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Most raffles, lotteries and prize draws are not provably fair. They still require a certain amount of trust.

If they use a ball machine to generate random numbers, you need to trust that the machine hasn’t been tampered with. If they are using a ‘trusted’ 3^rd party random number generator (RNG), you need to trust that the numbers being generated are truly random. The problem with traditional prize draws is all the trust required to make them work.

By using Bitcoin’s blockchain, we can eliminate the need for trust.

Nobody can predict the hash of a future Bitcoin block, but everyone can verify and agree on it once it has been found. By using this hash to select a winner from our list of entries, we can eliminate the need for trust because everyone can verify the results for themselves.

Don’t Trust, Verify.

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Method 1 - Buy tickets using Bitcoin’s Lightning Network

You can buy tickets and enter the prize draw via the lightning network in 3 easy steps:

Step 1 – Enter a Valid Bitcoin Payout Address

This should be a main-chain Bitcoin address that you control. If you are the selected winner this is the address that will automatically receive your winning payout.

Payouts can only be sent to the address submitted to ensure the draw is provably fair.

Step 2 – Choose Your Number of Entries

You can choose to buy a single ticket or multiple tickets from the drop-down menu.

You will receive a better price per ticket for buying in bulk.

Step 3 – Pay Your Lightning Invoice

Once you have provided your Bitcoin payout address and selected the number of tickets you want to purchase, you will be shown a QR code to pay for your tickets.

Step 4 – Verify Your Entry

Once your lightning invoice is paid you can query our node to confirm that your payment was received and your entries have been included in the draw.

Don’t Trust, verify:

If you want to verify for yourself that we received your payment, our lightning node ID is:

03b7e9a08b5afb86d108fa5701d37d8b46867f8454de069a31746621e3356ec1e9

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Method 2 - Free Entry Via OP_RETURN

You can enter the prize draw for free by including a unique Hex code in an OP_RETURN message included in an on-chain Bitcoin transaction,

You will receive one free entry per valid OP_RETURN message.

To enter via OP_RETURN follow these steps:

Step 1 – Enter a Valid Bitcoin Payout Address

This should be a main-chain Bitcoin address that you control. If you are the selected winner this is the address that will receive your winnings.

Winnings can only be sent to the address submitted to ensure the draw is provably fair.

Step 2 – Receive a Unique Hex Code to Include in OP_RETURN‍

Once you have entered your Bitcoin payout address you will receive a unique Hex code to include in the OP_RETURN of an on-chain Bitcoin transaction.

This unique HEX code can only be used once. Multiple OP_RETURN entries using the same code will not be counted. You will need to request a new HEX code for each free OP_RETURN entry you wish to make.

Step 3 – Include your OP_RETURN Hex Code in an on-chain Bitcoin transaction

‍Send an on-chain Bitcoin transaction including the unique OP-RETURN Hex code provided.

Before selecting a winner, we will scan the blockchain for valid OP_RETURN entries and include them in the draw. OP-RETURN entries will only be considered valid if they are included in a confirmed block prior to the prize draw closing and the list of entrants being timestamped and published.

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To ensure the draw is provably fair, a winner must be chosen at random in a way that everyone can agree on. To do this we need to generate a random number that nobody can predict, but that everyone can verify.

Traditional lotteries and prize draws use a ‘ball machine’ to generate this randomness.

Online lotteries and prize draws might use ‘trusted’ third-party Random Number Generators (RNGs).

In either case, you the entrant need to trust that the ball machine has not been tampered with, or that the RNG is truly random. Both methods still rely on trust.

For our prize draw, we use Bitcoin’s public blockchain to help us determine a winner in a provably fair way.

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Selecting a Winner Using Bitcoin’s Blockchain

Nobody can predict the hash of a future block on Bitcoin’s blockchain, but everyone can verify and agree on it. That makes it the perfect tool for randomly selecting a winner.

Step 1 – Process & Publish Entries

‍Once the draw is closed, we collate all valid entries and sort them into a list which we then timestamp and publish on both our website and broadcast on our public Telegram channel.

Step 2 – Announce The Winning Block

‍Once the list of entries has been published the next confirmed block on Bitcoin’s blockchain becomes the "Winning Block" that will be used to randomly select a winner from the list of entrants. We will publish the Winning Block on our website and broadcast it in our public Telegram Group.

Step 3 – Convert The Hash

‍We use the hash from the ‘winning block’ which looks something like this:

000000000000000000000d29bc798cf3fc99cf31882b2bf5041a3d382984526a

And convert it to a decimal number like this:

4924875017101640245151133000141461571855816484737642

This is the random number we will now use to select a winner.

Step 4 – Bitcoin Chooses The Winner‍

We calculate the winner by dividing the decimal version of the block hash by the total number of entries in the prize draw.

The remainder of that calculation will determine which line entry in our list of entrants is the winner.

A worked example:

Block Hash: (4924875017101640245151133000141461571855816484737642)

Divided by number of entries: (100)

= 49248750171016402451511330001414615718558164847376.42

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The remainder of the calculation is 42. Which means the entry on line 42 of our list of entrants is the lucky winner, chosen completely at random by Bitcoin’s blockchain!

(If the remainder is zero the first entrant is paid out. Our list starts at 0, not 1).

