The 21st century has seen some incredible changes in various aspects of life and industry. The world of finances has seen incredible shake-ups. One of the most notorious is the crypto market which emerged in 2009. When Satoshi Nakamoto released Bitcoin he most likely did not expect that it would reach the heights that it has. The phenomenon is so popular that even mainstream wealth apps have added crypto tools for advanced asset management. The effects of cryptocurrency go beyond just the financial industry though. Blockchains have a severe effect on the entertainment market as well.
One of the fastest-growing entertainment markets in the world right now is iGaming. The industry encompasses everything from online sports betting to poker rooms. Internet-based gambling produces billions in the United States alone. But what could crypto and blockchains have to do with online poker? Quite a lot as it turns out. This article is for those who are interested in the growing popularity of these markets. We are going to explore the relationship between blockchains and real-money poker and give you an idea of how the industry might evolve in the future.
Bitcoin-based Poker Sites
The one thing that most are going to be familiar with is Bitcoin-based poker sites. The gambling market has long embraced crypto as a valid method of deposits and withdrawals. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that online poker platforms were among the first legitimate businesses to integrate cryptocurrency in their model. Players have access to online poker cash games where they can wager using Bitcoin. But it doesn’t end at just Nakamoto’s original concept.
The iGaming industry has gone as far as to integrate all of the top-rated crypto coins on the market right now. Bitcoin is most people’s first choice for obvious reasons. But it is not their only choice. Many prefer Ethereum for example. Vitalik Buterin and a cohort of IT programmers designed Ethereum with the same philosophy as Bitcoin. However, they took it a step further, and embraced NFTs earlier than any other blockchain. The non-fungible token market has largely gone the way of the dinosaurs now. But, the Ethereum’s blockchain early adoption of NFTs made it an instant success.
The advantages of crypto gambling are plentiful. Players are drawn to the anonymity that crypto-based poker provides. Transactions are almost impossible to trace because of the decentralized nature of crypto. The Peer-to-Peer system that crypto operates on also allows for incredibly fast exchanges, effectively removing any central authority that would act as a middleman. Some are put off by the volatility that cryptocurrency is well-known for. The Harvard Business Review has done a study pointing out that much of what people know about crypto volatility is wrong. However, there is no denying that the market is incredibly volatile. Still, there are those willing to take the risk and gamble with cryptocurrency.
Blockchain Poker – A New Era
Poker on the internet functions on the simple premise that a company provides software and hardware for millions of players across the globe. Players trust that these companies are legitimate and regulated by the highest of authorities. Of course, no system is perfect. Sometimes even bad actors can slip through the cracks. The online poker market is not free of controversies, even with the industry being safer than ever. There are many players who would like to see changes regardless of iGaming’s improvement over the years.
The most recent proposal is a blockchain poker website based on the success of Satoshi Nakamoto. The idea is to create a new kind of online poker room that does not require a central company running all aspects of it. Blockchain technology would be instrumental to achieving this new era of online gambling. Of course, cryptocurrency would be the primary payment method that blockchain poker rooms would run on. Blockchains were still in their infancy when the concept was proposed for the first time. Years later the idea might be closer to realization than many would think.
The Metaverse has a lot of people excited about the future of the internet. Its very existence is intertwined with that of cryptocurrency. The engineers behind the Metaverse have promised to utilize blockchains when creating the fully-digital and immersive world that is being promised by the concept. Some have even claimed that the Metaverse will be the future of the internet, and bring about the reality of Web3. Old-school IT professionals and internet veterans are certainly excited about bringing the world wide web back to its roots.
Challenges of Blockchains in Poker
The biggest risk of intertwining blockchains and poker is alienation. Not every poker player likes the idea of using cryptocurrency to play their favorite game. Some of the younger players are quite distrustful of the industry. Professional players may not like wagering with Bitcoin because of the currency’s volatility. Cryptocurrency is so volatile that a player might win a large sum of cash only to find that it is worth less than they’ve wagered the next day.
Legality is another. The gambling market is already a topic of controversy in the United States. Adding cryptocurrency on top of that would lead to some incredible complications that online gamblers might not be able to handle. Still, the challenges have not stopped pro-crypto gamblers to advocate in favor of a more decentralized future for online poker.
