by PatrickPlaying poker with Crypto
Poker had its digital renaissance in the early 2000s with the “Moneymaker Boom”, which soon levelled out into a highly skilled, hyper-competitive digital space. Besides the rise in live streaming and celebrity poker games (which, in fairness, has always existed), there hasn’t been much evolution since. That is until the rise of crypto poker, which offers something to both crypto bros and poker enthusiasts alike.
How the mechanics differ
Of course, the rules of Texas Hold’em have been unchanged for a long time, and the currency denomination we play in doesn’t change that. But everything around the same, like its infrastructure, is different.
When playing on a standard site, you’re interacting with many different entities under the hood. Transactions pass through third-party payment processors and intermediaries. Visa and Mastercard may take a cut.
Crypto is peer-to-peer, meaning that players typically transfer funds directly from their personal digital wallets to the platform’s wallet. Deposits and withdrawals are more direct, and sometimes even anonymous. Markets are global, and so too are your fellow players.
Improvements in the platform
Early crypto poker sites often had rudimentary graphics, but they’ve soon caught up. Because the market feels more open and less hierarchical, it’s leading to more diversity and innovation. Platforms like Razed Crypto Casino are leading the way in live dealer games by making the platform more familiar, like a traditional online site, but with crypto efficiency. It is steadily becoming a reference for crypto poker in particular, showing how operators can juggle the anonymity of blockchain and the human element of a physical casino. Razed growth shows that momentum is on their side, and market share is being transferred.
Speed and privacy remain the primary draws
The two most common reasons players give for why they’re gravitating toward crypto poker are transaction speed and privacy. In minutes, it’s possible to set up an account at Razed casino and the like, and depositing funds is a matter of a single crypto transfer. There’s no need to check what cards they take, or if it’s PayPal. No waiting around, and the wallet address you’re sending from is of course anonymous.
While some casinos pertain to KYC laws, some less so. Many are in a grey area, but ultimately, it’s less about anonymity in the purist sense (because that’s rare to achieve), and instead more about avoiding bank statement paper trails.
Of course, there’s always the risk of the cryptocurrency going up or down in value while it’s deposited in the account. This may not matter much if you have other uses for crypto upon withdrawing (e.g., stores that accept crypto). For others, it’s a way to expose themselves to the crypto market speculation while using the coin, rather than it sitting stale in a wallet.
Poker and crypto have an overlapping demographic. Not so much the old school poker players, but young players often have a shared interest in both. After all, it’s coming from a wider context of the digitization of all gaming. We expect to see further adoption, and further innovation, that truly competes with the larger fiat status quo.
