Blockchain technology, with its potential for disruption in almost every industry, is making significant headway into the domain of betting. It has swiftly seized the attention of the global betting industry, causing a significant shift from the traditional norms of gambling and betting. It offers unprecedented levels of transparency, security, and fairness, creating a whole new landscape for the business of betting.
A clear understanding of blockchain technology is crucial in appreciating its impact on the betting industry. The blockchain is a decentralized and distributed digital ledger that records transactions across many computers in such a way that the registered transactions cannot be altered retroactively.
Bringing Betting and Blockchain Together
With conventional betting systems, punters usually place their trust in the betting company, accepting whatever outcome is decreed by the system. This asymmetric power dynamic has often led to allegations of unfair play and manipulated results. However, the advent of blockchain technology has dramatically changed this scenario. With its intrinsic transparency, for the first time, participants can see for themselves how a result has been arrived at.
The trend of incorporating blockchain in betting started gaining significant attention around 2016-17. Many ventures, like Augur, Gnosis, Wagerr, and Edgeless, leveraged blockchain to introduce transparency into the betting world. This resulted in an entirely new user experience, with fairness and credibility at its core.
How Transparency Transforms Betting
Being a decentralized technology, blockchain opens the betting results to public verifiability. This transparent betting concept has been a game-changer in maintaining the fairness and credibility of betting systems. Furthermore, blockchain’s inherent security protocols ensure that the system cannot be tampered with.
“The decentralized exchanges run by blockchain technology makes the process even more transparent by allowing users to stake with their peers rather than a centralized entity,” says Andrew Ford, Co-founder of EOSPoker, the first-ever Decentralized Autonomous Corporation (DAC) in the EOS ecosystem.
The tokenization of assets in betting also brings more credibility to the system. For instance, the use of cryptocurrencies, another blockchain-based system, brings in the practice of provable fairness. Cryptocurrency transactions can be tracked, giving the user a clear understanding of the betting process and its results.
Future Impact of Blockchain in Betting
As blockchain technology gains more traction in the betting industry, we could witness its integration into traditional gambling establishments and even government-run lotteries.
It’s clear to see how blockchain is revolutionizing the betting industry. Technology moguls and betting experts alike predict a significant shift towards blockchain-based betting in the near future. Its transparency has certainly struck a chord with players looking for a fairer, more credible betting system. The days where punters had to blindly trust the betting companies’ results may well become a thing of the past.
As this article elucidates, blockchain should not just be seen as a technology driving cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Its greater impact lies in its insurgency across various sectors, here in the form of a transparent betting system. The ‘game’ of betting could potentially be transformed by the ‘game-changer’ that is blockchain. Evidently, punters and betting companies worldwide will be watching closely as blockchain continues to innovate and redefine their industry.
Sources:
1. Ford, Andrew. Interview.
2. Wagerr: The Sports Betting Blockchain. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wagerr.com/
3. Decentralized Autonomous Corporations: EOS.io. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://eos.io/
4. Augur: A Decentralized Oracle and Prediction Market Platform. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.augur.net/
5. Gnosis: Prediction market platform and conditional tokens on Ethereum. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://gnosis.io/
6. Edgeless: World’s first Ethereum based casino. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://edgeless.io/
