BitStarz is a crypto-based online casino and this time they are celebrating a win by one of their players who managed to bag $80,000 which comes at a great time during the festive season. This far the cash outs at this casino are in their millions after a good number of their members have walked away with dozens of Bitcoins in the last couple of months. A while back another winner walked away with a fortune after winning on the 5 Mariachis by Habanero. With this, it is clear that crypto and bitcoin slots are making plenty of winners in the crypto casinos. 

Rainforest Riches

This time the winner was not realized from a popular slot, but this win will definitely contribute to the popularity of the slot. Jungle Rumble is a 5-reel, 25 payline slot with a great bonus feature. The slot is also developed by habanero. Playing the slot will bring you great happiness and makes it easy for you to rock the reels with ease and you will be winning in no time. 

The wins in the slots are plenty, and recently a punter walked away with a great Christmas present of $80,000, and this is considered as one of the world’s leading virtual tokens. 

A great year-long ride

Without a doubt, BitStarz has had a lucrative year where it featured some unique promotions ever served on the platform. With 2019 starting, the management believes that they will have better growth where they plan to have game-changing offers and a whole lot of jackpots. 

The payout range in 2018 was $45,000 to a massive $300,000, and this is a clear indicator that the time to place wagers in Bitcoins is now. 

Putting the best foot forward for 2019

BitStarz being one of the best leading innovators in the world of cryptocurrency wagering is proud to distance itself from just being referred to as ‘just another online casino.’ After they won their nominations for CRM Campaign of the Year and Innovation in Casino at the EGR Awards, they have advanced their payment offering by adding Dogecoin and Ethereum. At a later date, they also added banking solutions like Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.

What other payment methods did we have before Cryptocurrencies?

Before we had cryptocurrencies, online casinos allowed the use of other banking options and they are still available to date. You will notice that some online casinos will also offer these banking methods along with the cryptocurrencies. 

The traditional payment methods you will find in casinos include digital wallets like Neteller, Skrill, PayPal, and PaySafeCard, among others. There are also bank cards which include American Express, Maestro, MasterCard, and Visa. 

All in all, we must admit that cryptocurrencies are convenient to use in online casinos as they are safer. With the cryptocurrencies, you will be able to make payments anonymously without risking your personal or financial information.

According to some gambling reports, it is believed that cryptocurrencies were first applied to the gambling industry. The anonymity associated with blockchain technology is one of the most appealing factors to online punters. Among the top currencies Bitcoin is the leader in market capitalization followed closely by Ethereum and Ripple. Bitcoin Cash is in fourth place after it received it’s upgrade at the beginning of 2018. 

Why are they going for Bitcoin Cash?

The reason a lot of people are going for BCH is because it has a lot more functionalities compared to other cryptocurrencies. One of the main improvements was the increase of the block sixe to an amazing 32MB. There was also an increase in the OP codes which was meant to enhance the functionality. Through these advanced functionalities, BCH has already attained its premier atomic bet. These and many more elements are the reasons that bettors are switching to BCH. 

Jonas Odman who is popular in the world of online gambling has termed BCH as the Neteller for online poker players. Odman pointed out that we will be seeing more functionalities being incorporated in BCH especially because it is much cheaper and offers fast cashouts. Neteller is a popular platform that has favoured merchants to offer money transfers electronically. 

Through Bitpay we will see BCH being added into a lot of poker sites and more players going for Bitcoin poker. It is believed by a lot of stake holders in the industry that cryptocurrencies will be game changers in the market. The poker industry is large in size and having more players to embrace it will assist a great deal in helping it grow. The community is getting bigger and there are hopes of getting more and more merchants to use BCH. 

The used of cryptocurrencies as a form of electronic money transfer in online poker sites has seen more and more platforms coming up.  Some of them are purely accepting payments through cryptocurrencies. With such platforms, you will hardly go through some of the verification process we find in other online platforms.  

Cryptocurrencies have brought about the blockchain technology and this has also been embraced by the poker industry. This is the reason we have seen the rise of blockchain poker tournaments. One such tournament will be held in October at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas where the inaugural World Crypto Conference will be held. 

Using crypto currencies for a lot of punters is seen as a great and convenient way to launch a profitable online poker project and this includes markets where real money gambling is prohibited. Bitcoin and other crypto currencies are not regulated and become the best methods in making payments in online gambling platforms. 

2018 has seen the launch of a couple of crypto poker rooms that make use of the Evenbet platform and these include Bet&Bit Poker and Pokercoin. When it comes to the functions, crypto poker by Evenbet Gaming is similar to the regular online poker platform. This has a choice of cash games and tournaments, different rake sizes, jackpots and bonuses. 

