While many of us are fans of online gambling, there are those casting doubt over its fairness. There are players out there who can’t be convinced that the games are not rigged. Traditional casinos have no other than to tell people to trust them, while the years remain wary of their honesty. Knowing this, it is a good thing that we have blockchain these days. It aided casinos in creating a system in which dice games and other casino titles and their outcomes can be checked by anyone. The system blockchain uses is simple: you don’t have to take the casino’s word for each outcome, see it for yourself.
Thanks to blockchain technology we today have what’s called provably fair games. Thanks to it, the players see dice games and other casino titles with different eyes. It is just one of many crypto innovations and it has altered the way we approach online gambling and see the most popular casino games.
Online Gambling Trust Issues
For all of you unaware, before blockchain many dice games have worked over central servers. The casinos generated random numbers, and told the player whether he lost or won. For players, the games were appealing, yet not being able to know whether the results were fair was frustrating. When the numbers were against you it was hard to trust the casino. The worst part was that later on the players found out that some online casinos were scamming them. Even when outcomes were fair, the lack of proof was still a thorn in players’ palms. The online casinos of the early days had issues with transparency and it hurt their business. It was all promises and no facts.
Enter Blockchain & Provably Fair Games
Thanks to the provably fair method of creating games on blockchain, players these days can check out every outcome. Thanks to cryptography and the way each outcome is formed, there is no way to alter the result once it is out. This is good to know when you love to play Bitcoin casino dice games. Here’s how it works:
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Server Seed: The casino starts each round by creating a random string of letters and numbers. The full seed is not visible to the player, but what you do get is a hash of it. You need to look at it like it’s your fingerprint, one of a kind. There is no way to guess the original seed based on your hash, but you can see if the result was real later on.
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Client Seed: Each player, in each round, is in charge of providing one random seed to each outcome. Due to this, a player has an input in the roll too.
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Nonce: It is a number that changes with every bet. To blockchain and online casinos, this number is the key for proof of work, it is semi random, and always used only once.
These three things together are what creates the final dice roll. When the round is over the online casino of your choice reveals the server seed. The hash that was shown to you can be used even before the bet, and you can see if it matches. In 99% of times it does, and that’s how you know the outcomes were not rigged. Provably far games are what made outlets such as Bitcasino stand out among the crowd.
Why Blockchain Strengthens This System
Provably fair system is not existent without blockchain. Instead, it is powered by it. The blockchain technology is what makes it bulletproof. It all starts with transparency. Everything is recorded on the blockchain, so there are no secrets. Every outcome can be traced back to its origin. What’s even better than transparency is immutability. It means that once the data is written on the blockchain it can’t be changed. There is no editing of results.
With blockchain and online gambling things only get better. As if transparency and immutability weren’t enough, blockchain is also decentralized. Dice games of old couldn’t be run without a central server. With blockchain everything is handled by smart contracts starting with the roll, through the bet, and the final payout.
Lastly, when you play a dice game created on blockchain you do not have to trust the casino at all. Each process on blockchain is recorded and it runs on an open code, available for anyone’s inspection.
Smart Contacts & Dice Games
In essence, smart contracts are programs. They can run on blockchain systems such as Ethereum for example. What they do best is following the rules. What is written is executed. Once you deploy a smart contract, there’s no going back, unless you stated so, and designed it with susceptibility to updates. As far as dice games of, this is what smart contracts do for them:
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Accepting bets.
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Using a random number source that can be verified later on.
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Providing a win/loss decision.
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Create payments in case of a win.
When you know that the entire process runs without a middleman you need to state that you love blockchain and probably fair games it creates. The money you could win or lose is tied to the smart contract and the moment you win, you get an instant payout. With a system designed this way, chances of fraud are almost non existent.
Blockchain & Randomness
Blockchain is not quite similar to your standard random number generator. It is deterministic to a fault. To give you an outcome, each of its nodes need to be on the same page regarding the result. It can’t generate a random number on the chain, as the focus of randomness will not be identical across all computers. Yet, this is not something that should worry the players all that much. When you play the dice games, the following oracles and commit reveal schemes are used:
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Oracles- The oracles are external services tied to the blockchain that are in charge of creating randomness. The most famous example of an oracle is called Chainlink VRF (Verifiable Random Function). It gives the random numbers to the blockchain when you play and they can be verified later on.
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Commit reveal- A simple method where a smart contract is made that the player and the contract itself are going to commit to seeds that are hidden. When both reveal their seeds the randomness is born out of the mix of the two.
Thanks to these methods one can play dice games on a blockchain without having to worry about a single party having control.
Why Players Care About Provably Fair Games
The answer is simple, confidence. Players want to trust the game provider whether it’s a casino or a third party. Being able to check out every outcome creates this trust. People who avoided casinos due to fear of a scam can now play freely without interruptions. If you were a fan of cryptocurrencies earlier, then the games created on blockchain suit your mindset. Those who love digital currencies also love the control, transparency, and independence that provably fair games provide. Shared values always attract each other.
Also, there is a social side to it too. There are players who simply have an urge to verify each outcome. When they do, they tend to share the results, and discuss them in online gambling communities. This does wonders for provably fair gaming as the good word about it gets spread around by genuine users.
What Lies Ahead?
The best lies ahead. The blockchain dice games are merely just taking off. In the future we can expect them to get more sophisticated, faster, easier to play, and more creative. It is expected that on chain betting will get more practical in the future with solutions such as rollups, and Layer 2. Also, in no time we might start seeing cross chain dice games that are shared across different blockchains. As crypto has shown us so far, the options in some case might just be limitless. While we look forward to what future brings our way, the present is not all too shabby as the main focus of blockchain dice games remains the fact they are provably fair. As long as players get a fair roll, there’s not much more to give them but that. Thanks to blockchain, fair games are already here, and with dice you won’t judge an outcome ever more.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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