In recent years, cryptocurrencies have been successful as a popular payment alternative to so-called fiat money.
So far, it is not possible to use digital payment methods everywhere, but they are appearing in more and more international online casinos.
Bitcoin is, of course, the most common cryptocurrency. There are also options that are at least as interesting when you want to pay securely and smoothly online.
There are endless cryptocurrencies to choose from today. Which one you should invest in depends on what you are going to use it for.
Here we will go through the different cryptocurrencies that are most common in online casinos.
We outline advantages, disadvantages, and transaction times so that you may get a good idea of the possibilities with cryptocurrency at various online casinos.
Bitcoin / BTC – most common at online casinos
If you’ve heard of cryptocurrencies, you’ve certainly heard of Bitcoin. This was the first cryptocurrency to be introduced to the public, and it was launched in 2009.
Satoshi Nakamoto, a person or group, invented the brand-new blockchain technology at the time.
The limit for how many Bitcoins could be created was set at 21 million. Currently, there are about 19 million coins in circulation worldwide.
Because Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, you can make payments to a growing number of businesses online.
There are even physical machines where you can buy Bitcoin with regular currency in some places around the world.
Because of the currency’s tremendous increase in value that has taken place in recent years, Bitcoin has also received attention.
The network must always confirm transactions with cryptocurrencies on the blockchain before it executes them. It is the time it takes to solve the next block on the chain that determines the transaction time.
For Bitcoin, it is about 10 minutes, which is slightly longer than what many other cryptocurrencies can offer. For a list of the best casinos that offer BTC games, check out our Bitcoin casino guide.
Bitcoin Cash / BCH – better with more users
There is a lot more to the story of Bitcoin Cash, also known as BCH. It’s not just the development of another cryptocurrency. It was, in fact, one of the most severe tests of Bitcoin’s decentralisation.
BCH and other Bitcoin variants are the consequence of proposed modifications to the Bitcoin protocol. Those one the majority of the network did not agree on.
So what happened is that an alternate version of the coin, or hard fork, arising from the original Bitcoin was constructed. And voilà, new coins were created.
BCH appeared in 2017, and it works in many ways, just like the original.
The idea behind Bitcoin was that we would only use the currency for payments. However, today, many people buy it as an investment.
Bitcoin Cash, on the other hand, works better for payments because the currency is optimised for just this.
Although the average transaction time is 10 minutes, just like for Bitcoin, they created Bitcoin Cash with more advanced technology.
Therefore, the time it takes to transfer Bitcoin Cash will decrease as more and more people use the currency.
Litecoin / LTC – fits smaller amounts
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency with nearly as long a history as Bitcoin. A former Google employee created the currency in 2011. This is because you can move Litecoin faster than Bitcoin.
Another advantage is that transactions are also cheaper. Otherwise, the currency Bitcoin is very similar because it is based on the same source code.
In fact, they use Litecoin sometimes when testing new ideas that are intended to be implemented on Bitcoin because the two currencies are so similar.
The idea behind Litecoin, which is also revealed by the name, is that the currency should be used for slightly smaller and thus “easier” transactions.
The maximum number of Litecoins that can be created is 84 million, and right now there are over 70 million coins. The transaction time for a transfer with Litecoin is approximately 2.5 minutes.
Dogecoin / DOGE – fast and cheap transfers
The cryptocurrency Dogecoin was initially nothing more than a joke. It was in 2013 that two developers created Dogecoin with a dog of the breed Shiba Inu on the fictitious coins.
The reason for this was a popular meme with the same type of dog circulating online at the same time. The meme was forgotten after a while, but Dogecoin’s popularity has continued.
Elon Musk has even mentioned the digital currency, after which it, of course, increased further in value. The idea behind Dogecoin was that the currency would reach more users than Bitcoin.
How it went with that thing is pretty clear today, but Dogecoin also has a large fan base. The currency is based on Litecoin, which in turn uses Bitcoin’s original source code.
There are over 132 billion Dogecoins in circulation, and there is no limit or maximum number. The biggest advantages of Dogecoin are that the currency is cheap to use and that the transfers take place quickly.
However, fees have increased slightly over the past year. Thereafter, it stabilised at a slightly higher level than the original.
Dogecoin has a transaction time of about 1 minute, which makes the digital currency one of the fastest offerings on the market.
Ethereum / ETH transactions in 15 seconds
Ethereum is an interesting cryptocurrency that is one of the most common and most popular today. The currency itself is called Ether.
In addition to the currency, Ethereum also offers its own platform where users can create decentralised applications called “dapps”.
Another feature are the so-called smart contracts. They allow users to set up terms that serve as a basis for the contract itself. For example, this can mean great benefits for players at online casinos.
Among other things, it is possible to reduce the fees by using Ether for transactions, and even create online casinos without any benefit to the house!
In addition, it is possible to use smart contracts to make games safer with the help of random number generators that are completely impossible to manipulate.
About 120 million Ether are in circulation today, and unlike other cryptocurrencies, there is no maximum supply.
Ether also boasts an exceptionally fast transaction speed of only 15 seconds, outperforming Bitcoin and other digital currencies!
Read more about ETH and the Ethereum Lottery here.
Tether / USDT – corresponds to the value in EUR or USD
Tether is, unlike many other cryptocurrencies, a so-called stablecoin. The currency was created in 2015 and is pegged to the fiat currency of the U.S. dollar. That means it is equivalent to $1.
As a result, Tether is not a cryptocurrency to invest in if you want to make a lot of money from the currency’s future value increases.
Instead, Tether serves as a digital alternative to the USD that should be easy to transfer online. One of the great advantages of Tether for users is that the number of Tethers available must always correspond to the actual currency invested in the cryptocurrency.
This means that one only created a new Tether when someone invests in the currency, and it is therefore not possible to create new coins through cryptocurrency mining.
With Tether, you also do not have to go through a crypto broker to buy the currency. Instead, the fiat currency is deposited directly via Tether’s website.
The Tether can then be used to buy another cryptocurrency or, for example, play at some online casinos.
A transaction with Tether takes about 5 minutes to complete, which places the currency somewhere in the middle of the most popular crypto options.
Summation
As you can see, there are a lot of good options to choose from when you want to play with cryptocurrency at an online casino. But only you can decide which is best for you.
Do you prefer a stable coin like Tether, the world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin, or perhaps Ethereum, which also offers dapps and secure contracts?
In any case, it looks like cryptocurrencies are here to stay, and we will certainly see significantly more of them in the future.