How Provably Fair Gambling with Bitcoin Works

A lot of people are probably wondering why Bitcoin and crypto, in general, became so successful in the past couple of years. The reasons are complex, but every early adopter will tell you that the fundamentals of the concept are the key to the crypto revolution.

Bitcoin allows you to stay anonymous and move your money quickly, and the whole system is decentralized. On top of that, there’s the power of blockchain. It’s a completely new concept that opens the door to plenty of solutions to problems that have existed for years.

A bright example can be found in the online gambling industry. The players have been having doubts about if the games are fair ever since online gambling was born. Bitcoin and its blockchain finally provided a solution.

It’s called provably fair games, and many operators are already using them. If you don’t know what provably fair is, this post will answer all of your questions.

Before we go into some technical details, it’s probably a good idea to clarify what provably fair is. The simplest explanation is as follows:

If a game is provably fair, each customer has the means to double-check if the random number generator (RNG) worked as it was supposed to.

This solution is something that the online gambling industry has desperately needed for years. The customers always had to rely on some gambling commissions or other regulators to follow the RNG of online casinos on their behalf.

As a result, there were many scams in the past. It was hard to trust any operator on the market, and this is why provably fair gambling is a game-changer. You won’t need external help or some kind of technical knowledge to understand if a certain casino is lying to you.

The provably fair technology will give you easy access to that information, and once the game round is over, you can check if the outcome was truly random. This happens when the casino basically sends you the encrypted end result before you place a bet and then allows you to check if the random number generator was truly random at the end.

It may sound too good to be true, but the structure of the Bitcoin blockchain is actually the perfect platform to provide such transparency when it comes to online gambling. There are some differences between the approaches of the different developers, but the main concept is always similar.

The provably fair system uses a cryptographic hash that is practically unbreakable. The whole procedure starts before the bets are placed and the game round starts. This is when the random number generator behind what you are playing generates the outcome.

For that purpose, two separate seeds of random numbers are created. The combination of both of them is what leads to the end result. The operator you are using should always explain the exact way the seeds work together to lead to the end result.

This is where cryptography enters the game. The software encrypts the seeds and sends the player the hashed version of his seed. This Bitcoin hash can be later used to confirm the randomness of the end result.

When this step is completed, the player then places his bet. Once the game round is over and the user can see the final outcome, he also receives the original starting seeds in a non-encrypted format.

The provably fair system works for a couple of reasons. Mainly, the outcome is generated before the player completes his wager. This means the operator didn’t wait for the bet and manipulate the final result in order to cheat.

If this happens, you would be able to easily catch the casino. Simply check the seeds that you received encrypted before the start and see if they are the same as the one you got after the end of the game.

If there is a match, move on to take a look at the combination of the seeds. As already mentioned, the casino should have an explanation of the way the two seeds combine. Use it to understand if the correct result was generated. If that’s the case, you can rest assured that the game was fair.

The whole provably fair system of Bitcoin operators generates transparency that is not available in the traditional online gambling websites. However, there are other additions that make the whole process even easier to grasp.

Most of the online casinos provide the source code of their provably fair games for anyone to see. This allows players to properly analyze exactly how the games work and how the results are generated.

By sharing their source code, online casinos give players another reason to trust them and feel confident that all results are truly random.

Of course, actually understanding the source code does require some technical knowledge. Not everyone is able to look at the code and decipher. However, the simple fact that the casinos are putting it out there is in itself a positive sign.

If you are looking for provably fair Bitcoin games, there are plenty of options on the market. All operators that use the technology state that clearly on their website. On top of that, they usually have both a complicated technical explanation of their particular solution and a simple one designed for users with no technical knowledge.

As for the particular games that benefit from the Bitcoin provably fair technology, most of the mainstream casino products are part of the list. For example, the likes of roulette and dice can easily use provably fair since there is only one single, simple outcome.

Games like poker have many cards to be generated. This makes things more complicated. It’s similar with games such as blackjack, too.

Still, ANY gambling games can potentially use the provably fair system. Many operators are working on introducing more and more provably fair games for their casinos.

The future of the provably fair technology seems bright. The Bitcoin blockchain does provide an exceptional platform for such a solution, but there are other cryptocurrencies that could improve that and provide new opportunities for the developers.

For example, most of the ICOs in 2017 and 2023 were based on the Ethereum blockchain. It is considered better than Bitcoin and could be used to create more sophisticated features.

Since the players responded well to the existing provably fair solutions, we are bound to see even better software in the future. The approach will probably expand towards more complicated games and take over the whole online crypto gambling industry.