Are web3 casinos actually decentralized?

[_act_]

Can you still play on it and bet on it if the .com domain is seized?
If the answer is yes, then it's a true Web 3.0 casino, if it's no then is just a centralized normal web2 site like the others.

Web3 was proposed in a way that it will be decentralized but actually web3 is not decentralized but centralized in this modern world. Only advantage I saw about web3 is that you can connect your wallet and make transaction with other parties. Or are those web3 not centralized? They are all centralized has been what I noticed about them. Tor which is decentralized has been existing before web3.

[stompix]

Can you still play on it and bet on it if the .com domain is seized?
If the answer is yes, then it's a true Web 3.0 casino, if it's no then is just a centralized normal web2 site like the others.

Web3 was proposed in a way that it will be decentralized but actually web3 is not decentralized but centralized in this modern world. Only advantage I saw about web3 is that you can connect your wallet and make transaction with other parties. Or are those web3 not centralized? They are all centralized has been what I noticed about them. Tor which is decentralized has been existing before web3.

Web 3 is decentralization, by definition!
The fact that some claim they have a web3 product and it turns out it's not a decentralized one, it doesn't mean the definition has changed, it just means they are liars trying to create fomo on a buzzword.

The fact that it can't be achieved in the current format by most of our websites it's pretty normal, decentralization has limits, and torrents work perfectly without a main site, but you still need a central point where those are distributed, tor works like this because it's a simple tool that doesn't need anything else just pass information from one point to another, with casinos you will need people to add games, people to maintain odds, people to be in charge of payment wallets, each one is a point of centralization and that is not doable right now.

[Oluwa-btc]

If it was before, I think that web3 casinos can offer non KYC service than web2 casinos. But when I am reading some people's post, they talked that web3 casinos are decentralized in a way that the gamblers will be in control of their coins using a noncustodial wallet. But according to how I know about web3 gambling sites, they operate in a way that once the gamblers connect their wallet and make payment, the gambling site is in control of the money. Which means no gambling site to be decentralized as the gambling site and the money is controlled by the gambling site owners and not any other parties involved that can make them decentralized. Am I wrong? J think many of us do not know what decentralization is.

I think we need to define what's web3 again because some casinos doesn't know what's even difference between web3 and web2. A real web3 casino wouldn't take funds completely out of your account, every data will be recorded on their end while your wallet execute every transactions which are also recorded on the blockchain you are using. Some wana he web3 wallets prefer you send funds from your wallet to their casino so you can do everything there while they control the money.

There are real web3 casino that operate effectively and everything they do is what web3 looks like but I fear that such casino wouldn't last because of regulation, they will not get license and approval to operate if they don't do KYC and will likely get attack for money laundering by law enforcement. They are really good for some privacy and decentralized to some degree but the government wouldn't let you have peace of mind.

Even as though,there're several differences that keeps them apart and the level of decentralization varies completely.Ordinarily, Web3 was designed to be a decentralized by nature, meanwhile Web3 also aims to decentralize data but not entirely and that's the much more differences between it over web2.

[libert19]

...up and until today, many will still argue that exchanges like etherdelta and forkdelta, idex were decentralized exchanges, of course they were not, they only had a privacy interface where you don't need to input any of your personal information to sign up, simply connect your wallet and that's it.

Etherdelta/Forkdelta were decentralized because funds were held by a smart contract and this SC will live on as long as Ethereum blockchain is to live and even if their frontend were to go down, you can make use of their smart contact and withdraw your funds/or do other functions (I did withdraw using their SC when Etherdelta frontend was compromised, this happened years back).

Etherdelta/Forkdelta are no longer functioning but SC lives on.

[Ziskinberg]

What people really look for in a decentralized platform is that it doesn’t require KYC. But it seems not all Web3 casinos are truly no-KYC, since they work with game providers that require the casino to have a license, so they don’t run into legal issues. So even if the process is decentralized, without no-KYC, it still won’t attract those who really want full privacy.

[God Of Thunder]

If it was before, I think that web3 casinos can offer non KYC service than web2 casinos. But when I am reading some people's post, they talked that web3 casinos are decentralized in a way that the gamblers will be in control of their coins using a noncustodial wallet. But according to how I know about web3 gambling sites, they operate in a way that once the gamblers connect their wallet and make payment, the gambling site is in control of the money. Which means no gambling site to be decentralized as the gambling site and the money is controlled by the gambling site owners and not any other parties involved that can make them decentralized. Am I wrong? J think many of us do not know what decentralization is.

Well, there are two types of Web3 casinos. First, you must connect the wallet and transfer the funds to your casino wallet. This is not the real Web3 platform. You cannot control the funds once you transfer them. These are centralized casinos, even though they are web3 casinos. The other type is that you have to connect your wallet and give some permissions, but the funds won't be transferred. You will be able to gamble on the platform, and you can disconnect your wallet anytime you want (If I am not wrong). These are real web3 casinos. But I don't remember seeing such a platform yet. I think I have seen a comment like "Metawin is not a real web3 casino," and that leads me to think, why?