Since technology is changing, this has forced the poker rooms to evolve and this has brought in the new option for having crypto currency projects. Recently, Evenbet has incorporated a bitcoin.io wallet that is secure, and fast in offering monetary transactions. This has been integrated in some of the most technological platforms that make use of Java, PHP, Ruby, Python and Node.js. These will support operations with dogecoin, litecoin and bitcoin. All these crypto coins are available at Evenbet Poker sites. 

Bodog.eu accepts Bitcoin Cash

Bodog.eu is a Canadian gambling site that has started accepting bitcoin cash. They have incorporated this with some enticing bonuses. If you choose to use bitcoin cash in funding your real money account, you will have two bonuses to choose from. The first bonus will apply to sports betting and poker where you can get as much as $500. The other one will be for the casino games where you get as much as $1500. 

Bodog is a leader in the industry and have been in operation since 1994. They have a very vibrant poker community and a Vegas style casino. They are regulated by the Antigua and Barbuda Financial Services Regulatory Commission and the casino has received a 100% certification by iTech Labs. 

The Commission issued a statement indicating that the suspension will take place between 9:30am on the 24/8 and would continue to at least 11:59am on September 7^th (Eastern Time). Currently, the shares of First Bitcoin Capital are traded on an over-the-counter basis, and up to this point were traded at $1.79 a piece (Bloomberg).

Reasons behind the suspension are that there has been concern raised over the information provided by First Bitcoin Capital, in particular the value of its assets that they claim to possess. Their website indicates that the Canadian based firm conducts numerous cryptocurrency-related business lines, one of which being a bitcoin exchange as well as a number of ATMs. They also didn’t initially respond or comment on the matter despite a request being made. (You can check out www.bitcoincasino.org to view other bitcoin related business like bitcoin casinos)

The suspension notice issued by the agency indicated that it is due to these concerns regarding the accuracy and adequacy of the information that is publicly available in relation to First Bitcoin Capital. The value of its assets and its capital structure, among other concerns caused the agency to step forward and make the suspension.

This is the second ban relating to cryptocurrency initiated by the SEC this month alone, it is previously reported by CoinDesk, that the agency also suspended shares of the CIAO Group. This is an OTC-traded firm also and this was due to concerns related to statements regarding an upcoming initial coin offering.

These two currencies are definitely the two biggest in the digital world, however other asset classes, i.e. alt coins, have similarly taken a hit also over the course of the summer. Inside the space of a month, the trade publication Coindesk reported that the overall market cap for digital currencies has fallen from $116 billion to $61 billion – the largest drop ever.

A number of days after the big drop, Bitcoin made some moves to rise slightly in value and managed to improve by a small margin. It was trading at $2000, while Ethereum was at $160.

There is no way of pinpointing the exact cause of the collapse, although commentators have remarked on the market trying to re-stabilise itself after a lot of hefty, sporadic investment recently.

Possibly due to the unresolved dispute amongst the head members of the bitcoin community over how to reform the protocol that underpins the currency, if the dispute is not resolved and dragged out any longer it could instigate a further selling of bitcoin, which would subsequently lessen other currencies with it.

The popular trading exchange, GDX (run by Coinbase), warned that this controversy could lead to the temporary suspension of bitcoin withdrawals. Which doesn’t help things in terms of instability. Further adding to the uncertainty of the currency is a recent case of “Initial coin offerings”, in other words founders blockchain companies have raised substantial amounts of bitcoin and Ethereum and then end up discarding their windfall on the market.

Ryan Selkis, a key player in the online digital currency world, has added his opinion on the manner, stating that he acknowledges the value drop in the currencies. Selkis also claims that, despite the big drop, the overall market value is still well up for the year.

The demand for Bitcoin is also expected to shoot up and see a dramatic increase in its price because only 21 million of bitcoins are meant to exist.

According to CoinDesk, a leading bitcoin portal, the price of bitcoin has tripled during this year. On December 31 last year, the price of bitcoin was $968. But on June 5, it was trading at close to $2600. The price has continued to rise with every passing week and on June 11, it hit a record price of $3,025.47.

Moas says that failing to act on Bitcoin right now would be more painful than losing any money on it and he has invested into the digital currency. Moas has invested some dollars in ethereum, litecoin, and bitcoin through Coinbase.com. In the weeks to follow, the research analyst plans to release a report of 40 pages on investing in cryptocurrencies. At the same time, he plans to invest more money on bitcoins.

Moas says that things are going to get a little hysterical in the next six months to one year because bitcoin prices are going to shoot up till they hit the bubble. He reasons that too little money is currently invested in cryptocurrencies at present, enabling them to absorb much more money without reaching saturation point.

According to an estimate from McKinsey Global Institute, the value of debts and stocks worldwide had shot up to $212 trillion back in 2010. Data released by CoinMarketCap shows how market capitalization of bitcoin, litecoin and other digital currencies has grown from $20 billion at the beginning of the year to $100 billion. In spite of this growth, it is still less than one-tenth percent of the total capital markets around the world. CoinMarketCap places the market value of bitcoin at around $42 billion.

