Importance of the community
It is a historical fact that without the cryptocurrency online community, cryptocurrencies would never have become as popular as they are today. Most cryptocurrencies and projects such as Bitcoin and Ethereum were developed by a handful of blockchain, finance and cryptography experts but it was the crypto community who adopted them first and greatly contributed to their improvement. That's why major announcements and news are shared first with the community and then with the rest of the audience.
Making an impact and leading the way
Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, was distributed freely to the earliest holders who were mainly cypherpunks and other people who were interested in the concept of digital money but not to anyone. In June 2010, Gavin Adressen, the Bitcoin lead developer announced on Bitcointalk, that he had set up a website which would distribute 5 BTC to every visitor for completing a captcha. This was just one of his many contributions to drive the adoption of cryptocurrency. A month earlier, Laszlo Hanyecz, a Florida programmer spent 10,000 bitcoins on pizza.
These are some illustrations of the quandary that the early adopters of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies encountered. Some had so much cryptocurrency funds but were uncertain if and when the assets would become a means of transferring value. Most of these people were not certain that cryptocurrency would be acceptable to the general public. Neither were they aware that it could become a mainstream phenomenon.
The reason people like Adressen did this wasn't because he was generous but because he understood how these people can help his project. The feedback they can provide is priceless as it is genuine and based on what they truly think so they will never paint a nice picture if it's not there. This feedback is what lead to the first halving which gave birth to Bitcoin Cash.
An interesting case took place in 2012 when a user called Dego in essence announced his forum Jackpot game. Specifically, Dego called for participants to place minimum bets of 0.1 BTC and maximum of 2 BTC for a chance of doubling their bitcoins in the games. Two winners would have their coins doubled. These were the first players and the last. A different player would earn 15% of all the deposits as the next in line Jackpot winner and would be selected based on a set criteria. In all these, the OP, who is representing the house, earned 5% of all deposits made by those that wagered.
Dego promoted his cryptocurrency-based forum game with this line:
“Double your bitcoins in this pyramid game! Pay fast and win, come last and win too!”
Games such as Dego’s were the precursor of current modern cryptocurrency casinos. It is not inconceivable to infer that some of the online cryptocurrency casinos were inspired by these forum-based wagering games. There is also a possibility that many originators of these games were the brains behind some online crypto casinos, especially those that have strong presence in cryptocurrency forums such as Bitcointalk, Cryptotalk and Reddit.
Contributing to the growth of Crypto gambling space
The crypto community has contributed to the growth of gambling in a variety of ways. Based on iPlayCrypto's team knowledge, the most important ones have been analyzed below:
Funding for online gambling platforms
With the surge in the popularity of cryptocurrency casinos, more businesses interested in the gambling space are seeking ways to enter the online crypto gaming sphere. Funding options available to such would-be founders are angel investors, personal funds or crowdsales. Irrespective of the choice they make, the founders would need the support of the cryptocurrency community if their roadmap would translate to a successful gambling business. This is especially so if they opt for crowdsale.
Gambling crowdsales generally incorporate the participation of the online cryptocurrency community. The community members participate by investing in promising online casinos by buying the casino token, with the hope of sharing in its future successes.
Spreading the word for crypto casinos
The community also participates in spreading the word about the new casino through bounties and signature campaigns organized by the team behind the new gaming platform.
For signature campaigns especially, the casino owners pay participating community members a fixed amount in the agreed cryptocurrency. The payment is usually dependent on the value that the participating member is expected to bring with their exposure. Experienced forum members with higher ranks would likely get higher payments from the organizers of a signature campaign as their opinion has increased weight within the community.
Casino bounties
Bounties generally pay participating community members for spreading the word about the new casino by paying with the casino’s internal currency or token. The founders allocate a fraction or percentage of their token to bounty participants. Online community bounty programs generally involve promoting a new or existing crypto gambling platform through channels such as social media, video making, blogs posts and more.
This option is a casino's favorite as it presents them as generous operators wanting players to have a fun experience and not just take their money. Also, it costs the casino literally zero amount of money as the tokens they share are usually either too low or have a wagering requirement so it's not like free cash being paid out.
Casino reputation
Players are mostly at a loss on how to ascertain how reputable a casino is, especially if it is their first time using such a gambling platform. They’re also mostly unaware of the shortfalls that they could encounter if they’re oblivious of the policies of casinos they play at.
The online crypto communities are the best platforms to consult at such times, since any casino that has been around for some time would have something written about them in the forums. The experience of other players help prospective punters to make informed decisions. Even when there are no such reviews, the user could ask questions about the casino and get the opinions of community members who have used the platform. This is a reliable way of knowing how credible a casino is. Much more reliable than just a PO box and a license from Curaçao.
There are instances when players feel that a casino is fraudulent because they refused to pay winnings. However, the issue could be linked with the player not being well informed about the casino ToS before placing bets. For instance, placing a bet in a casino from a restricted country could result in issues such as seized funds.
Nevertheless, there are other casinos that are actually dubious and regularly seek opportunities to cheat the player, especially when they win big in bets. The fact that these casinos have huge bankrolls doesn’t change their bad reputation. The player can only know and beware of such casinos if they are aware of updates about such platforms in the crypto community.
For example, a 1xbit user posted this scam allegation against the casino on Bitcointalk:
“I decided to bet on a WNBA match with odds approximately 1.65 with a total amount of 4000 USDT.
