There have never been more safe and secure payment options at online casinos. Advances in payment processing technology from Visa, MasterCard, Neteller, Skrill, and PayPal have all made the process quicker and easier. However, they do have a few limitations.
Cryptocurrencies are the latest technologies seeking to disrupt the online payments industry. Unlike traditional solutions, they require the user to put no trust in a centralized service. This means payments are entirely free of censorship. There is literally no party that can stop you depositing some cryptocurrency at an online casino.
Along with their permissionless attributes, cryptocurrencies are useful at online casinos with pseudonymously. Although advanced methods by blockchain forensics firms, like CipherTrace, can sometimes link a cryptocurrency wallet to an individual, it is anything but an exact science.
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This makes cryptocurrency-friendly online casinos alluring to those that want to keep their indulgence in a spot of online gambling secret for whatever reason. Of course, it seems odd to be writing an article about cryptocurrency no online deposit casinos.
Mainly since most gambling venues that accept digital assets do not require the player to submit any documentation to identify themselves. Unlike traditional internet gambling venues, if you actually take any winnings from your no deposit bonus, you should be able to claim them without ever making a deposit.
Note: Although there is no technical reason to make a user deposit to withdraw winnings at a cryptocurrency online casino, that doesn’t mean that they won’t enforce such a policy. As always, you must read all the terms and conditions associated with any bonus.
So, we know why cryptocurrencies, in general, are good for use at a no deposit online casino but with more than 2,000 digital coins and tokens out there, which ones are best suited for online casinos (and which are even accepted by enough casinos to make it worth picking some up)?
Bitcoin
Of course, the original cryptocurrency is still the most universally accepted across all industries. There are more Bitcoin-friendly no deposit online casinos than there are accepting any other digital currency.
Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by an anonymous individual or group that called themselves Satoshi Nakamoto. It is an elegant system that allows for a database of sorts to be spread out and updated by any individual network participant that satisfies the network rules.
In the ten years of Bitcoin’s existence, increased interest and investment in the digital currency has seen its price rise astronomically. Since those updating the network are also securing it (and get rewarded in Bitcoin for doing so), the rising prices have attracted huge numbers of corporate interests investing heavily in the advanced computer systems supporting (or mining) on the network.
This has made Bitcoin by far the most secure and immutable system of money humanity has ever known. As more people realize this, they buy some Bitcoin, and the limited supply of 21 million coins becomes scarcer. As the price rises in response to increased demand, yet more miners are attracted to the network, making it even stronger.
Advantages Of Using Bitcoin At Online Casinos
- Most respected and universally accepted cryptocurrency in existence.
- Most secure cryptocurrency (by a long way).
- Most likely to retain value over time.
Disadvantages Of Using Bitcoin At Online Casinos
- Can be kind of slow to transact.
- Fees can be expensive (unless you know how to adjust them).
Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash is what is known as a hard fork of Bitcoin. It shares all the same previous transaction history, up until August 2017, when it splintered off to become its own cryptocurrency. A hard fork occurs when a group of miners decides that they no longer want to follow the network rules. If they want to change them, they can.
They will just splinter off and create a network that follows their rules. Whether anyone cares, is a different matter. There have been loads of Bitcoin forks over the years, but by far the most successful is Bitcoin Cash.
The project that divided the industry sought to solve the issue of blockchain scalability for dramatically increasing the capacity of each block (a block is the name given to portion of computer memory in which transaction data is stored). This would result in a network that can handle many more transactions per second and thus provide more utility for global payments.
It sounds great on paper. However, increasing the network capacity by such measures places additional pressures on those securing the network. If each block is twice the size as those in the original Bitcoin network, it will take twice as much memory to store the entire blockchain (a requirement of mining units).
This would make many mining operations unaffordable and thus cease to support the network. By continuing to scale in such a manner, only a few massive industries could afford to run the necessary hardware. Thus, the decentralized network that was so resistant to any form of attack became much weaker.
Although there is a committed group of followers behind Bitcoin Cash, it pales in significance versus the main chain, Bitcoin (BTC). However, it does offer a couple of advantages when it comes to online gambling.
Advantages Of Using Bitcoin Cash At An Online Casino
- Usually cheaper than Bitcoin. The larger blocks and lack of demand for Bitcoin Cash mean that there is never a fee market to get transactions to the network.
- Can be faster than Bitcoin. Like the above point, there is less chance that your transaction will be stuck temporarily before the network acknowledges it.
Disadvantages Of Using Bitcoin Cash At Online Casinos
- More volatile than Bitcoin. These days, when the Bitcoin price goes up a lot, the price of all altcoins (other cryptocurrencies), including Bitcoin Cash, go up a little. Similarly, when Bitcoin goes down, altcoins crash harder.
- Technically more vulnerable to compromise. The Bitcoin Cash network is much smaller than Bitcoin, and therefore, it would be far easier for a powerful enough entity to destroy the network.
Ethereum
Ethereum was launched later than Bitcoin. It provides a lot more functionality than the original cryptocurrency. Thanks to its “smart contract” (programmable money) features, Ethereum can host decentralized applications (including casino applications).
These utilize the security of a blockchain in more traditional applications. Developers also believe that such applications will be capable of things far outside the reach of human imagination today – much like how the internet evolved.
Thanks to its increased functionality, Ethereum also is much more vulnerable to attack than the likes of Bitcoin. Hackers have successfully exploited a weakness in the still-largely-experimental smart contract features of the platform.
In fact, one actually forced the Ethereum Foundation to break a cardinal rule of blockchain innovation – never reverse transactions. The very fact that it had enough power to influence such a decision at all is very telling of the project’s level of decentralization.
Advantages Of Using Ethereum At An Online Casino
- Fast. It’s much quicker than either Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash. If you’re interested in trying out how fast casino deposits in Ethereum can be for yourself, here’s a list accepting Ethereum.
- Cheap. Ethereum transactions are usually very affordable. This is thanks to the different structure it employs to Bitcoin.
- Casinos are being built directly on Ethereum, with some interesting results.
Disadvantages Of Using Ethereum At An Online Casino
- Overly centralized. Some stupid decision by the Ethereum Foundation could cause the value of your bankroll to crash suddenly.
- More vulnerable to serious network compromise. Gambling platforms would likely be a prime target for hackers to try to find weaknesses in smart contracts.
Monero
One criticism some people have of Bitcoin is that it is not very private. Although you can use it with near anonymity, it is technically possible for blockchain specialists to link a wallet to a person. This was mainly the case when that person bought their Bitcoin from a service like Coinbase or BitMEX.
You might think that only criminals would want a strictly private currency. However, there are all kinds of reasons why someone might want to keep their digital “bank balances” (yes, I know that cryptocurrency is nothing like a bank) hidden.
A prime example is if you get paid in Bitcoin. You obviously need to provide a payment address. Using a blockchain explorer, your employer could easily do a little digging and link likely wallets to the one you provided. They would then have a decent idea of how much Bitcoin you hold in total.
Monero seeks to tackle this by adding privacy functionality at the network level. The precise way it does this is much too advanced for this introductory article but for those interested, you can read all about it here.
Advantages Of Using Monero At Online Casinos
- Anonymous. If you want to keep your gambling secret, this is the way to go.
- Fast. Transactions settle in less time than Bitcoin.
Disadvantages Of Using Monero At Online Casinos
- Few casinos accept it.
- If they accept only Monero, perhaps you should be a little suspicious of why they’d only want to offer private transactions.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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