The government of Curaçao, a Dutch Caribbean island well known for its scuba diving market and regulated casino industry, has officially legalized and issued a casino license to Edgeless, a decentralized application launched on top of the Ethereum protocol, as a legitimate casino business.
Thomas Draksas, the founder of Edgeless, said in a statement:
“Curacao license is a good starting point which enables us to compete with traditional online casinos, however, we are not finished yet. The crypto and gambling field is evolving really fast including legalities. Our legal team will be working on acquiring more licenses in the near future and strengthening Edgeless legal base.”
It is the first case in which a decentralized casino platform based on the Ethereum protocol has been approved by a government in an industry that is well regulated and matured.
According to Draksas, the license provided by the Curaçao government will allow the Edgeless platform to grow as a large-scale casino business, by gaining access to the global gambling market, achieving credibility within the casino industry and building new partnerships with exchanges, banks, and payment service providers.
Draksas emphasized that for any business in the cryptocurrency and casino industries, obtaining approval from regulators by complying with strict Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policies is crucial.
“In general, working hand in hand with legal authorities and being fully regulated is necessary for the growth of business, especially in areas such as crypto or gambling,” added Draksas.
In September, Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam explained that with sufficient scaling of the Ethereum network, decentralized applications will be able to process operations at a larger scale.
Investors and users of Ethereum are particularly anticipating the introduction of efficient decentralized exchange protocols and trading platforms wherein digital assets can be traded on a peer-to-peer basis seamlessly, without the interference of intermediaries.
Two of the most popular decentralized applications on the Ethereum network CryptoKitties and EtherDelta have recently demonstrated the possibility of processing the trading of digital assets in a decentralized manner.
A decentralized casino, exchange, or an asset trading platform is capable of offering a level of privacy and security centralized platforms cannot provide, by allowing users to remain in full control over their funds.
“There are a few obvious benefits to decentralized exchanges. First, they allow you to remain in control of your funds. So no risk of the exchange being hacked or going insolvent. This can lead to higher liquidity, as users may be willing to leave orders open on the orderbook for longer when counterparty risk is gone,” Ehrsam explained.
On Edgeless for instance, unlike conventional casinos, users and players remain full control over their funds at all times, without having to rely on either Edgeless or its financial service providers.