Becky Liggero, host of “Hashing it Out”, spent time with Nick Hill recently and discussed the state of iGaming. Specifically, they talked about how blockchain makes this space a much better place for everyone involved. Nick’s expertise in the gaming community comes from two decades of involvement with online gaming. He’s currently the Director of Premier consulting and author at CoinGeek.
We know that blockchain provides much needed transparency and accessibility. Having every transaction timestamped provides a chronological history that can be stored on or off chain. It’s immutable evidence that these transactions actually existed at a point in time. There’s no need for a paper trail because it is all digital and can be easily accessed by the players, the operators and the regulators, in near real time.
“You’re actually using a progressive technology to enhance a player’s experience, to protect the player, to protect the operator, to protect the gaming ecosystem”, said Nick.
If it makes sense to use blockchain to build online gaming platforms, then why aren’t all of the operators doing it? A recent survey to the gaming operators showed only 38% said they are currently accepting digital currency and they are only using digital assets to acquire new players’ deposits. They are not using it for player payouts. While it might be considered a good start, those operators aren’t using it to its full potential. Platforms like BSV blockchain, provide for greater security, massive scaling, and high-speed payment processing, all at a lower cost compared to other blockchains.
They key to unlocking the complete blockchain portfolio of benefits might lie with the regulators. They have been slow to establish a clear set of guidelines for the online gaming space. This lack of action has made some operators leery. They don’t want to spend the resources to migrate to this new and beneficial technology without some clear direction. They are afraid of what might happen without them.
“The regulator is struggling to regulate the payment processing side, the crypto side. The blockchain side, using it as we say for enterprise level utility application, is not so difficult to regulate”, stated Nick.
Unfortunately, until we see some action on the part of regulators, it will be a slow process to bring blockchain to its full potential in online gaming.