[lionheart78]

Web3 based services aimed to be decentralized but most failed to deliver because somewhere on the process, the service still relies to a centralized point.  Like when an application is built on top of the web3, they still retains the centralized authority.  So we can say that web3 casinos are partially decentralized like what this article stated: Is Web3 Gaming Really Decentralized?

Justt like the key takeaways of the said article:

In brief
Definition: web3 gaming relies on blockchain to offer transparency, digital ownership, and removal of intermediaries.
Actual level: some games like Illuvium or Decentraland embody decentralization through asset ownership and community governance.
Limits: many games retain centralized elements (hosting, marketplaces, game data).
Challenges: scalability, usability complexity, economic concentration, and technical adoption hinder the promise of decentralization.
Future: complete decentralization will require more efficient infrastructures and fairer governance.

This includes web3 casinos, although we can connect our wallet on the platform, we still need to log in to a centralized platform hosted by the casino.  I believe it will take some time to see a fully functional decentralized gambling casino since it was stated in this another article titled: A New Year Lesson For Web3: It's Time To Strike A Decentralization Balance that there are lots of challenges in web3 gaming as fully decentralized, one of which is the security and the possible exploit that it may encounter.

But questions about the viability of the DAO structure abounded in 2023, with weak engagement levels hampering decision-making and leaving these egalitarian structures vulnerable to attacks by organized groups of raiders.

Due to these challenges, many web3 applications faked themselves as a decentralized application but in reality, they still retain some centralization.  Aside from that, due to regulatory requirements,  those who wants to operate without worrying any liability from the law had decided to create a semi decentralized application/platform and retain centralization on the part where the data is needed by the regulatory board.

So in theory, Web3 should be a fully decentralized one but the regulatory requirement shifted them into a semi decentralized application.

[stompix]

The other type is that you have to connect your wallet and give some permissions, but the funds won't be transferred. You will be able to gamble on the platform, and you can disconnect your wallet anytime you want (If I am not wrong). These are real web3 casinos. But I don't remember seeing such a platform yet.

So the other type doesn't exist!
There is no true decentralized casino, there can't be, you need the game to run on something, you need a centralized system that will ensure the betting is fair and the games are fair, how will that be placed there and managed? You need an authority to settle the bets, that authority has to be programmed. The ones that hold the access to that are the ones in charge of everything, basically making the whole system centralized.

I think I have seen a comment like "Metawin is not a real web3 casino," and that leads me to think, why?

How can a casino owned by a company be decentralized?

[God Of Thunder]

So the other type doesn't exist!
There is no true decentralized casino, there can't be, you need the game to run on something, you need a centralized system that will ensure the betting is fair and the games are fair, how will that be placed there and managed? You need an authority to settle the bets, that authority has to be programmed. The ones that hold the access to that are the ones in charge of everything, basically making the whole system centralized.

Yeah, as I said, I don't remember seeing such a platform yet, so I assume this type of platform does not exist. What about decentralized exchanges? These exchanges need workers to provide support and sometimes proceed with the swap when a swap gets stuck. In one sense, these are kind of centralized as well, but these platforms are not entirely decentralized.

People call these casinos Web3 casinos because it is possible to create accounts using wallets and social media accounts—that's it. I don't see any other differences between regular casinos and Web3 casinos.

[stompix]

Interesting that after 69 posts the conclusion is "it can't be done." Let me push back on that.

stompix said it best in #68: "you need a centralized system that will ensure the betting is fair...you need an authority to settle the bets." That's true if your casino is a smart contract sitting on Ethereum. It's not true if the casino IS the blockchain.

What does that mean practically:

Randomness. BLS threshold signatures — every validator independently signs each block, the aggregate signature becomes the random seed. No single party knows the outcome before the block is finalized. This isn't an oracle call or a commit-reveal that the operator can front-run. It's the same cryptographic primitive that Dfinity uses, running as a native consensus module.

Settlement. The protocol settles bets. Not an admin, not a multisig, not a smart contract with an owner key. A player places a bet, the beacon produces randomness, the game engine (built into the chain's state machine) resolves and pays out. Validators enforce it the same way Bitcoin validators enforce the 21M cap.

Custody. Bankroll funds live in deterministic escrow addresses with no private key. The protocol code is the only thing that can move funds out, and only to pay verified bet outcomes. No human can "withdraw" the bankroll.

The domain question (stompix #60 — "does it work if the domain is seized?"): Yes. The chain runs on validators. The frontend is just a view layer. Anyone can run their own frontend, or interact via CLI/gRPC directly. Same as how you can use Bitcoin without bitcoin.org.

This requires a purpose-built L1. You can't bolt this onto Ethereum or Solana. We built it on Cosmos SDK — own validator set, own consensus, game logic at the protocol level.

A lot of BS for a lot of nonsense! Feed your AI some better promts!

Also, to all those people still hallucinating about a decentralized casino or sportsbook!
Who sets the bets?  Who chooses the odds? Who settles the bet?
Let's take the City Madrid game...
How does this work on a completely decentralized system?
What happens if the validators say, no, we don't consider the game was won by Madrid, the 3-0 is not the true result, we consider City to be the winner!

Haven't you had enough of Polymakret's overturned decisions?