In ancient Greek mythology, “ethereum” was considered that part of the firmament where thunderers, heavenly blacksmiths, messengers of the Sun, and other cheerful personalities lived. It is not clear whether there is any connection here, but in 2022 the rate of the ETH rose to unseen heights – above clouds, gods, and meteors burning in the atmosphere. And its popularity in cryptocurrency casinos too.
The gambling entertainment industry could not help but pay attention to such a promising technology. First of all, the interest in Ethereum online casinos manifested itself in the introduction of the opportunity to play for ETH.
Perhaps more interesting are the new opportunities that open up for cryptocurrency games using Ethereum smart contracts. Below you will find a couple of interesting suggestions for improving gambling with the help of the Ethereum network.
What is Ethereum?
Ethereum is not only a cryptocurrency but also a whole software platform for decentralized applications. On this platform, you can create so-called smart contracts for the exchange of money, content, and all kinds of assets.
Smart contracts are pieces of software code that run on a blockchain. Such contracts are executed automatically and can send transactions within the network. They cannot be quietly changed or faked.
But most users are primarily interested in broadcasting. Ether is the internal currency, also known as the “fuel” of the Ethereum network. It is free from centralized control (for example, by banks) and is available to everyone.
First successes and scandals
The world first heard about Ethereum at the end of 2013 – it was then that the young programmer Vitalik Buterin described the concept of the platform. It is unlikely that anyone could have imagined that already at the beginning of 2014 Ethereum Switzerland would develop the first decentralized program, and after another six months, the sale of ether (the same cryptocurrency “fuel”) would reach an incredible $14 million.
In the summer of 2015, an early version of the network called Frontier was launched. This was followed by a phase of numerous fixes and improvements. The real explosion was the $150 million earned by the notorious DAO in late spring 2016.
June 18, 2016, is a black day in the Ethereum calendar: it was then that unknown hackers hacked the DAO, stealing a huge amount of ether equal to $53 million. After some time, this led to the division of the blockchain into, in fact, Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC).
New Horizons
The “wounds” from the DAO incident began to heal; now and then there was news about the next innovation or improvement. It is unlikely that anyone could have imagined that during the period from January to June 2017, the price of ether will increase by 5,000%. And even fewer people could imagine that in 2022 the Ethereum price will touch the $2,000 mark.
Ethereum is currently in the process of transitioning to Ethereum 2.0. The network will move from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake, and transaction throughput should increase from 15 per second to tens of thousands per second. For this, sharding technology will be used.
One of the popular opinions is that if Bitcoin is to turn online banking on its head and obliterate services like PayPal, then Ethereum’s true goal is to supplant internet intermediation. Data storage, work with complex financial instruments and much more should be carried out without the participation of third parties, and Ethereum smart contracts are supposedly able to help with this.
Crypto casino with support for Ethereum payments
When talking about Ethereum casinos, we do not forget about sportsbooks. Fans of this business can bet on sports with ETH on sites such as Cloudbet, Sportsbet.io, FortuneJack, and many others. Ethereum bookmakers accept a variety of predictions – for example, whether Leonardo DiCaprio will receive another Oscar next year.
The benefits of playing live
From two angles, Ethereum’s significance in terms of gambling is shown. The first is the usage of ETH as a game currency, which opens up a number of benefits:
- Because you may play anonymously using cryptocurrency, neither the casino nor anyone else will have access to your personal information.
- Comparing ETH transfers to conventional methods of sending money, they are quicker.
- In general, cryptocurrency casinos have better payout percentages than traditional ones.
- The government and banking organizations have no control over your money.
- Because of the low miner fee, sending ETH is substantially less expensive than sending cash.
- Playing at a Provably Fair casino is more equitable because the player can independently verify everything.
Additionally, this is a technique to enhance the concept of gambling with cryptocurrencies. With the use of smart contracts and ETH-embedded payments, Ethereum, a platform for decentralized apps, enables the development of gaming websites.
How to buy Ethereum?
You can buy ether on a cryptocurrency exchange or directly from wallets. On the Ethereum.org website, you can find available options for buying Ethereum by simply entering your country. For example, here are some popular options for those who want to buy ETH:
- Binance
- Bittrex
- Coinmama
- Kraken
- Argent
- MyEtherWallet
- Trust
You can buy ether for both fiat money (dollars, rubles, euros) and cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Tether, etc.).
Is gaming on Ethereum the future?
After bitcoin games gained enough popularity and acceptance, casinos began to switch to other ideas. Of course, work quickly began on solutions that would allow players to bet using the Ethereum cryptocurrency. After all, this payment method in many ways looked more interesting than other existing altcoins. First of all, crypto casinos became interested in self-executing Ethereum contracts.
Smart contracts work in such a way that if two parties put their “signatures”, then you no longer have to worry that someone suddenly decides not to fulfill the transaction. This alone gives enough space for innovative ideas.
For example, if you bet on sports with Ethereum, then the end of the session will necessarily be accompanied by an automatic payout. There is no other way: the show will go on until the very end. The party that agreed to participate in the bet will not be able to quietly leave at the wrong time.
A deposit to the casino account will be a “smart” contract between the user and the virtual establishment. This will significantly increase the level of trust since every gambler will have absolute confidence that the casino will not be able to hold the player’s ether against the will of the latter.
There is also a solution in case someone wants to keep his game “insatiability” in a tight rein. It is possible to program the contract to limit the number of bets or to set “smoke break” periods when the system will not allow the player to play on Ethereum and place bets for, say, three hours.