Blockchain technology has brought a slew of new possibilities. Even though blockchain was first created to enable cryptocurrency, the list of use cases and applications of blockchain continues to grow—the global spending on blockchain is projected to reach $19 billion in 2024, growing at a CAGR of 46.4%.
Blockchain increases trust and transparency, and allows users to trace data across a blockchain or a network. More importantly, the decentralized nature of blockchain makes it extremely secure, which is crucial whenever there’s money and sensitive data involved.
After all, whether you are trading crypto, buying it, or using any of the popular coins to play in an online casino, it’s pretty safe to say that everyone wants to know their transactions and personal information is well protected.
The good news?
Crypto casinos excel in transaction and data security by relying on blockchain technology. Not only that, but they are widely regarded as more transparent and even more fair than their online casino counterpart.
The Current State of Online Casinos
Online casinos have been around for nearly three decades. However, despite undergoing numerous changes and innovations over the years, there is still plenty of room for improvement, especially if you compare online casinos to some of the best blockchain casinos on the web.
One of the biggest issues with online casinos is the lack of fair gaming. Even though many online casinos have licenses and verify the RNG and fairness of their games, plenty of traditional online casinos do not have certificates of fairness from prestigious testing laboratories, such as eCOGRA and iTechLabs.
Transparency regarding welcome bonuses and promotions is another area where online casinos could improve drastically—online casinos have often been criticized for misleading advertisements regarding welcome bonuses.
If you’re an avid gambler, chances are you’ve encountered promotions with the fine print in their terms and conditions, causing you to fail the bonus and spend a lot of extra cash.
By not communicating the details of such bonuses clearly and not having certificates of fairness, online casinos fail to build trust and improve transparency.
Additionally, online casinos often require a ton of personal data before they let you register, especially if you are withdrawing money to your account—regulated institutions require players to pass through various KYC procedures before processing transactions, and online casino transactions can take anywhere between 3 to 14 business days to complete.
The upside? Blockchain technology solves all those issues.
Security and Transparency of Blockchain Casinos
The decentralized nature of blockchain and the way it is structured make crypto casinos more secure and more transparent than online casinos.
When it comes to its application in gambling, crypto casinos use blockchain technology to process payments, shorten the time it takes to finalize a transaction, and verify the results of provably fair games.
Faster Transaction Speeds
Cryptocurrencies are decentralized and every crypto transaction occurs on the blockchain. Since there is no third-party involved, such as banks or any other financial institutions, crypto transactions take significantly less time to process than fiat currency transactions.
While traditional casinos take up to two weeks to process a payment, Ethereum transactions take between 15 seconds and 5 minutes. Of course, the exact time might vary based on the speed of the network and the coin you use, but the overall speed is still significantly faster than any traditional payment method.
More Anonymity, Less Risk
Users require only a Bitcoin gambling wallet to make payments made with Bitcoin, which requires only a wallet address to send and receive funds. Because of that, most crypto casinos ask for only an email address before you can register and start playing.
By providing less data, you eliminate the potential risk of hackers stealing your identity, credit card and bank information, and much more.
Lower Fees
As the icing on the cake, crypto casinos have lower fees. While most traditional casinos do not charge any fees to process payments, banks or other service providers might.
For example, banks treat gambling-related deposits as a form of cash advance. If you are using your credit or debit card to make a deposit, a bank will charge you a cash advance fee that ranges between 3% and 5%, while Skrill charges up to a 5% fee for simply funding your account.
On the other hand, most crypto casinos charge a minimal fixed fee, which is only there to incentivize miners. For example, Ethereum transactions cost $4.68 on average, while the fee for Bitcoin is $1.76—Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin are only $0.005 and $0.0087, respectively.
Provably Fair Games
Provably fair games are the most significant advantage of crypto casinos over traditional ones. As the name suggests, provably fair games allow you to verify the outcome of each game.
Provably fair games rely on blockchain technology and create two encrypted keys whenever a new game or a new round starts.
The first key holds the result of the game and is sent to players immediately after a player places a bet. When the game ends, the algorithm sends the second key to the players which is used to decrypt the first key and verify the results of the game. The results are stored on a blockchain, so the casino nor anyone else can view the results beforehand or tamper with the outcome.
Overall, crypto casinos excel in every regard when compared to traditional casinos. Perhaps the only downside to crypto casinos is that cryptocurrencies are known to be volatile, which is only a minor inconvenience if you simply withdraw your crypto and use it often.
Examples of Blockchain Casinos
To cement our claim that crypto casinos are superior to traditional casinos, we’ve prepared a brief overview of two of the most popular crypto casinos on the web.
BC.Game Casino
BC.Game offers a 1260% deposit match bonus of up to $100,000, which is significantly higher than any bonus you would find in a traditional casino. It also allows players to win up to 5 BTC every day by spinning the casino’s Lucky Wheel.
The casino is licensed by Curacao, accepts payments in more than 80 cryptocurrencies, and has no invasive KYC procedures. In addition, BC.game offers everything you would expect in an online casino and then some. We’re talking live dealer games, table games, a massive collection of video slots, and a good selection of provably fair games developed in-house.
Stake Casino
Stake Casino doesn’t have a welcome bonus. Instead, the casino has a $100,000 daily race and a $75,000 weekly raffle for the luckiest and most loyal players. In addition to the rewarding VIP program, Stake boasts a Curacao license, top-of-the-line customer support, and is verified by the Crypto Gambling Foundation.
Stake accepts payments in 19 coins, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Doge. It also has a myriad of games in its library—players can enjoy more than 1,700 slot titles, dozens of live dealer and table games, and provably fair Stake Originals, such as blackjack, Plinko, video poker, roulette, Crash, and baccarat.
The Bottom Line
Crypto casinos have improved tremendously over the past few years. With gaming libraries that can rival even the best online casinos and all the benefits of blockchain technology, it’s safe to say that crypto casinos are better than traditional online casinos in virtually every regard.
More importantly, by utilizing blockchain technology, crypto payments, and offering provably fair games, crypto casinos build trust and promote transparency, which is an excellent way to attract new players and retain existing ones.
Because of that, and many other advantages they have over traditional online casinos, crypto casinos are quickly becoming a go-to choice for a growing number of online gamblers and are regarded as the future of online gambling.
