Online casinos are the place you want to be if you want the excitement and adrenaline rush of playing casino games without having to leave your house – and with options like online poker games such as Texas holem, blackjack, roulette, and slots readily available at the point of a mouse (or even in a smartphone app), it has never been easier to get involved.
In this article, we will discuss some basic history of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, as well as what that means for casinos – then look at some of the pros and cons of choosing a crypto casino for your playing pleasure.
The History of Bitcoin
While we might consider Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be a recent phenomenon, it was first invented back in 2008. Satoshi Nakamoto created the idea of a currency based on cryptographical algorithms created by a blockchain and made the software for this available as open-source code.
The first block was mined by Nakamoto in 2009 and is known as the ‘Genesis Block’, and despite early successes in practical applications, many experts said that it just wouldn’t work; this meant that in the early years, Bitcoin was mainly used for transactions on the dark web and underground economies.
Bitcoin (BTC) was given in the early stages of its lifespan, which is unbelievable when you think about the value of just one BTC, which recently topped $69,000. It wasn’t until 2020 that it became more mainstream, when companies like Tesla, MicroStrategy, and Square Inc. began investing in it.
Other digital currencies are available, including:
- Ethereum
- Doge
- XRP
- Tether
- Binance
There are around 10,000 cryptocurrencies of different types available, although not all are in circulation.
Crypto Casinos
In essence, a crypto casino has all the features that you would expect from a ‘normal’ online casino. You’ll find some of the same games that you are familiar with from popular developers like NetEnt and MicroGaming, so you can play slots, poker, roulette, and blackjack. Alongside these traditional options are other games that are ‘provably fair’ because they are built on the blockchain and algorithmically based, which means that it remains on the ledger and is publicly available.
The difference with a crypto casino is that in most cases you won’t need to sign up for an account using personally identifiable information – in a ‘normal’ casino, you will need to provide name, address, and financial information to open the account, but this isn’t needed in a crypto casino.
Pros of Crypto Casinos
Enhanced Security
The basis of using a decentralised system like the blockchain and cryptocurrency is that it is difficult for your information to be used or stolen by hackers. Your digital currency is kept securely in a wallet that needs a private and a personal key to access, and with little personal information involved there isn’t much for a hacker to get hold of.
Privacy
In a similar way, the lack of sharing personal information means that you can keep your transactions private. There is a record kept on the blockchain ledger, which is nominally public, but in practice is not easy to trace to an individual, which is better for privacy.
Cheaper
With crypto, there are no intermediaries in creating deposits and withdrawals. Traditional currency usually needs some sort of payment processing system which can come with fees, but this is not a concern when it comes to BTC or other digital coins.
Borderless
The value of crypto is the same everywhere, which means that you will not need to convert the currency to use it in another country or territory.
Fast
Crypto contracts are executed immediately, which means that withdrawals and deposits are extremely fast – they need no human interaction. If you win a game, the blockchain knows and makes the transaction automatically.
Cons of Crypto Casinos
Lack of Regulation
Cryptocurrency is decentralised and largely unregulated, which means that your transactions are not protected in the same way as they would be if you were using a licensed, traditional online casino.
Availability
Getting hold of crypto is not as easy as going to the bank – you’ll need to buy it on a cryptocurrency exchange and hold it in a digital wallet, which means that it isn’t as readily available as other currencies. Crypto casinos themselves are also not readily available, although they are growing.
Criminal Activity
An anonymous and unregulated payment system is an obvious way for criminals to launder money and make illegal transactions – and this is one of the reasons why governments and financial institutions are not supportive.
Volatile
The price of most digital currencies is not tied to commodities or governments, which means that the value is volatile – it can change wildly even in one day. The price can grow or plummet based on things as inconsequential as a social media post, which makes it quite unreliable.