You’ve almost certainly heard of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency by this point. So many people are talking about it, and it has made huge ripples in a number of industries. One of the areas where it has seen great application has been in betting—but it’s not always clear and obvious to see what the immediate advantages are to using Bitcoin for betting.
Today, we’re going to look at some of the main advantages of using Bitcoin for betting—from speed, to convenience, privacy and anonymity, there may be far more benefits to using Bitcoin for betting than you thought.
Let’s look into this.
- Anonymity
If you ask a crypto enthusiast what their main reason is for investing in Bitcoin, many of them will answer that it provides anonymity in ways traditional currency cannot.
When you open a Bitcoin wallet, you are given a key, and you alone have access to that key. Any transactions are anonymous, though publicly viewable. This means that betting could have totally anonymous functionality while at the same time having complete transparency for the record.
The world of betting would benefit from this enormously. It would mean that you could bet without concern for social repercussions, for whatever reason you might need it.
With over 1,200 data breaches occurring annually, it’s reasonable to be concerned about putting your personal information onto a database like a betting site. With Bitcoin, you don’t need to.
- Speed
The blockchain also enables lightning-fast deposits and withdrawals. Gone are the days when you might have to wait hours or days for a deposit to clear into your betting account, or for your withdrawal to appear in your bank account.
In almost all cases, your money will be moved in minutes—whether it’s going in or going out. This will mean, in the future, that betting live through crypto specific betting sites will become even smoother and faster than it already is. You will be able to bet moment to moment on sports games as they happen.
Speed is always a factor in any digital transaction, and it’s clear to see that the blockchain and Bitcoin can enable faster withdrawals and deposits than traditional methods.
- Reliability
This leads into a more general discussion about the comparative reliability of Bitcoin. While organisations like VISA might process as many as 500 million transactions per day, there are also many that get lost along the way. Delays, failed transactions that get sent back, these are very common and can cause big problems in betting.
Bitcoin is much more reliable, and transactions very rarely fail. As I said, they are by and large much faster, too. Bitcoin is operated on a much more efficient network, meaning that problems are far less likely to occur.
This is a huge benefit for online betting.
- Inflation
One big problem that many identify with using Bitcoin is that it is somewhat volatile compared to traditional currencies. While this is an area that could do with being addressed, one advantage it nonetheless has is that it is not subject to inflation.
Only 21 million Bitcoins will ever be released, and so the volume growth is entirely predictable in that way. There is a limit to how many will ever be in circulation.
For betting, this means that the value of the currency will remain roughly stable over the long term, if not in the short term. Your winnings will hold their value over the years, so you can store them away safe in the knowledge that they won’t decrease in value with inflation.
- Decentralised
Leading on from that, one of the main things people have argued as a benefit of Bitcoin is that it is not controlled by a centralised authority. It is a decentralized currency, not regulated by a bank or government. It can therefore be controlled by all of those using it, and it can be kept in their own interests.
Fiat currencies can be churned out of mints and printing presses for any reason, if a government or bank feels there is sufficient need to do so. This can devalue the currency and negatively affect those who hold it.
Bitcoin does not have this problem. Its decentralised nature may indeed be seen as the umbrella of all its benefits—it means it is safe from inflation and devaluation.
While Bitcoin betting isn’t always going to be best for everyone, the advantages are clear to see. It offers many benefits which traditional currencies simply can’t, and it has a clear head start in the world of digital transactions of any kind. Applications for betting will only continue to grow as time goes on, as the coins are made more stable and they are more widely accepted in the consumer world.