As we’ve known for some time, the advantages of using blocking technology for online gambling, and specifically the Bitcoin SV (BSV) blockchain, are clear. But for operators, suppliers and regulators that may need some convincing, the Bitcoin Association have put together a thorough explainer of why iGaming on Blockchain makes so much sense.
There are several areas that online gambling still hasn’t reached its full potential, and an evolution in technology could help get it there. “Concerns over the calculation of odds, protection and payment of monetary stakes, slow settlement rates and high fees, not to mention issues with data protection and digital security, embody just some of the problems hampering online casinos,” the use case notes.
Thankfully, with the permanent, distributed ledger provided by blockchain technology, and the massive scaling and payments capabilities of BSV, each of these concerns can be addressed. With every piece of data tracked on the blockchain, Bitcoin brings a “permanent, immutable and transparent record” that improves online gambling for players, operators and regulators.
This isn’t just in theory. The Bitcoin Association points to BitBoss as a success story of implementing gambling applications on the BSV blockchain. The Colorado based company with a history in gambling has designed the Bridge Link system. With the installation of a cheap hardware product, physical slot machines connect to the blockchain and allow a seamless connection between the player, the machine and the casino’s back end.
“There are 10 million slot machines in the world, and they all run on a common protocol,” said BitBoss CEO Matt Dickson “We can easily route cryptocurrencies on and off slots, mainly in the form of tokens, which is just a replacement for a casino chip or credit slip.”
This, combined with a mobile ecosystem of games designed by BitBoss, can allow casinos to easily convert their visitors into online players, creating new and more reliable sources of revenue. And because everything is recorded on the blockchain, it’s seamless for the player.
The benefits to the player don’t end there. The BSV blockchain, thanks to its high level of transparency, allows operators to demonstrate they are provably fair. ‘With the blockchain, all of the transactions are visible for the entire world to see,” explained Dickson. “All of the transactions, once they are on the chain, they can never be changed.”
Simply, every spin of a reel or sports bet made is logged on the blockchain, with the player provided a private key as verification and to act as a random number generator seed. The player can then use this information to independently verify the game was run in a fair manner.
Ultimately though, a question many operators may have is why use BSV rather than any of the other publically available blockchains. Dickson addresses that:
“What we have with BSV is a very secure blockchain that we can use for real money gambling, where block times don’t matter, double spends don’t matter, we have super-low transaction costs, we have scalability, we have proof of work and we have patent protection.”
He emphasizes that while there are competing blockchain options that have attempted to reduce costs, they’ve done so by reducing blocktimes, which as a result, reduces security. That’s simply not an option for casino operations. “Security is one of our main focuses,” he said. “The integrity of the money system in a casino is huge, and now all of a sudden, we’re saying that every single transaction that goes through the casino has security built in by default.”
Additionally, privacy is very important for operators that don’t want their entire business visible on the blockchain for the world to see. For that, BSV exclusively has threshold keys and signatures, which allow an organization to set up whatever privacy scheme the need to keep their trade secrets safe.
Concluding the use case analysis, Dickson provides a laundry list of reasons why BSV can improve a gambling operations business. It reduces costs, secures back end systems, keeps players money safer and keeps everyone honest. He concludes, “That makes the question, why wouldn’t you start to think about using a blockchain based system?”
