It is a well-known fact that online gaming is one of the fastest developing industries – since the launch of the first online casino back in 1996 the industry has evolved, it was also one of the first to accept Bitcoin payments just a year after its inception back in 2009. The next step we believe is moving to blockchain – a technology that has been making rapid progress and disrupting the online world for the last couple of years.

PROOF OF TOSS CMO, Eugene Malahov, attended ICE and ICE VOX’s Blockchain Conference this year and shares some of his thoughts on blockchain in gaming.

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As a newcomer at ICE, I was obviously blown away by the sheer magnitude of the exhibit. Over the course of 3 days I’ve made it my mission to talk to as many online companies as possible. My outtake is this - gaming does have blockchain in sight, but, it is still very far from implementing the tech, and at large Bitcoin is what everyone is talking about. Even though the vast majority of those I spoke to agreed that blockchain has a very bright future ahead of it, the panel discussion that was supposed to be dedicated to implementing the tech of blockchain and DLTs spiralled out to a simple debate about Bitcoin's volatility. It was obvious that some people in the industry still can’t tell the difference between blockchain and Bitcoin.

Based on my observations of the conference, I’ve made my own key points of what I believe the gaming community should focus on:

Blockchain is democratizing and securing online gaming for everyone. It brings decentralization and transparency that protects all the participants in gaming from human mistakes and fraudulent activities. For example, in our betting ecosystem PROOF OF TOSS we are using the wisdom of the crowd in all our Judging and Challenge mechanisms: employing the “prisoner's dilemma” with clear risk and reward for any action taken by the crowd and relying on our random number generator to select Judges we ensure that every decision will be right and true. Blockchain improves payment processing. The problems like postponed payouts, transaction limits or chargebacks are solved by blockchain. Payments are made straight out of the personal wallets and all transactions are irreversible. Provided by blockchain technology direct transfers also increase liquidity by reducing processing time. Blockchain is a solution for the development of trust. In online gaming all participants are forced to put a lot of trust in intermediaries. Blockchain gives an opportunity to exclude third parties from the decision making process and money exchange. As all rules and business logics are embedded in smart contracts, it makes any users’ actions transparent and irreversible. When all parties are represented by a “faceless” wallet they are given equal opportunities and this in turn increases trust for the whole industry. Blockchain technology is changing the online gaming industry today. There are a lot of new projects that are entering the scene with solutions for the market. Blockchain brings many advantages and gives an opportunity to make a business more functional. Blockchain technology is a real chance for businesses in online gaming to form a forward thinking, efficient and fair market.

I may be wrong, but it is widely spoken that online gaming is expected to be one of the busiest niches taken by blockchain companies in 2018 and I, myself, will not pass up a chance to witness the transformation at ICE 2019.

Eugene Malahov,

Chief Marketing Officer

PROOF OF TOSS (www.toss.pro)

Head of the ICO development unit at ToTheMoon Lab