The man sat rather contently in his seat as the flight attendant came by to inquire if he would like another refreshment before landing. A broad smile covered the man’s face as he cheerfully nodded in an agreeing gesture toward the flight attendant.
She left to get him another drink and returned quickly before the “fasten seatbelt” signs came on. The man was so overjoyed with his circumstances in life that he could barely contain himself from beaming everywhere he went. Even the incredibly long flight he had been on did nothing to sour his mood.
You know that feeling that you get when you make a smart call and know everyone else is playing catch-up? That is a great feeling to have when you know that you were a leader when others doubted your vision. To know that your insight was right on the money and others just couldn’t see the big picture.
That was the feeling enveloping the man because he was fortunate enough to have gone on a bit of a winning streak the night before while gambling online. He had been a winner on multiple gambling sites, and his accounts were bustling with Bitcoin that he utilized as currency.
Bitcoin was his currency of choice when it came to online gambling, and the man had gotten involved far before the craze became popular. He had multiple gambling accounts filled with it, and he even had some of that fantastic cryptocurrency saved on cold storage zip drives sitting in the bank.
The market continued to surge upwards when it came to the value of Bitcoin, and no one was sure when the bubble would burst.
Finally, the man landed at his destination and was able to recheck his phone.
Immediately, the man went to check the current value of Bitcoin, and his face instantly became ghost white. During the man’s flight, Bitcoin had been dramatically crashing for hours, and was on its last leg when the man was finally able to check it.
His fortune was worthless, and the accounts filled with a mere pittance compared to what the man had had when he woke up that day. If only there were some way that he could have prevented this catastrophe so that he could have retained his cryptocurrency fortune.
Today, you will learn about the protections – or lack thereof – when it comes to cryptocurrencies and the world of online gambling. If you dabble in the online gambling market or with virtual currency in any way, it may be worthwhile to pay extra attention to these writings.
Unless you have been hiding under a magical secluded rock for the past couple of years, you more than likely have heard the term “cryptocurrency” thrown around in some manner.
The most popular of these cryptocurrencies and something I am sure you have heard of is Bitcoin, the wondrous virtual currency that has taken the world by storm.
Initially developed and used as an untraceable internet currency utilized to buy drugs and hire assassins, Bitcoin has since evolved.
The currency now sits at around $10,000+ per coin and continues to bounce up and down around that area, and many believe it will continue to grow to $20,000+. If the current trends are any indication of the future of this currency, there is a good chance of it reaching that amount and beyond.
People are amazed at the meteoric rise that Bitcoin has seen, and because of its growth, many other cryptocurrencies have been created to get in on the data train. Some of these others are Ethereum, Litecoin, and many more.
Currently, the number is over 500 that have listed market caps of over $100,000, and then there are roughly over a thousand who do not necessarily meet the same criteria. There are a lot of options when it comes to this whole virtual form of money, and they all have different values.
You may wonder why people are freaking out over the whole trend of cryptocurrency and why that thought process isn’t necessarily wrong.
There are multiple reasons surrounding people’s crypto frenzy, but the main thing that is getting people all in a tizzy is their fear of missing out.
Those who got in on Bitcoin early on are sitting on a nice little fortune, and if they decide to sell, they will have some impressive profits to enjoy. However, people believe in the growth of the coin still, and others are encouraged to get on the bandwagon before they miss out.
People are watching the rise of the Bitcoin and Ethereum daily and are seeing the unprecedented growth right before their own eyes. One cannot deny that there are concerns when it comes to investing in virtual money because there is nothing necessarily behind it.
Look at the US dollar and most other forms of currency around the world. For example, even though the US dollar is often just a number in a database, each dollar is technically supposed to be backed up by gold — in theory, anyway, even if there isn’t enough gold to handle all the currency out there.
Cryptocurrencies don’t even try to make the claim that they are backed up by some physical material rather than data that receives its value based on if people are willing to accept it as money. If it weren’t recognized as money anywhere, then the currency technically would have no value.
The fact that there are so many confusing elements when it comes to assessing whether cryptocurrencies should have real value or if they have real value is one of the reasons forcing people to hesitate. Regardless, cryptocurrencies are a current part of life and therefore should become understood.
Cryptocurrencies, notably Bitcoin, have become targets for years primarily based on the confusion that surrounds them. In some jurisdictions they are accepted as currency, while in others they aren’t, and some see the crypto as a possession while others don’t.
