from the free market if it is not already owned, or from the owner of that power station if he/she wants to sell it
- upgrade the miners already plugged on that power station or buy new miners for it, if you own it
- upgrade the power station's capacity when it is full, if you own it
- sell it to another player at an agreed-upon price or to the free market at the power station's liquidation price, if you own it
If you land on a power station that is owned by another player, you may agree to pay that player the power bill corresponding to that power station (+ any extra as agreed with the player who owns that power station) in exchange for the hashes produced by the miners of that power station. These hashes will be added to your proof of work the next time you attempt to mine a block, and will be removed from the proof of work of the player who owns that power station the next time he/she attempts to mine a block.
If you land on a Bank square you are allowed to:
- buy a share of the bank if it is not already owned
- take a loan from the bank
If you land on a Bank square and have missed interest payments on a loan you must:
- pay the outstanding interests of that loan in case it has not reached its maturity yet
- repay your loan's principal fully with any outstanding interests in case it has reached its maturity
In case you are unable to repay the bank, you are rekt.
If you land on a Black Swan square you must pick a Black Swan card (black swans are unpredictable events impacting one or several players)
If you land on a Technology square you must pick a Technology card (technologies are improvements to mining hardware or to the Bitcoin network that benefit one or several players)
If you land on a Government Intervention square you must pick a Government Intervention card (government interventions are regulations or taxes that apply to one or several players)
Once you own a power station you must pay the power bill for that power station when providing proof of work, even if there are no miners running on that power station (in which case you only pay for its base cost).
The power station's power bill is the sum of its base cost and of its cost per miner multiplied by the number of miners running on that power station.
When it is your turn to play, you can unplug any miners that are operating on any of your power stations. Unplugged miners immediately stop contributing hashes to your proof of work, and their cost is discounted from your power bill.
When it is your turn to play, you can also plug miners that were previously un-plugged on any of your power stations. When you plug a miner, it will only be operational after a number of blocks equal to the power station's inertia. However, that miner will be counted in your power bill as soon as it is plugged.
The number of miners that can be plugged or unplugged to a power station during one turn equals that power station's scalability.
When you land on a power station that you own and decide to buy miners for it, you can only buy a number of miners lower than or equal to the power station's scalability. Once bought, those miners will be plugged to the power station by default but will only be operational after a number of blocks equal to the power station's inertia. Miners will be counted in your power bill as soon as they are plugged. You can also decide to leave these miners un-plugged.
When you land on a power station for which the number of miners has reached the power station's capacity, you can upgrade the power station to a higher capacity which will in turn increase the power station's base cost. For some power stations, this base cost increases linearly with the power station's capacity while for other it increases exponentially. Some power stations can have their capacity increased indefinitely while others have a maximum capacity.
When you land on a power station which already has some miners, you may upgrade those miners if you previously unlocked a miners upgrade technology. Upgrading miners will cost you some sats and typically increases you miners hash power and/or reduces their power bill. Once you upgrade your miners to a newer version on a power station, new miners purchased for that power station will be of that same version.
If you own the Chips Manufacturing Company all your miners cost 25% less to buy and you get a 10% commission when other players buy miners
If you own the Data Centers all of your miners cost 25% less to operate and you get a 10% commission on other players' miners power bill.
If you land on Internet Outage your hashes are reduced by 50% for your next proof of work
If you land on Hardware Breakdown your hashes are reduced by 30% for your next proof of work
If you land on the 51% Attack square you may choose to attempt a 51% attack. To do so, you have to mine a malicious chain by leaving your pawn on the 51% Attack square for as long as you want. Every time it is your turn to play, you don't roll the dice but instead provide proof of work for the malicious chain and pay the associated power bill. When a block is added to the malicious chain you don't collect the reward for it. You can give up and start moving your pawn again at any point on your turn. If at some point your malicious chain is longer than the original chain you may decide to finalize the 51% attack by publishing your malicious chain to replace the original chain. If your malicious chain contains N blocks from the point at which it was forked, the block rewards, transaction fees and all payments registered in the last N blocks of the original chain are cancelled and sent to your wallet instead. In case any player would end up with a negative balance as a result, his entire balance is sent to your wallet and that player is rekt. Note that if a 51% attack extends beyond a difficulty adjustment, difficulty may adjust differently both on the original chain and on the malicious chain, accounting for the difference in hash power used for mining on each chain. Also note that 51% attacks typically have a very negative impact on the Bitcoin price once they are finalized.
If you land on the Block Re-Org square, the last block you mined is cancelled due to a blockchain re-org and you lose the rewards obtained from that block. If this block was mined as part of the mining pool all participants to the mining pool lose the rewards obtained from that block. In case any player would end up with a negative balance as a result, his entire balance is sent to the free market wallet and that player is rekt.
The mining pool allows players to team-up and increase their collective chances of successfully mining blocks. By doing so, they can smooth out their revenue streams and decrease their likelihood of getting rekt due to operational costs or black swan events.
