Betting projects on the blockchain - new hype or future?
Background storyAfter spending some time in London this week, particularly at the
Blockchainweek conference it seems to me the new hype in the cryptoworld is
Betting/Gambling.
We've seen some gambling projects in the
Q3-Q4 of 2017 mainly based on the concept of lotteries, dice games and online casinos:
I've picked out the once who implemented their own token into a betting platform, however except for Funfair, based on market cap, none of the gambling coins
are doing so well.
New Hype?It's not a coincidence that there were
two Blockchain-based betting projects who pitched their vision at one of the biggest Blockchain conferences in
London.
After doing some more research on the web - Coinschedule upcoming ICO's, Medium and general google search I've found alot of listed projects.
Google
search trend analysis on the term "blockchain betting" also showed peak interest.
I've produced a list of betting projects with
live or
upcoming tokensales:
Further researchInvestors interest- Size of the gambling/betting market is over 3 trillion dollars
- It has a proven business model
- The current conventional betting system has many flaws - summed up in a detailed blog post I found
Technological benefits of the blockchain- Security preventing the manipulation of bets
- Transaction ease of platforms like Ethereum
- No regulations to date, because no "real (fiat) currency" is used in the betting process
- Betting licenses are not applicable (to date)
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After reading the whitepapers of the listed ICOs I've found the following red flags and thoughts I'd like to discuss here:
1. Small bets and gas price - Many projects aim at the social betting market. If the majority of people places small bets (<20$), will the gas price of the transaction be too high?
2. Transaction speed - This is a problem especially with live eSports bets. Is the transaction speed of platforms like Ethereum fast enough to place bets within seconds?
3. Truly decentralized? - Alot of the projects claim to be fully decentralized, however provide the result validation through a third-party. Does this open up space for result manipulation?
4. Legality and regulations - I have no judicial background, but I'd like to know more about the legal standpoint of this, how soon can we expect regulators targeting these projects?
