Changing Times: The difference between traditional and crypto gambling

If there is one immutable constant to our existence, it is change. Every second biological process change our makeup. New ideas driven by events will enter our minds, and our experiences will radically alter who we are over long enough time periods. As we change, so does our culture and world.
At times this change is painful. It is heart-wrenching to say goodbye. Other times it is joyous as we welcome a new life into this world. Thousands of small changes occur daily, and before we can even recognize the pattern forming our entire social spheres have reconfigured. Humans naturally fear social isolation, so we are compelled to adopt change without considering the underlying change’s ramifications.
Often this leaves us feeling as if we are being swept along by change; we never have the opportunity to control, let alone reflect upon. It leaves us with a sense that we have been robbed of any agency in the matter, which itself brings upon psychological and emotional trauma compounding the innate fear of social isolation.
Such is our condition, so for the sake of our mental health, it is wise to take a moment to reflect upon the changes occurring around us. What better example is there than that of how the gambling industry is adopting to and changing with the rise of the blockchain revolution.
Gambling and prostitution are humanity’s two oldest professions, though I’d argue gambling predates the latter as hunting and gathering involved a lot of risk management, IE gambling. Yet so the saying goes.
With its age, there have come many iterations and historical moments. Lotteries, one of the oldest forms of gambling, go back so far that they played a role in the construction of the Great Wall of China and the Roads of Rome.
With each passing generation, attitudes towards gambling have changed. Some civilizations have welcomed it without reservation. Others have pronounced it a grievous sin that should be expelled from this Earth. At times gambling held a seedy reputation when the criminal underworld controlled it. Today gambling is held in high regard, owed to an open industry regulated by governments and inspected rigorously by third parties.
Obviously, the industry has undergone periods of change, so our latest iteration shouldn’t be met with hesitation. For fundamentally, the industry isn’t changing, not in a way that will dramatically alter how you enjoy yourself.
Casinos will continue to offer the same games, governed by the same regulations and oversite. The only difference is many now accept cryptocurrencies in addition to traditional currencies. Some even go so far as to accept only cryptocurrencies instead of traditional currencies.
Bitcoin bookmakers are just the latest adaptation to the changing economic realities of this world. In the past, you could trade currency for gold, rice, or other commodities. It created stability in the currency that fluctuated with harvests and only inflated with the printing of coins or diminishment of the precious metal volume in the currency.
Today currencies are backed by nothing and are continually inflating in value. Meaning for you, the money in your wallet today will have less purchasing power in a month or so. Don’t worry; this isn’t inflation (it is). This is the currency devaluing, which is entirely different (it isn’t). Those curious that was the official United States position when confronted by the dollar’s inflation and why inflation metrics were not correctly reflecting why the currency possessed less purchasing power yet had no inflation.
Cryptocurrencies arose out of the need to fill the demand for a stable currency that would not be subjected to centralized powers’ inflationary mechanisms or unjust oversight. Two mechanisms allowed crypto to achieve this goal. The first was the entire network is decentralized, so no power can inflate or control where the money goes. The second was the limited amount of the currency. For Bitcoin and Litecoin the two dominant currencies, there will only ever be a certain amount of them and never any more than that pre-established number.
What allowed Bitcoin to succeed where other digital currencies had failed was the invention of blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is a decentralized network that, through monitoring and mining, determine who possesses what when. Think of it like your bank agreeing you have $50 in your bank account and every other bank agreeing you have $50 in your bank account so that if Bank S decided you had $45 in your account, the other banks would say that is wrong there is $50 in that account. Then a scammer comes along claiming you gave them $40, but they don’t have a valid transaction receipt, so the other banks tell them to pound sand.
This is how crypto functions, although the processes occur in more technical terms. Since the advent of the technology, numerous sectors have adopted it, resulting in 52 industries being projected to have severe changes to their status quo over the next couple of decades.
Today your contact with the technology may be limited to seeing retailers accepting it. In a decade or two, the technology will be in banking, messaging apps, land deeds, and increasingly in gambling, to name a few industries.
What changes with the advent of crypto is only how you get your money to the website. Rather than increasing in complexity, crypto decreases the complexity of the process. Gone are a lot of middlemen, government overreach, and potential holds on the transfers. From your crypto wallet (account) you send the desired funds to the casino just as you would any other form of money, and that’s it.
The blockchain network handles the rest, ensuring that the transaction is legitimate and records the funds are received. The best part, this entire process can be fully anonymous, which comes with its own plethora of benefits.
Now change isn’t always going to be pleasant, nor will we always feel as if we are empowered by it. Blockchain technology is different in that regard. Like cars, crypto doesn’t require you to understand the underlying mechanics to operate it. In many ways, it will vest power and control back into your hands as it removes corrupt middlemen and unjust bureaucracy. Gambling like it always has will remain a pleasant past time. That much will probably never change.