A player can decide to switch to pool-mining instead of providing a proof of work whenever passing over the solo-mining Proof of Work square. Similarly, a player can decide to switch back to solo-mining instead of providing a proof of work whenever passing over the pool-mining Proof of Work square. When switching between solo-mining and pool-mining, that player doesn't provide proof of work and doesn't pay for his/her miners power bill but still needs to pay for his/her power stations base cost.
When a player is pool-mining, that player provides proof of work only when passing over or landing on the pool-mining Proof of Work square.
If a player provides a pool-mining proof of work and does succeed in mining a block, the block reward and transaction fees from that block are distributed to all contributors to the mining pool proportionately to their hashes contribution to the mining pool.
For instance if player A produces 50% of all hashes, player B 25%, player C 15% and player D 10%, then player A has a 67% success rate when attempting to mine a block while players B has 33% success rate, player C 20% and player D 13% (assuming difficulty is adjusted). By switching to pool-mining, players C and D can collectively reach a 33% success rate overall, collecting block rewards more frequently than if they both were solo-mining.
To use the Bitcoin Exchange players first need to open an exchange account which can be done when landing on one of the Bitcoin Exchange squares. There are two Exchange squares on the board, one representing 65% of the exchange shares and the other one 35 %. Players can buy these shares of the exchange in order to profit off of trading fees and staking revenue.
With an active exchange account, players can deposit to the exchange at any time during their turn (sats deposits require 1 block confirmation while bucks deposits from the bank usually require a 3 blocks delay). Players can also withdraw at any time (sats withdrawals require 1 block confirmation while bucks withdrawals to the bank require a 3 blocks delay). Note that sats withdrawals may not always be allowed due to limited exchange liquidity.
Funds held on the exchange are not spendable by players to buy goods and services. For those funds to be spendable they need to be withdrawn to a player's wallet or bank account. Note that if a player leaves the game or gets rekt while still having positive balances on the exchange, those balances are lost.
Once they have deposited funds on the exchange, players can trade at any time during their turn, paying a 1% trading fee to exchange shareholders. Trading does impact the Bitcoin price and buying or selling large quantities of Bitcoin may result in large price movements depending on market conditions and order-book depth.
When they land on the Bitcoin Exchange square players can choose to stake some or all of their exchange balance. Staked funds earn 2% interest per block, paid in bucks. Staking rewards are available for trading or withdrawal at any time. Exchange shareholders also earn 1% interest per block on staked funds.
Staked funds cannot be withdrawn before they are un-staked. Players can un-stake their funds when they land on the Bitcoin Exchange square.
The exchange may go bankrupt or get hacked in which cases customer funds may be lost.
To use the Bank players first need to open a bank account which can be done when landing on one of the Bank squares. There are two Bank squares on the board, one representing 65% of the bank shares and the other one 35 %. Players can buy these shares of the bank in order to profit off of deposits and loans interests.
With an active bank account, players can deposit bucks to the bank at any time during their turn (deposits to the bank usually require a 3 blocks delay although this can vary depending on bank holidays or AML regulations). Bucks held in a bank account can be transferred at any time to the Bitcoin exchange or to another player's bank account, although the bank may ask for additional information regarding the source of funds and the reasons of the transfer depending on the amounts involved.
Funds held at the bank are spendable by players at any time.
Funds held at the bank accrue 1% interest per block, and bank shareholders earn a 1% interest per block on deposited funds.
When they land on the Bank square players can choose to take a loan in bucks from the bank. Loan duration can be 21, 42 or 69 blocks with respective interest rates of 5%, 3% and 2% per block but may be subject to change based on market conditions and monetary policy. Loans interests are paid to the bank shareholders accounts directly.
When a loan is taken, credited bucks are deposited in the player's bank account.
Interests are paid from the player's bank account at every block. When the loan reaches its maturity, the principal is repaid from the player's bank account.
In case the player's bank account balance is insufficient to pay the loan's interests or principal, resulting in missed payments, an extra 5% interest per block is charged on the owed amounts from the time of the missed payment.
In case the player's bank account does have missed interest payments, any amount deposited on the player's bank account will be fully or partially used to cover those missed payments.
If a player lands on a Bank square and does have missed interest payments, that player must pay any outstanding interests on that loan (including the loan's principal in case the loan has reached its maturity). If the player is not able to do so, that player is rekt. In such cases and if the player is unable to transfer bucks to his/her bank account, payments in sats are exceptionally allowed by the bank but incur a 15% exchange fee. Note that if a player leaves the game or gets rekt while still having positive balances in the bank, those balances are lost.
The bank may go bankrupt in which cases customer funds may be lost.
The game ends when only one player remains after all other players either got rekt or left the game.
Players can decide to leave the game at any point. Before doing so their assets (power stations, miners and other game assets) may be sold to other players.
When leaving the game, players get to keep the sats they earned in their player wallet. Those are real sats that can be transferred to any other Lightning wallet.
Although player wallets are actual Lightning wallets, those are only backed up by the player's game URL. Anyone with that URL could steal funds from the player wallet, and without that URL it is impossible to recover funds held in a player wallet.
It is not recommended to keep funds on a player wallet after playing Bitcoin Difficulty. Instead, those funds should be transferred to a better secured Lightning wallet.