Some SlotoCash online casino gamers believe that cryptocurrency is the best financial system for placing bets and withdrawing winnings. Others think that it’s a scam, promotes criminal activity and will leave users high and dry when they finally discover that there’s nothing “real” behind the images on the computer screen.
Techies love it, governments hate it and most consumers are wary. What are the benefits and drawbacks of using a cryptocurrency to play online casino games?
Pros
There are a lot of good things about cryptocurrencies. The designers and developers built properties into the systems that have made the digital currency a reliable and competitive alternative financial system.
Low Costs
For one thing, the transaction costs are low. When you use a traditional banking system, or even an ebank, you are faced with low exchange rates, high service fees and other hidden costs. Transaction costs for cryptocurrencies are low. If you want to transfer your casino winnings to an online merchant or a friend or family member or even pull the money out in cash, you will have added expenses. By reducing those added expenses you pay lower costs.
For instance, if you have winnings in your casino account and want to send funds to an overseas vendor, you can make the transaction using a cryptocurrency and eliminate a lot of the expenses that you would have in a traditional banking transaction of exchange rates and funds transfers.
Accessibility
Access to your cryptocurrency wallet is 24/7 from any location. Wherever you have an Internet connection you can access your funds and facilitate transactions. Currently many people lack ready access to financial services while others are impacted by devaluated currencies or frozen capital markets.
Cybercurrencies are robust and unaffected by the traditional ups and downs of the world’s financial markets.
Fast and Permanent
Cryptocurrency transactions process quickly so you don’t have to wait days or even hours to have a transfer to through as you do when you use a check or another type of bank-facilitated money transfer. As soon as a transfer is recorded in the permanent Transaction Block Chain, it’s permanent.
Privacy
Privacy is probably one of the main reasons that people use cybercurrency. People often wish to keep their spending habits private but when they go through a traditional banking service, that’s not possible. If you want to keep your financial business out of the eyes and ears of government agencies, financial institutions, advertisers, private corporations and others, cryptocurrency is the answer.
Remember, cryptocurrencies are private but not anonymous – your transactions are tied to your “cryptocurrency Address” but detailed information on all of the transactions is available to onlookers via the cryptocurrency’s “public ledger”.
Control
Once you withdraw your winnings into your wallet, you can only access your funds by using your private key. The “key” is, in effect, a password known only to you. No corporation, central government or bank can freeze your account as is possible with money in a traditional banking account. Keeping savings in cryptocurrency can insure your funds. Even if you go bankrupt, default on loans or have a problem with your bank, you still have secure funds.
Inflation
It’s true that the value of digital currencies can be volatile. In the long run, the system was designed to be impervious to inflation and deflation. This is because each cryptocurrency has a set limit on the total number of coins that will come into existence. The bitcoin currency was developed with its limit of coins that can exist set at 21,000,000.
In addition, there are techniques and controls in each cryptocurrency’s protocol that ensure that the process for new coins to come into existence is predictable and controlled. So it can be predicted the number of coins that will come into existence at any given time for any cybercurrency. So no government or agency can decide to enact a fiscal policy or mint more currency that would decrease the value of the currency.
Cons
Using cryptocurrency isn’t the right move for everyone. It’s a new technology and doesn’t suit everyone’s needs.
Volatile
In the long run, cybercurrencies were created to be a stable currency alternative but right now they are volatile. The value of a cybercurrency coin fluctuates widely and in the last few years some people lost value when the price of the cybercurrency crashed while others made a lot of money when the price of a cryptocurrency skyrocketed.
Most analysts believe that as more people cybercurrencies, the volatility will level out. The current volatility may be just “stress testing”. The fluctuations in value should, if they are right, level out into stable-valued currencies in the long run.
Security
Online casinos, vendors, agencies and others who work with cybercurrencies must maintain top security protocols to avoid digital breaches. The issue isn’t the cryptocurrency itself but rather with the 3rd party companies working with cryptocurrency (such as Exchange services and online Wallets).
Know-How
Using a cybercurrency involves a learning curve. If you want to start using cryptocurrency for your online gaming activities you’ll need a broker or a cryptocurrency exchange. These are the tools that you will need to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. You'll also need a secure cryptocurrency wallet in which you store your funds and a basic understanding of the fundamentals of cryptocurrency exchange.
You should understand the basics of blockchain and mining and be comfortable enough with your personal wallet so that you can manage the basics of the funds transfers by yourself.
None of this is simple. There are tutorials and guidebooks to help you but until you have a good grasp of these fundamental elements of cybercurrency use, you shouldn’t get involved with anything other than a small sum of money that you can afford to lose.
If you’re thinking about gambling using cybercurrency, weigh the pros and cons carefully before making the move.
