Over the past few years, Bitcoin has slowly moved out of the shadows to become a well-known phenomenon around the world. Even those who are not actively involved in this new wave of online digital currencies have almost certainly heard of it.

The original digital currency has been around now for over a decade and while it might not have achieved the mainstream adoption many hoped for, it has certainly found itself many real-life use cases. One of the most relevant of these uses cases is within the online gambling industry.

If you want to get into online gambling but have never used Bitcoin before, it is certainly something worth looking into. There are several advantages, and also a few disadvantages, that you should be aware of before getting involved.

Security

When using Bitcoin to gamble online, the only detail you need to give over is your Bitcoin wallet address, which is an anonymous and safe thing to share. Some sites may also ask you for your name, but you will never need to give any sensitive banking or personal details.

As a result, the online gambling platform that you choose to use has no need to keep customer banking details stored on an insecure online database. This greatly reduces the chances of having your details stolen in a data breach and sold or distributed online.

Anonymity

Since you don’t need to provide any personal or banking details when transferring cryptocurrency, you have the ability to keep your identity entirely anonymous. Some platforms might ask you to provide a name but there is no legal requirement for you to provide a real one. This means you can be sure that your online gambling activities are kept completely private from any prying eyes.

Almost no transaction fees

Transferring funds from a bank account or credit card usually attracts high fees, often as much as five to ten percent of the deposit amount. On top of this, many casinos are in foreign countries, meaning you have to pay currency conversion fees and additional fees added by your bank.

If you are using Bitcoin to gamble, the fees associated with transferring funds are so small they are basically negligible. Cryptocurrencies don’t belong to a specific country and therefore don’t require any third-party intermediary to confirm and validate transactions. This means they can be sent directly from your digital wallet to a casino platform anywhere in the world with only minor costs involved to validate the transaction (usually less than 0.1%).

While there are certainly more advantages to using Bitcoin for gambling, there are also a few minor issues that players should be aware of.

Volatility

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are still emerging assets in the world of finance, so high price volatility remains a concern. It is possible that any funds you have purchased and stored online could lose significant value overnight. On the flip side, though, they could also significantly increase in value.

Mistakes cannot be rectified

The advantage of not having a central authority controlling Bitcoin means fees are low and transactions are anonymous. Unfortunately, this also means there is nobody available to fix any mistakes or errors you might make in transactions.

If you type in a Bitcoin wallet address incorrectly, the funds could end up being sent to somebody else and there is no way to get them back. When dealing in Bitcoin, you have to be very careful and take full responsibility for your actions.

Lack of legal oversight

For many, this is as much a benefit as a negative but the fact remains: there is very little legal oversight when it comes to cryptocurrencies. In the event that somebody manages to steal your funds, you will have trouble getting any help from the authorities.

This is due to the fact that Bitcoin is not tied to any specific country and therefore, doesn’t fall within the jurisdiction of any law enforcement. As the old saying goes, “possession is nine-tenths of the law”, so you need to make sure your Bitcoin doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.

Conclusion

Overall, the majority of online gamblers agree that the benefits of using Bitcoin outweigh the negatives. So long as you take some time to learn about and understand the technology, you should be well prepared and ready to go.

Cryptocurrencies represent the future of online digital payments and they are something that everyone will be using in a few years from now. Getting involved early, even if it is just to play a game of online bingo, will give you a good edge when the digital revolution takes over.

The post The Pros and Cons of Using Bitcoin for Online Gambling appeared first on ZyCrypto.

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