Cryptocurrencies may not have the ability to grab mainstream news headlines as it did just a couple of years ago, but with the hype and the fears having settled, more people are exploring cryptocurrencies for their true purpose.
The pioneer of the industry, Bitcoin, was billed as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that would work as a more reliable currency network than the systems put in place by governments for fiat currencies. From these idealistic beginnings, the crypto scene has exploded, with it becoming a much more diverse and reliable place for users and coin distributors. In a most recent revelation, Aragon has launched the first-ever legal system equivalent for smart contracts and blockchains, known as Aragon Court.
But over the past few years, thanks to the publicity brought in by stock market analysts and Bitcoin’s surging price, more people have begun to adopt cryptocurrencies to use them in-line with the original purpose – for online payments. Now, we look to the ever-developing iGaming industry to see if online casino brands should expect to see more cryptocurrency transactions in 2020.
Some iGaming brands have already embraced cryptocurrencies
If there’s one aspect of the iGaming – online gambling – industry that outsiders need to understand, it’s that it is wildly competitive. With more and more new and exciting platforms launching every year, brands are forced to get innovative to stay ahead. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that cryptocurrency was adopted so quickly.
As cryptocurrencies offer the most secure way of making a transaction, offering one as a payment method works to extend the service and adds trust value to the brand. For this reason, crypto gambling sites are on the bandwagon, offering a range of transaction methods centered on the newfound profile of cryptocurrency.
There’s no doubt that more online casino platforms will begin to add a wider range of cryptocurrency transaction methods, especially as coins outside of Bitcoin – such as Ethereum, which is arguably overtaking Bitcoin in the field of decentralized finance – are becoming more popular. In fact, through the Q3 of 2019, it was found that over 1.1 million cryptocurrency transactions were being made every day across the likes of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, Litecoin, DASH, and Ethereum.
As early as 2013, it was found that online gambling transactions in a single month accounted for as much as over 50 percent of all Bitcoin transactions. While there are more ways in which someone can use cryptocurrencies these days, iGaming continues to be a popular place for people to use their cryptocurrency. But will the rise in cryptocurrency adoption increase the number of cryptocurrency transactions that take place at online casinos?
More awareness, more users
While many people across the internet have supported cryptocurrencies for well over a decade, it wasn’t until Bitcoin’s surge in price a couple of years back that many people even heard about cryptocurrency.
Price was never the point of Bitcoin, but this aspect did work to open the door to people intrigued by its volatility, who then discovered other cryptocurrencies and how they can be used as superior options to fiat currencies in many ways. With Bitcoin as the headline act and the likes of Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple playing a supporting role, this raised awareness was key to the public and vendors accepting the validity of cryptocurrency.
The benefits of using cryptocurrencies are desirable for all, with the decentralized currencies offering a private transactional system. The desire for such privacy in payments has led to crypto users diverging from the pace-setting Bitcoin to join the likes of Monero for even greater anonymity. This is particularly beneficial to online gamers who, perhaps, wouldn’t like online gambling transactions appearing in their bank statements. The very format of cryptocurrencies also offers users a faster and less-expensive transaction method for both deposits and withdrawals.
Having more users embracing something and wanting to use it day-to-day isn’t necessarily enough for a business to come around to accepting it. However, when it comes to cryptocurrency, platforms can also benefit significantly from facilitating the increasingly popular transaction method. The additional security, inherent transparency, and near-instant transaction speeds translate to much lower running costs and no charge-backs.
Both users and platform operators are becoming increasingly familiar with cryptocurrencies and the benefits of using them as a form of payment. Online casinos that already have cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals in place will use it as a selling point to the growing crypto audience. At the same time, you’ll see even more platforms open up to the transaction method for the benefits it brings to users and operators.
So, through 2020, online casinos can expect to see many more cryptocurrency transactions, moving it closer to being effectively normalized in the digital industry.