After a successful Day One, Day Two of the iGaming Super Show 2017 was also a hit with a consistently packed expo floor from opening to close. Today’s format was similar to yesterday’s with four separate conference tracks running as delegates explored the booths, enjoyed networking drinks and additional delights across the expo floor.
There were a number of crypto-currency and blockchain sessions organized today within the iGaming Executive Conference and Payment Solutions Summit. Dr. Craig Wright, Chief Scientist at nChain and one of the early minds behind Bitcoin, delivered an inspirational “TED-Style” talk on how the Bitcoin Network is going to change the world.
“Dare to dream a greater future”, Dr. Wright urged the audience at the opening of his presentation.
He then went on to explain how we are in an exponentially growing world and said the Bitcoin Network can do much more than everyone believes it can.
“In 20 years’ time we’ll have 5,000 times the computational power for every single human alive- that’s growth, that’s where we are headed”, the Dr. said.
Dr. Wright explained how people are familiar with Bitcoin as a currency and “dared” the audience to take it further, to start thinking and exploring other opportunities.
“What if the Bitcoin network could do so much more?” he said.
If you want freedom, if you want people to learn and educate themselves…imagine if you can have tablets where people can see unfiltered information in their native language, how can the government stop that?
Dr. Wright went on to explain how the Bitcoin Network can do more than just record transactions and if scaled to its full potential, the Network could even power a futuristic world of artificial intelligence and intelligence bots.
“Digital wallets can incorporate deep neural networks and AI bots that self-execute transactions”, he said.
We need a future where we can have an Internet of Things in a hierarchy we can own. Smart agents can link billions of Internet of Things devices via decentralised, swarm-based systems, he said.
Dr. Wright also pointed out how banking won’t go away because of Bitcoin and said banks have a purpose. How do you get capital out to entrepreneurs? There will be a new form of banking, but they won’t go away, he said.
One of the main messages delivered by Dr. Wright throughout his presentation was that Bitcoin isn’t the network people think it is…its one of the most efficient networks ever built and using it we have an opportunity to grow and supply the world with something we’ve never seen.
What if we can totally remove trust? He used the example of eliminating the need for website passwords. He also used an example of eliminating the need for physical keys to open doors, rather we could use “smart locks” where via our connected devices we can have visuals of who is coming to the door and choose to let them in remotely.
“What Bitcoin is going to do is form the basic underlying ledger that will connect it all together. People don’t know this yet. The Bitcoin network can compute anything computable…the Bitcoin Network provides the framework and system to create this brave new world. Dare to dream a greater future”, he said.
Another Bitcoin enthusiast and disruptor in the Blockchain space is Jez San, Founder of PKR and Founder of his latest venture, FunFair. Also during the iGaming Executive Conference, San presented the innovation behind FunFair and described it as “Blockchain Gaming Technology”.
San explained how FunFair solves what’s wrong with existing iGaming platforms today:
1)Not trustworthy or fair
2)Very slow
3)Poor experience
With FunFair’s B2B model, the goal is to make gaming “fun, fast and fair”.
FunFair’s slick games have been built on the distributed server processing system Ethereum blockchain without centralized severs and players can see results in real time that are “provably fair”. The games do not require a deposit or withdrawal and players have control over their money at all times, meaning, casinos never control the players’ money. The cost to run the casino and also play the games is quite low in comparison to traditional casino games, plus the games do not require a download so they are fast and easy to play.
San went on to explain how FunFair raised 26 million in pre-sale of Ether and Bitcoin on June 22nd, 2017 and said this is how the company is funded, stay tuned for more as this is just the beginning for San and team.
Since its inception seven years ago, the iGaming Super Show has developed into an event where the best iGaming industry innovations are on display, including Snapscreen’s latest technology for chatbots in the sports industry.
Joseph Hennesy of Snapscreen demoed the product for CalvinAyre.com by taking a photo of a sports match and sending the photo to the bot via Facebook Messenger, almost immediately receiving a response full of information about the match.
Hennesy also explained how using chatbots eliminates the chicken/egg problem any app has and with chatbots, there is no more need to distribute an App. For example, Facebook Messenger has 1.2 billions of installations worldwide and the trend is growing. Businesses can directly tap into this user base especially supported by the Facebook initiatives to push chatbots and also offer payment via those bots.
At the close of Day Two, we spoke with organizer Michael Caselli and he confirmed the numbers were up almost 30% from last year and shared his delight with the success of this year’s underlying theme of disruption and innovation.
Caselli said the Super Show is now delivering what is was designed to do, bring together the entire online gambling industry under one roof so any type of deal can be executed on site, delegates can enjoy numerous networking opportunities, the tracks are educational and professionals can expect to leave with some futuristic food for thought.
