Cheat-proof peer-to-peer trading card games

In trading card games (TCGs), players create a deck of cards from a subset of all cards in the game to compete with other players. Each card in the deck has some feature or ability that may be used strategically to help a player defeat her opponent. Recently, trading card games have been moving from physical cards to digital, online versions. We propose a cheat-proof peer-to-peer protocol for implementing online trading card games. We break down actions common to all TCGs and explain how they can be executed between two players without the need for a third party referee (which usually requires an unbiased server). In each action, the player is either prevented from cheating or if they do cheat, the opponent will be able to prove they have done so. We conclude by showing how these methods are secure and how they may be intermixed for other styles of TCGs and other peer-to-peer games.