Whether you are busy finding a decent bonus for a PayPal casino or you only play using your credit or debit card, you can’t have escaped noticing that many casinos are now offering the chance to play your favourite games using some of the more popular cryptocurrencies.
Crypto casinos are not exactly new; they’ve just started to raise more to prominence as the digital currency has become more mainstream.
But where do you start with crypto casinos? Why are they popular – and are they a good thing?
One Minute Cryptocurrency Basics
Although it is hard to track the number of cryptocurrency users because of the very nature of the decentralized currency, best analyses have shown that the global user base of cryptocurrency rose 190% between 2018 – 2020 and continues to grow. Some statistics claim that one in four Americans have invested in some form of cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency is essentially a digital currency that is exchanged through a computer network, protected by cryptography. The decentralized technology is managed through the blockchain, which is a ledger that is managed by a distributed and disparate network of computers.
Crypto is described as decentralized, because unlike fiat (physical) currency, it is not reliant on a government or a bank to uphold or maintain it – which means that it is theoretically immune to interference or manipulation.
Although crypto is not yet used in many retail transactions, interest in the area from companies like Mastercard and Tesla have increased the legitimacy, making more people interested in investing in the altcoin network.
Why Crypto Casinos?
Cryptocurrencies are being offered as a deposit method by online casinos around the world. Some are ‘traditional’ online casinos who offer the alternative method alongside using credit and debit cards, bank transfers, and PayPal.
Other crypto casinos are set up to only accept altcoins as a deposit and withdrawal method, and you might need to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to access them, because they are not widely regulated or accepted in every jurisdiction – partly because cryptocurrency is notoriously difficult to oversee and monitor by global governments.
The global crypto gambling market is predicted to reach $1.6 billion by 2024 – so why are people choosing this new way to play?
Anonymity
The whole point of cryptocurrency is that it is a decentralized, anonymous exchange method. Crypto casinos do not require you to sign up using any identifying personal information, and the transactions are encrypted in such a way that the coins are recognized numerically.
It is worth noting that crypto is not completely anonymous, and the travels of a Bitcoin or any other altcoin can be tracked by their digital trail.
Speed
Using cryptocurrency cuts out the middleman. No bank or other institution needs to be involved in making transactions happen – all you need is the public and private key information, and away you go.
The other benefit of no third-party involvement – and being decentralized – is that if there is catastrophic failure, for example a bank system crashes or the stock market crashes, altcoins will still be available for use.
Ease of Use
Crypto is stored online, in digital form – so you never have the cash in your hand. The wallet where the coin is stashed can be a personal one, or it can be held by a specific company – but it is only available for you to access, using the combination of public and private keys that only you know the details of.
You just need to transfer it to your crypto casino account, and you are ready to play making crypto easy to use.
Fairness of Games
Cryptography secures cryptocurrencies, and it also creates them – and the same technology can be used to create algorithms that we rely on when it comes to playing in online casinos. Aside from the live dealer games, all the casino games that you play are reliant on gaming technology like Random Number Generation (RNG) to make the games work – and to make them fair.
Using blockchain level algorithms in creating slots and other games for you to play is part of the reason that the games remain fair and balanced, and you can rely on them to be about luck rather than the whim of the casino company.
Bonuses
Like all casinos, it is the bonuses that will attract new players – and while crypto casinos might not have much in the way of bonuses available now, that will change as the competition for customers hots up. Some crypto casinos have already set up deposit matching and rake back bonuses, but there is plenty of scope for other types.
Online casino bonuses can be things like deposit matching and free spins, and we can expect those to be a part of the offering for new crypto casino players too – but with so many other reasons to play casino games using cryptocurrency, it might not be the only draw.