Blockchain casinos and sportsbooks are now a reality. We are talking about different types of casinos that combine the benefits of digital currencies and distributed ledger technology. Considering that these casinos have taken off in recent years, the goal is to clearly understand how these blockchain gambling sites work and which are their advantage compared to traditional online casinos.
Blockchain and gambling: the perfect combination
Blockchain technology and the gambling industry have teamed up to offer the almost “perfect combination” of fun for casino and sportsbook players. But what do blockchain casinos really are? Is there a clear definition of these types of platforms?
First of all, we have to differentiate between gambling websites that operate using digital currencies and gambling websites that use blockchain technology to offer casino-related solutions.
The first type of casino or betting website is the one that operates using digital currencies to process payments. The cryptocurrency has many benefits for players as it lets users deposit and withdraw funds in seconds, reduces fees, increases their privacy, and enjoy a unique experience at the online casino.
These casino sites and sportsbooks are reliable and offer some of the best experiences to users around the world. By using virtual currencies, players will enjoy reliable gambling without having to use traditional payment methods that could create problems or issues for gamblers.
As you can see, these types of casinos do not build solutions on top of blockchain technology. Most of their services are based on different cloud solutions offered by some of the most reliable companies in the market.
The second type of casino or sportsbook that relies on blockchain technology is the one that has built its entire operations on top of a distributed ledger. These casinos are offering services that have been integrated directly into the blockchain. The goal of these casinos is to provide additional security, anonymity, and trustworthiness, among other things.
Rather than having centralized operations, this type of casino would focus on decentralization. This reduces the single points of failure and makes it possible for online casinos to offer a reliable experience to users that prefer to have a more in-depth experience with blockchain technology.
It is worth pointing out that most online casinos that support virtual currencies belong to the first group of platforms. Therefore, you will be relying on blockchain technology to process payments but the casino platform would still run with traditional centralized systems, which are very efficient and reliable.
Off-chain gambling
It is very common to see online casinos and sportsbooks that accept digital currencies as a means of payment and call themselves “blockchain casinos.” This is something that is misleading. As we have seen in the previous section, these casinos are simply relying on cryptocurrencies to process payments but did not build any type of solution using blockchain technology.
Instead, the real blockchain casinos have used this technology to offer better services to clients when it comes to security, privacy, and decentralization. These are just some of the most common things that blockchain-based casinos solve or focus on.
While working with cryptocurrencies and supporting different digital assets is a good step forward, these casinos are far from being real blockchain-based platforms. Those online casinos that are only accepting crypto-related payments and rely on them for users to deposit and withdraw funds are called off-chain platforms.
This is an intuitive way of calling these types of platforms, as they are operating outside a blockchain technology. These online casinos and sportsbooks do not run using a specific blockchain network such as Tron (TRX) or EOS. They are running using the traditional solutions offered by large companies.
It is also worth pointing out that this is not a negative thing. If you are using an off-chain gambling site that works well, offers free withdrawals, and has no issues, then you should continue to use it. These online gambling sites prefer to focus on reliability rather than basing their solutions on distributed ledger technology. If you want to support crypto, then you can use their digital currency payment options.
On-chain gambling
But we have also another type of platform that has been built on top of specific blockchain networks and that require smart contracts to properly run. We are talking about on-chain gambling sites and sportsbooks. These are platforms that not only support virtual currencies but also rely on distributed ledger technology to operate and offer solutions to clients.
The whole gambling process is organized with the use of smart contracts that run autonomously as soon as certain conditions are met. These are very reliable platforms as they are decentralized, provide high anonymity and transparency, and tend to work as expected. But there can be some issues related to their reliability or congestion.
In some cases, blockchain networks could become congested and transactions might not be executed (those transactions rely on smart contracts). If this happens, then users would experience downgraded services, which is not ideal.
As you can see, casino management teams have to properly and carefully analyze the options that they have when building a casino on top of blockchain technology or traditional solutions. The goal would be to offer the best services to users, but this is sometimes a tough question.
Both types of casinos, on-chain, and off-chain have advantages and disadvantages that are worth taking into consideration. If you are searching for a reliable casino experience, you have to test both types of platforms and take a decision based on your personal experience.
Decentralized casinos
Decentralized casinos are also a popular type of online casino that offer some of the most modern and unique experiences to players. These online casinos are not only built on top of blockchain technology, but they work as a fully autonomous set of smart contracts that let you enjoy different online games.
One of the most important things about decentralized casinos is related to the way in which they work. Every single interaction is guided by smart contracts, which run autonomously and there is no centralized party controlling the whole process. This is an advantage for many users that feel that centralized casinos could, at any moment, decide to freeze users’ funds.
This is not possible using decentralized casinos. You connect these platforms through your blockchain-based wallet, depending on your blockchain network. What you should know is that each interaction that you have would involve paying a fee, which, in most cases is very low.
Decentralized online casinos are among the best options if you already know how decentralized applications work and how to handle different blockchain wallets. However, it could be a difficult challenge for people that are just starting to use online casinos or digital currencies.
The best thing to do is to start playing at online casinos and sportsbooks in which you feel comfortable using all their systems. Instead, if you do not know how blockchain technology works and how you can use it to play on online platforms, then you should try first with off-chain casinos and digital assets.
Decentralized betting
Decentralized betting is also a very popular way to have a unique experience playing on online gambling platforms. Why? Because it is one of the best ways to avoid intermediaries and centralized parties controlling the whole betting process.
For example, when you use a decentralized betting platform, you will only have to connect your wallet. Therefore, you don’t have to share private information with the platform. This is extremely secure, as you will not be affected by data leaks or hackers that take information from online sites.
Furthermore, there is no minimum deposit needed. When you use traditional online casinos, you will see that there is a need to deposit funds if you want to start using different games. Instead, with decentralized betting sites, you will not have to deposit funds because you will connect your wallet with this site. That’s how easy it is to start placing bets at these blockchain sportsbooks. As soon as you find a match that interests you, then you can use the funds in your wallet and start betting.
All the activities conducted on these platforms will rely on smart contracts. From the moment in which you make a bet to the moment in which you request a withdrawal. There are no centralized parties controlling these betting sites and you can feel free to withdraw your funds at any moment (they are all the time in your wallet).
Some popular platforms and sites are already implementing peer-to-peer betting, which lets two parties engage in a bet by using smart contracts. This type of betting works with a person creating a bet (bet maker) and another person taking this bet (bet taker). This is one of the most innovative betting mechanisms that you can find nowadays.
Decentralized poker
Decentralized poker is also one of the best solutions that players can find in the market. Users can engage in poker gambling by using a totally decentralized platform that would let you perform secure bets and transactions without a centralized party controlling the whole betting process.
You can find different dApps that are already offering similar solutions to players, making it fast and easy for gamblers to enjoy a great experience when it comes to decentralized poker. Users can rely on different digital currencies and experience unique poker gambling options.
These blockchain poker platforms are easy to access, usually available on different mobile platforms, with great promotions for users, and decentralized, among other things. Finally, these decentralized platforms are also very useful for people to avoid sharing private data and information.