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Everything about this prize draw is transparent and verifiable. You don’t need to trust us that the draw is fair, you can verify it for yourself:

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Proving All Entries Are Legitimate

For the prize draw to be provably fair, you need to be able to verify two things about the list of entrants:

1) All the entries included in the draw are valid. This isn’t a US election, you want to be sure there was no ‘ballot stuffing’.

And

2) All entries to the draw were made BEFORE the ‘Winning Block’ was mined and the block hash used to determine the winner was known.

We publish our full list of entries so you can validate this for yourself in the following ways:

Validating Lightning Entries

‍You can verify that every lightning entry was legitimate because our published list of entries contains an LN invoice ID alongside each associated payout address.

Using our lightning node ID you can verify that every entry made via lightning corresponds to a paid lightning invoice on our node, preventing anyone from stuffing fake unpaid entries into the draw.

Our Lightning Node ID:

03b7e9a08b5afb86d108fa5701d37d8b46867f8454de069a31746621e3356ec1e9

Validating OP_RETURN Entries

In Prize Draws where free entries are available via OP_RETURN, you can verify that each of these entries is legitimate because our published list of entries includes the TXID of each free entry and the HEX code that the entrant needed to include in OP_RETURN.

By scanning Bitcoin’s blockchain you can verify that the TXID did include an OP_RETURN with a valid Hex and was included in a block that was confirmed before the ‘Winning Block’.

All Entries Are Timestamped

‍All entries are collated, sorted, timestamped and broadcast BEFORE a winning block is announced.

This published and timestamped list of entries means you can verify that the winner was selected from entries that could not have been tampered with or manipulated after the hash of the winning block becomes known.

Proving The Winner Was Chosen at Random

Using the timestamped list of valid entries for the draw and the hash of the winning block used to select the winner, you can verify for yourself that the prize draw was truly random.

Simply take the hash of the winning block in decimal format and divide it by the total number of entries included in the draw:

Block Hash

________

Number of Entries

The remainder left at the end of this calculation corresponds to the winning entry line in our list of entrants.

By performing this calculation yourself you can verify the winner was chosen at random.

For a worked example please visit this section of the FAQ.

(‘this section’ of the FAQ is the ‘selecting a winner’ section above where the worked example is)

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Everything about our prize draw is completely transparent. Including the prizes paid to winners and the donations made to the good causes we support.

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Proving the Winner Was Paid Out

The Bitcoin payout address for every entry is published in our timestamped list of entrants.

Once the draw has taken place winnings will be paid on-chain to the winning address and we will share the transaction ID to allow you to verify this for yourself.

Important note‍

Prizes will be paid following three block confirmations after the ‘winning block’ to minimise the risk of the ‘winning block’ being orphaned due to a block re-org.

In the very unlikely event that a block re-org does result in a winning block being orphaned, a new winner will be selected using the hash of the block on the longest chain that was confirmed directly after the timestamped entries were published.

After three block confirmations from the winning block, the winner will be paid out and the transaction IDs will be shared on our website and announced live on our Telegram channel.

Proving the Charity Receives Their Funds

All funds raised for charitable causes by our Bitcoin Prize Draws are donated in Bitcoin and the transaction IDs will be published publicly here and announced via our Telegram Channel.

We also require all charities we work with to share the TXID of the funds they received to confirm they were in receipt of payment.

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If you’re the winner of the Free Speech Prize Draw you can also claim our ‘Bonus Prize’ – A 2010 Ford Fiesta!

To claim the car you must prove ownership of the winning Bitcoin Payout Address by signing it with your private key. To do this please follow the steps below:

1. Open your Bitcoin wallet that contains the winning Bitcoin address
2. Find the option to sign or verify a message
3. Create a new message with the text Bitcoin Fixes This
4. Sign the message using the winning Bitcoin address to prove you own it
5. Send proof to hello@freespeechprizedraw.com

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The bonus prize must be claimed before 12PM (GMT) on January 1^st, 2026. We can deliver the car to any address within the UK or mainland Europe. If you wish the prize to be delivered any further afield you must arrange onward travel at your own expense.

Are you the winner, but you’re not sure how to claim your prize? We can help. Please contact hello@freespeechprizedraw.com

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Following the prize draw all information required to verify that the draw was provably fair will be published on this website.

If you would like to receive live updates as the draw progresses please subscribe to our public Telegram channel:

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This is a Prize Draw NOT a lottery.

We cannot run a true lottery system because we do not possess a gambling licence.

We are however permitted by UK law to run a Prize Draw provided we offer people a viable method to enter the draw for free.

Most prize draws achieve by allowing postal entries, but this would not provide a ‘provably fair’ method of entry. OP_RETURN messages provide a method to facilitate a free entry method while still allowing every entry to be provably legitimate.

We only allow one free entry per OP_RETURN transaction, and each entry must contain a unique HEX provided by us. We do this to rate limit free entries, preventing automation and abuse that could needlessly spam Bitcoin’s blockchain.

Note: We would MUCH rather you entered the prize draw via lightning to help us raise money for good causes. Free entries are not in-keeping with the spirit of the draw.

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Nothing.

We don’t do it for the money; we do it for the culture.