Bitcoins are so popular nowadays, that you won’t find a person who hasn’t heard about them. Bitcoin is just one type of numerous cryptocurrencies. All Bitcoins exist only in an electronic form. Bitcoin transactions are used in many spheres on the web now, but they have both advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of Bitcoin transactions:
- Fast speed – each transaction is processed within just a couple of minutes or faster;
- Safe and secure – each transaction has a unique code with a signature, which can’t stolen;
- Decentralised – means there is a direct connection between an addressee and an addresser without any third parties;
- No need to pay taxes;
- They are immune to monetary inflation, as long as there are a fixed number of 21 million bitcoins and it can’t be increased;
- Small fees or no fees for transactions at all;
- Fully-anonymous – nobody knows your identity, as during the transaction, all of the information available is a randomly generated code of your Bitcoin wallet, and that’s it.
There are still some disadvantages of such payments:
- High volatility – the price of bitcoins tend to change quite frequently;
- It’s an experimental currency and you can’t predict its future;
- It is called as a “household” payment method, as it can’t be used in all the shops, cafes, services, etc.;
- Untraceability – means due to its anonymity, you are unable to trace your transactions in case you need some approval or other information.
As you can see, anonymity has both positive and negative sides. Your identity is precious, but you shouldn’t sacrifice your rights to keep control of your spendings. That’s the main reason why banks implement KYC (“Know Your Customer”) policy. That’s why you need to bring some identification documents when opening a bank account. It protects both sides – you and the bank institution.
Now Bitcoins are especially popular at online casinos. Gambling websites are using bitcoin payments quite frequently. There are even casinos that accept only Bitcoins. Blockchain usually brings trust to the casino due to the safety of users’ identity. HolyMolyCasinos still has some arguments against Bitcoin payments.
Don’t be confident that nobody knows who you are if you use Bitcoin payments. There is a general rule for practically all casinos, that you should send verification documents before the first withdrawal, or before you withdraw a big sum at a time. They may request your documents whenever they like, even without any explanations. Meaning that you need to verify your ID, even if you use Bitcoin payments. A doubtful anonymity, we should say.
This has been confirmed by the support managers of various online casinos. All of them were trying to convince us that the verification is not absolutely necessary, but they still can ask you to send certain documents to know their customer. This procedure has nothing to do with a specific payment method and Bitcoin payments aren’t an exception.
Be very attentive while choosing an online casino to play at and don’t get too excited just because the casino accepts Bitcoins. There are many other things that are more important to know about a gambling website before starting to play there:
- Licensing;
- Operating;
- Usage of SSL encryption;
- Awards and certificates;
- Reputation on watchdog portals.
These things will ensure your security better than “anonymous” Bitcoin payments. Anyway, Bitcoins can still be used for other purposes, where you won’t need to declare your identity. Let’s take advantage of them, while they are still here. It’s a great and comfortable payment method, but you need to know where to use it.