The 10 biggest myths about bitcoin and gambling

1) I received commission in BTC and can’t spend it anywhere 

You’d be surprised how many companies and major retailers accept bitcoin, and the number is growing every day. Currently, you can spend your bitcoin with Expedia, Overstock, Microsoft, Subway, Steam and many other places.

We suggest, however, that the best way to spend your bitcoin would be to open an account at a site such as Cryptopay.me, where you can get a Visa debit card that is directly linked to your bitcoin wallet.You can choose between major currencies such as EUR, GBP and USD and load your card with BTC that automatically converts to the currency of the card.

What’s so great about this is that you can now use your BTC anywhere a Visa card is accepted, thus giving you as much freedom as a regular debit card.

2) I will win less if the price of bitcoin decreases while I am playing

This of course depends on how you look at it. If you’re thinking that the amount of BTC that you play for will decrease when you cash out because of potential fluctuation in the BTC price, this won’t be the case. If you are withdrawing 1 BTC from your account, you will receive 1 BTC, it’s as simple as that.But the fiat value of this BTC amount can of course increase or decrease while you are playing, and most likely it will have moved (up or down) because BTC’s value still has a tendency to be volatile. 

At BitStarz, you have the option of making a deposit in BTC and converting it to EUR. And, when you withdraw money, we’ll give you the BTC value of that EUR amount according to the current BTC price.Also, bitcoin cashouts are made at a tremendous speed, which means that volatility doesn’t necessarily need to affect you. 

3) Anything on the internet can be hacked — bitcoin is next

What’s so good about bitcoin is that it is decentralised. If you hack a bank, for example, you need hack only one system to be able to have access to its network and cause damage, but this will never be an issue with bitcoin.On the contrary, everyone who uses bitcoin is a part of the system, which means you need to have control of over 50% of the people on the entire network simultaneously in order to grasp control of it.

Just identifying 50% of the people on the entire network is virtually impossible in itself, and to hack all of them at the same time is even harder.It’s worth mentioning as well that the power of the bitcoin network is more than 250 times the combined power of the world’s top 500 supercomputers, which makes the risk of hacking extremely unlikely.

4)  Bitcoin is anonymous

There’s a big misconception that bitcoin is entirely anonymous. Bitcoin is pseudoanonymous, in the sense that your name is not linked to your bitcoin address, but you still have a bitcoin address that’s static and so it could technically be linked to you. 

It’s important also to know that if you verify your identity with an exchange, you now have a link between your identity and a certain address. When it comes to gambling, it’s important to be aware that casinos might need to comply with KYC (know your customer) legislation, which means verification of identity is required. It’s important that you as a player are aware many casinos require this, and it’s always recommended to read the terms and conditions. 

5) There is no advantage for any casino player to deposit and wager in bitcoins

Quite the contrary. There are plenty of advantages for people using BTC, and that’s why so many fiat currency players are making the switch. BTC is seen as digital cash, and what we mean by that is that you have total control over your own money.

When you store fiat currency (besides having cash in a wallet), there’s always going to be a middleman, taking either a cut or prolonging the time it takes to make a transfer.But when you’re using BTC, there’s no third party in the transaction, meaning you can make your transaction extremely fast. 

Compare that to a card withdrawal from your casino account, where you sometimes have to wait up to three working days to get your money.Also, by using a bitcoin Visa debit card, you can enjoy the purchase freedom of Visa, while also being able to get the money out in minutes, a major advantage over traditional debit cards.

6) Getting paid affiliate commission in BTC means I risk being paid less because of the volatility of the cryptocurrency 

Volatility will affect your commission only if you decide to hold on to your bitcoin for a long time. When you receive your BTC, there’s no need for you to wait before converting them.A great way to avoid currency fluctuations would be to sign up for a bitcoin Visa debit card. This gives you the opportunity to instantly load a card with the amount in BTC, and get the current exchange rate in whatever fiat currency you decided to issue the card in. 

Personally, we at BitStarz believe in the ongoing growth of BTC and therefore we recommend saving at least a proportion of the commission in BTC as an investment.

7) I don’t have any BTC gambling traffic so there’s no point listing and promoting bitcoin casinos

We’ve heard this a few times before, but you’d be surprised to know how many people use bitcoin out there. We’d wager that you probably have a lot of BTC gambling traffic, you just don’t know it. The use and price of bitcoin have jumped over the years, which gives you an opportunity to tap into revenue that you perhaps didn’t know about. If you do have BTC traffic (and we think you probably do), the chances are the customers purchased these a while ago and saved them, meaning they have made quite a bit of profit. And that means they have more money to spend on gambling. 

It’s also important to know that for harder-to-reach markets, where other payment options for gambling are limited, BTC is the ultimate solution. Why not use bitcoin to venture into those new areas?

8) I was promoting a casino for a month and earned a couple of BTC and they aren’t worth keeping

The ironic thing about bitcoin (and something that a lot of people get thrown off by) is that it sounds like it’s not worth anything. Sometimes people look at you like you’re crazy when you’re happy about having a couple of bitcoin in your wallet, but that is merely because they don’t follow the rate.Let’s look at a couple of milestones: back in December 2011, BTC was valued the same as USD, which was seen as a major breakthrough for bitcoin.

In September this year, BTC reached its alltime high of a staggering $5,000, which means that if you had a few BTC right now, you’d be very happy.If you had made $1,000 in affiliate commission in December 2011, taken that sum out as BTC and held on to them until now, you’d now have $5m in your account. 

That’s a staggering amount, and we believe that BTC will keep on increasing in value over the years.

9) I have money in my Skrill wallet but I can’t buy bitcoin with that 

No problem at all. There are plenty of other payment methods to get BTC. At bitpanda.com, for example, you can buy BTC and many other cryptocurrencies using Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller and Giropay, to name just a few.Cubits (cubits.com) is also a very popular place to acquire bitcoin. You can pay with Visa, Mastercard, OK Pay and international bank transfer. 

Some exchanges are better than others depending on your geolocation, and it’s always a good idea to do some of your own research as to what’s best for you. However, we find these exchanges are some of the most reliable and trustworthy. 

10) Bitcoin is not backed by anything and so it’s a Ponzi scheme 

Well, fiat currencies aren’t backed by anything either. There was a time when the US dollar was backed by gold and during that time there was a gold reserve tied to the currency itself, but not any longer. Therefore, what you’re holding in your hand is basically paper money, and the money in your account is merely numbers on a screen.

But BTC is different and actually has value. This is why many see it as digital gold, outside the fiat sphere, and not sensitive to inflation, devaluation, interest rates or anything of that nature. It’s a safety net that people cling to in times of heightened insecurity in the world. Another similarity with gold is that there’s a cost involved in mining the coin, just as there’s a cost in mining gold. Currently, it costs about $1,000 to 
mine a single bitcoin, which gives you an indication of its value. In other words, value is created because a certain amount of electricity goes into it, and the value of that electricity is transferred to the coin.

There is of course a supply-and-demand aspect as well, and because the number of BTC is limited, the price goes up if more people believe in them and purchase them.