Cryptocurrencies taking over the iGaming industry

One of the hottest online trends in recent years, blockchains and cryptocurrencies have taken the world by storm, and are currently reshaping many industries and markets across the globe. What at first seemed like something that would only shake things up in the financial sector, is now being used as a powerful tool to decentralize structures and provide new forms of investment, and even entertainment.

A market valued at almost $31 billion in Canada, and expected to significantly increase in the next few years, the iGaming industry is certainly among the markets that benefited the most from the emergence of these technologies. In 2020, as the world stopped with the COVID-19 pandemic, and people had to stay home to comply with health protocols and social distancing measures, land-based gambling venues were forced to shut down physical operations. This led to an increase in online gambling, with online casinos and sportsbooks becoming a safe and attractive alternative to bettors worldwide.

One of the coolest aspects of the iGaming industry, however, is that its operators are constantly pushing for innovations, closely following the latest technology trends, to provide an authentic experience to bettors playing from home. In the past decade, technologies like streaming – which made possible for players to enjoy live casino games with professional croupiers – and virtual reality – which allowed the creation of fully immersive virtual casinos – revamped the industry by providing innovative alternatives.

Therefore, it was only natural for iGaming operators to start accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, such as Ether and Litecoin, as a means for deposits and withdrawals. Especially considering both industries share some similarities, such as user bases, which, in both cases, have males under 45 years making up large percentages of revenues. And since the popularization of cryptocurrencies, more and more iGaming operators have begun to notice them as a new thriving opportunity.

In this article, we’re covering the basics of blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies, and some of the advantages of betting with Bitcoin and other cryptos. However, for more information about betting with cryptos, check Casino Help for trustworthy operators, deep reviews, and even tutorials on how to choose the most reliable platforms.

Understanding the new trend

Despite digital currencies having been proposed since the 1980s, when American programmer David Chaum developed an anonymous cryptographic electronic money, it wasn’t until the late 2000s that they became fully functional. Through the 1980s and 1990s, many digital currencies were conceived – even the US National Security Agency published papers on the subject – but all of them faced the same issue: the double-expenditure problem.

However, in 2009, a group of unknown programmers, operating under the name Satoshi Nakamoto, came up with the world’s first blockchain to serve as a public ledger for the currency they were working on, thus solving the double-expenditure problem.

Within a blockchain, records are called blocks, and each one contains data from previous blocks, timestamps, and cryptographic hashes that provide proof-of-work, and are almost impossible to be modified, hacked or defrauded. With the creation of the first blockchain, Nakamoto developed Bitcoin, the world’s first functioning decentralized cryptocurrency.

Since then, several other cryptocurrencies have been created, using the same blockchain technology, such as Litecoin, Ether, and Binance Coin. Known as altcoins, these cryptos have some basic differences from Bitcoin, like processing time, smart contract functionality, and different levels of decentralization. For instance, Litecoin usually makes up for faster transactions, whereas Ether’s blockchain, Ethereum, allows applications to be run on it.

Betting with cryptos

Certainly, one of the main reasons behind this quick emergence of cryptocurrencies is the security aspect, since cryptos are some of the most secure ways of making financial transactions online. Since no banking institutions or governing agencies are responsible for operating these blockchains, given they are decentralized structures, transactions made with cryptos can’t be monitored or tracked, and all personally identifiable information is completely secure.

Faster transactions are a key element of betting with cryptos as well. With conventional currencies and other banking methods, deposits and withdrawals can take a few days to be processed and made available to players. With cryptos, however, funds are made available almost instantly and players just need to wait for the platform to confirm the transaction.

Withdrawals made with cryptocurrencies can also be done with lower fees and taxes. As banks and governing agencies are not involved, all these third-party actions, including taxes and fees, are lowered, which results in cheaper overall transactions.

The iGaming industry has always been known for its innovations, and in the past few years, with the rise of mobile technologies, handheld gaming devices, and cryptocurrencies, these online markets have been showing an extreme potential. As technology continuously improves, the future of cryptocurrencies in online gambling is guaranteed, and the crypto betting market is expected to grow steadily in the coming years.