Lack of punishment is a critical reason that hackers have been targeting people’s Bitcoin purses and other cryptocurrency storage devices for years. Based on your jurisdiction and the would-be thief’s location, the theft of crypto may not even be a crime that the hacker can get charged for.
It is very alarming that there are so few protections out there for cryptocurrencies when they can potentially be worth so much money. Some of the options that people have utilized are cryptocurrency storage devices. Some are online, and some are physical and online, while some are cold-storage-based.
Those that are online will be account-based and will store your currencies on their servers and may even provide you with an insurance policy in case you get breached. The physical and online utilizes an authenticator-style device where a person must possess the zip-drive-type device to access funds.
The third is the cold-storage-based option just like how we handle our physical wallets. The idea is that you have your cryptocurrency in a separate location that is not attached to the internet and therefore is not readily available to would-be thieves.
People must then physically protect their virtual funds rather than rely on the virtual world to keep them safe. Safety deposit boxes are typically a worthwhile place to store your cold-storage wallets out of thieves’ hands but unfortunately do not leave the user with easy access to their funds.
There are some proper storage methods out there that people can make use of to keep their currency safe from those looking to steal it. However, they all come with different advantages and disadvantages like everything else in life.
The risk of not being able to get out before it’s too late is one of the most significant fears when dealing with cryptocurrency and causes hesitance about getting into that market. If the Bitcoin market started plummeting dramatically, cold storage would be a huge issue, since you can’t quickly access your funds.
That is the risk that people dealing in Bitcoin are taking, whether they know it or not, but what about the case of gambling sites? These aren’t your private investment places, after all, but rather where you go for entertainment to place bets.
You are their customer, and they aren’t there trying to promise you investment growth over your Bitcoin, but instead, they want you to feel confident that your funds are safe with them.
That way, you can gamble on their site. However, what are the online casinos going to do to protect you?
Technically, if the cryptocurrency market crashes, it will be one of those situations where people will shout to the high heavens how they never saw it coming, while others will be glad they didn’t get involved. Those who cannot just ignore that market, however, are the online casinos.
They should protect their customers from outside forces as much as they possibly can to allow the customer to play on their site. That especially holds true in the case of crypto, because there are sites out there that only use things like Bitcoin.
The solution is simple and sophisticated at the same time. The idea is giving users the ability to convert their current cryptocurrencies automatically when the market takes a dramatic dip and they are unable to sell it.
The market can get volatile, and as we have all seen with cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, they can drop and bounce back at a ridiculous rate. The whole thing is, what about when there is no bounce back? There may be a potential crash that won’t recover, and those that did not liquidate will be out of luck.
Such an idea is prudent for the online casinos to adapt to so that the user can salvage their account funds and live to play another day, while the casino can sell the crypto before it plummets. It would be optional, of course, for the user to allow the online casino to do such a thing.
Here’s an example of how it would work: say the current price of Bitcoin were at $15,000 and the user set the number for a plummeting rate they want it to sell at $10,000 per Bitcoin. Once the price reached the designated mark, the cryptocurrency would automatically be converted to another form.
The idea is that the user will only lose $5,000 instead of $15,000, and that is where the user makes the decision. The users get to decide what they are willing to call a loss, and they get out then instead of making a gamble on the bounce-back.
That exact option may not be the end-all solution, but there is a problem that needs to be addressed, since cryptocurrencies are becoming more popular amongst the online markets. Those who wish to protect their customer base will need to figure out that solution.
There is evidence from the growing trends of cryptocurrencies that the future of civilization will be pushing much further into the virtual world and becoming less reliant on the physical. That being said, those who accept and store these currencies need to make sure they provide worthwhile protection.
The idea that cryptocurrency can lose its value at any time is frightening and is the main reason why those online casinos need to ensure they protect their customers.
Remember, users can’t gamble if their currency turns to nothing.
As those who utilize cryptocurrency virtual storage options quite often, online gamblers need to ensure that they are taking appropriate precautions to handle the possibility of any currency that they are dealing with crashing.
Whether the online casinos will provide additional options to their security protocols for their users is unknown, but apparently, something needs to be done. Until then, all we can do is be vigilant and keep an eye on the market and hope to react quickly enough.
The post The Currency Wars Are Coming – Is Anyone Prepared? appeared first on GamblingSites.com.
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