Bitcoins Now Being Used On Online Casinos, What I Need To Know!
Bitcoin is a crypto-currency which has single handedly revolutionized payment processing not just in online casinos, but several other industries across the world.
What makes bitcoin special is the fact that it is a peer to peer payment method which cuts out the middle man. What this means is that there is no processing time, no processing fee, no privacy concerns and much more.
While there are many applications of the bitcoin thanks to its many advantages over traditional currency, it is especially perfect for online gambling. Let’s take a look at some of the properties of bitcoins which make it best suited for online casinos before we get to how to use bitcoins at online casinos.
Advantages of using bitcoins
The bitcoin has numerous inherent benefits. Here are some of its advantages which makes it especially beneficial in an online casino setting.
- Lighting Last transactions and rock bottom fees – Since the bitcoin is a peer to peer payment method, there are no banks or other financial institutions involved. Therefore, there are also no fees involved. In fact, in comparison to traditional payment methods such as credit cards or e – wallets, an online, international, bitcoin transaction may incur a fee of just 0.0005BTC whereas a credit card transaction would entail a fee of nearly 3 – 5 % of the transactional value.
Furthermore, there is always processing time involved when it comes to traditional payment methods such as credit cards, debit cards and bank transfers.However, with the bitcoin, transactions are instantaneous. No waiting needed, just make the payment and you can get playing within an hour.
- Anonymity – One of the main concerns that online gamblers have anywhere in the world is that of privacy. However, when it comes to the bitcoin, this is no longer an issue. Bitcoin transactions are pretty much not traceable. This means that the payee need not worry about security concerns and also can rest assured that his sensitive, and private information remains inviolable.
- No paperwork – Going synergistically along with the fact that bitcoins provide anonymity, bitcoins are also completely paperless currency. Not only in the sense that the currency itself does not exist in a physical, paper form but also in the sense that there is no paperwork, no ID verification, no proof of address or anything else required for you to be able to open up a bitcoin wallet. However, we all know this is not the case if you were to open up a bank account.
- Increase in value – The value of the crypto-currency has managed to increase rapidly over the last few years. Between Jan 2017 and mid-September 2017 the price was up 32%.
Now that you know why it is a good idea to fund your casino account with bitcoins and use bitcoins as your primary payment method, let us understand how you can go about setting this up.
How to use bitcoins in online casinos?
Primarily, there are two fundamental steps to using bitcoins to play at your favorite online casino. Firstly, you will need to create a bitcoin wallet and the second part is to essentially load your wallet. Once you have this setup and ready, you can use this wallet at any online casino or just any merchant who accepts bitcoins for that matter. Once you have your wallet all set, you just have to choose bitcoins as your mode of payment in the merchant’s website and then login to your wallet and confirm the payment.
Step 1 – How to create a bitcoin wallet?
When it comes to bitcoin wallets, you can broadly classify them into two types. There are web based wallets services and desktop wallets. What you need to know about a bitcoin wallet is that it is basically more or less the same as a bank account. It is your private wallet and you may use it to both receive and send payments. The only major difference is that unlike with bank wire transfer you do not have to share your account details for the sake of the transaction.
Web based wallets are slightly more convenient for most people since they are easier to use and access and you do not have to download or install anything onto your native device. All you need to know is your credentials – user name and password and you can access your wallet from anywhere at any time. On the other hand, a desktop wallet will require software that needs to be installed onto your local machine.
Creating a web based bitcoin wallet is easy. There are tons of services which offer free wallets. You can read reviews about these service providers, compare them with other and choose the one that suits you best.
Some of the popular web based bitcoin wallet service providers whom you can trust and cannot go wrong with are – Blockchain.info, BitGo, GreenAddress, Hardware Wallet, Keepkey and Trezor.
Just go to any of these websites, sign up with your email address and create your own bitcoin wallet!
Step 2 – Funding your bitcoin wallet
Now that you have a bitcoin wallet, you could use it to make and receive payments from online casinos which accept and support bitcoins. However, in order to make a payment successfully, you will first need some currency in your wallet. To be able to add currency, you need to first fund your bitcoin wallet.
There are several ways to add bitcoins to your wallet.
- Your wallet – most bitcoin wallets themselves allow for you to pay in traditional payment methods and will convert the payment and reflect it in terms of bitcoins in your wallet. This may be the simplest and easiest way to add to your wallet.
- Bitcoin exchange –If you are looking for better conversion rates, you might want to use a bitcoin wallet exchange service. There are plenty of websites where you can buy and sell bitcoins and you can use them to fund your bitcoin wallet. They generally accept a wide array of payments in exchange for bitcoins.
- Bitcoin teller machines –Some cities now have bitcoin ATMs where you can you use your credit card to directly fund your bitcoin ATM. We expect this to be more popular and globally widespread in coming years.