The match went well and my match was successful and I won the bet. Shortly after I received my winnings (total 6592 USDT) I decided to withdraw the whole amount to my TRC20 USDT address. However, shortly after that, my withdrawal was declined (no reason specified).”
Here is the comment in response to the allegation:
“This is just another number. No one is going to show any interest in your thread unfortunately. We are bored to see accusations against 1xbit. There are many of them on this scam accusation board.”
It is very important to note that should a player want to go down this route, they'd better have all the proof they need. It's very common for losing players to immediately accuse a casino of being a scam simply because they want a better bonus or some other reason. Therefore casinos don't bite so easily. However, if the player presents the events and information clearly and can support them with evidence, the casinos will have no option but to look into the matter seriously. In many occasions it's potentially not the casino's fault but the game provider's. In case they decide to let the matter go, the risk they are facing could be higher as it can destroy he brand's reputation completely
New game development and trials
Gaming platforms collaborate with game makers and providers to give the gambling community some of the most engaging games ever known. These games are not developed at the whims of the makers, but with the active collaboration of the gambling public. The online cryptocurrency community plays an active role in testing new games for gambling platforms.
Resolution of issues
Many gambling platforms promote their businesses in cryptocurrency forums. They also have representatives that actively monitor the happenings on these forums. Punters that have unresolved issues with cryptocurrency casinos usually post these at the forums. When such posts are made, the casino representative or owners usually get notified, especially if the complaint was made on an Announcement thread of the casino. Thousands of casino-related issues that the player couldn’t resolve have been fixed in-forum because the casino owners wouldn’t want bad publicity within the community.
Here is an example of a complaint made by a player:
“After six days of waiting, I saw no other option than to open a topic here. I created an account on D…, played the first bet which was a winner and tried to withdraw my money. After that they asked me about KYC. July 10, 2022.
Whenever I asked them if KYC was confirmed, I would get the same generic answers from Live Support. They don't know anything, I need to be patient, they don't know when it will be finished, there is no ETA.”
In this case, another member advised that the complainant contact the casino representative for a quick resolution of the issue.
Detecting scam casinos
There are many scam gambling sites out there. The online cryptocurrency community members usually share their experience using various gambling platforms. When people lose funds from scam casinos, they sometimes post their experiences in forums. Such posts serve as guideposts to future prospective players to avoid such scam casinos. Punters who encounter issues such as non-payment of winning bets also take advantage of the experience of other community members to ascertain if they used a fraudulent casino or just experienced delays in withdrawals.
Freelance services
A very useful trait of the crypto community is bringing together people of diverse backgrounds, cultures and skills. The online crypto gambling industry, as an integral part of the community utilizes the specialized skills of community members to build and promote their businesses. Freelance skills such as translation services, design, website building, coding and many more can be found there at very reasonable prices.
Also, most crypto gambling businesses are known to have presence in the online cryptocurrency sphere so they often hire community members to help them accomplish their casino road maps.
Flagship crypto community forums
BitcoinTalk
BitcoinTalk is the oldest cryptocurrency forum. It was founded by the Bitcoin inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto in November 2009. The forum is also the largest online community, dedicated to cryptocurrencies. To access the gambling section of the site, go to Bitcoin Forum > Economy > Marketplace > Gambling.
Its Child Boards are Games&Rounds (where several gaming platforms advertise their recent offerings), Investor-Based Games (which are mainly ponzi, HYIP and other scams) and Gambling Discussions. To use this forum effectively, the player should also go through the Scam Accusation section found at Bitcoin Forum > Economy > Trading Discussion > Scam Accusation. This is the section where casino scams, issues and reputation of the service quality of online crypto casinos are discussed.
CryptoTalk
CryptoTalk, established in 2019, has been promoted as a post to earn BTC platform and it's very popular in Russia. To access the gambling section, click the hamburger menu at the top left side of the forum. Scrolling down shows Gambling/HYIP/FreeCoins. This is where service discussions of cryptocurrency casinos are held. Going through the comments section of the gambling platform that the user is interested in would give them insight on what to expect, since Cryptotalk doesn’t have a scam review section.
The sub-reddit, r/onlinegambling, has 11.5K members. It is one of the largest subreddits dedicated to crypto gambling too. User generated content on the subreddit are mostly questions about casino services and promotions by casino management. The sidebar promotes several online casinos, sportsbooks and poker platforms. Even though these are promoted as the best platforms, this is not necessarily so. As a general rule, referral link spams, begging, doxxing and sale pitches are prohibited on these gambling subreddits so don't do it.
BeermoneyForum
With 223k members, BeermoneyForum is one of the leading online forums for cryptocurrency gambling. Two related sub-sections of this platform are the Investing and Gambling sub-forums. The former is where user generated HYIP and ponzi are advertised, while gaming and gambling platforms are found under the Gambling section. One advantage of this forum is that the administrators and moderators routinely flag casinos and services involved in scams.
Conclusion
Online casino operators have strong links with the crypto community, since this community is the main driving force behind Bitcoin and altcoin use. It is the community that determines the acceptance, rejection or popularity of specific tokens. With this information, casino owners generally ensure that their service offerings are in agreement with the demands, current trends and direction of the online crypto community. This unofficial arrangement should be used to the advantage of players, like yourself, to not be caught off guard from dodgy casinos.