Many Wall Street analysts feel that blockchain technology can have a major impact on how things are currently being operated. The popularity of Bitcoins in the gaming industry has also grown rapidly as there are now a number of online casinos and online poker rooms who accept bitcoins.

Poker rooms that solely accept bitcoin as their deposit option have not enjoyed the most prosperous year. At the beginning of 2015, a host of new bitcoin-only websites were preparing to launch and potentially revolutionise the online poker market completely. These included the likes of BitnPlay Poker, Get Lucky Poker and Burnturn Poker, but none managed to make themselves a success – BitnPlay has now gone offline, Burnturn Poker (which was previously Satoshi Poker) made its debut in April 2015 but is now firmly offline as well.

This bad performance was in part due to the fluctuating value of the bitcoin throughout the year, and the continuing scandals facing the bitcoin poker industry. The much publicised arrest and subsequent trial of Seals With Clubs founder Bryan Micon led to the closure of his popular site and it cast a negative shadow on the bitcoin poker industry as a whole.

Micon’s Seals With Clubs site had until this year been the only major bitcoin poker site to become a success story and garner a significant following. It had a loyal customer base, about a quarter of whom followed over to the SwC site which replaced the former Seals With Clubs. Micon’s home was raided before he left the US for Antigua. He remained there until he was persuaded to return for trial in Nevada and face charges of operating a poker site without a license. After pleading guilty to the charges levelled against him, Micon paid a fine of $25,000 and faces two years of probation in Nevada.

The scandal of Seals With Clubs no doubt affected the state of online bitcoin poker and many commentators feel that it may take some time for consumer confidence in the industry to be fully restored.

The true identity of bitcoin’s mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, has been potentially unveiled as unknown Australian businessman and academic, Craig Wright. Two of technology’s most prominent publications, Wired and Gizmodo, have each run exposés confidently claiming to unearth the founder of the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin’s origins are shrouded in enigma, as its creator used an alias to identify themselves – the pseudonym ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’. This mysterious figure first released the initial code for bitcoin on the 9th of January 2009, and since then the ground-breaking digital currency has grown from a niche interest to a something of an economic miracle, with the total value of all bitcoins believed to have reached almost $5 billion.

The media has tried many times, unsuccessfully, to discover the true identity of the bitcoin founder with several possibilities being dismissed. Gizmodo, the popular technology blog, conducted its own investigation into the beginnings of bitcoin and has claimed that all evidence points to Craig Steven Wright – a previously unheard of Australian businessman. Thanks to a series of documents that have been provided to them, Gizmodo can provide a compelling assertion that Wright was instrumental in the development of the digital currency that later swept the finance and technology worlds. Wright is a computer engineering expert and business entrepreneur based in Sydney, Australia. It is believed that he developed bitcoin along with Dave Kleiman, an American forensic computer investigator (who died in 2013).

Wright is listed on his LinkedIn website page as being the CEO of DeMorgan Ltd, a company describing itself as “focused on alternative currency, next generation banking and reputational and educational products with a focus on security and creating a simple user experience.” Subsidiaries of DeMorgan Ltd. include C01n, a Bitcoin wallet company and Coin-Exch, a Bitcoin exchange company.

It has been revealed this week that the Australian Taxation Office ordered a police raid on Wright’s residential and business property in Sydney’s suburbs of Gordon and Ryde. They’ve claimed that the raids were part of a tax investigation and unrelated to recent bitcoin reports, “the AFP can confirm it has conducted search warrants to assist the Australian Taxation Office at a residence in Gordon and a business premises in Ryde, Sydney. This matter is unrelated to recent media reporting regarding the digital currency bitcoin.”

‘Nakamoto’ is thought to control a personal wallet of bitcoins worth a nine-figure fortune, hence the taxation authority’s interest in Wright’s potential assets. Wired magazine have made several visible and credible links between Nakamoto and Wright; firstly a post on Wright’s blog in August 2008, months before the November 2008 introduction of the bitcoin paper on a cryptography mailing list, detailing his intention to release a “cryptocurrency paper”. A subsequent blog post in November 2008 requests that readers who want to get in touch with him to encrypt their messages with a PGP public key apparently linked to ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’. The most convincing piece of evidence is the the fact that Wright posted a (now deleted) blog entry on the 10th January 2009, stating “the Beta of Bitcoin is live tomorrow. This is decentralized… We try until it works”. Due to time difference, this post technically was submitted online before the launch of bitcoin at 3pm EST on the 9th of January.

A further series of leaked emails and correspondences corroborate the link between Wright and bitcoin, although the mystery is not technically solved yet. Wright has not been confirmed as the true founder of bitcoin, but commentators are fairly confident that this will turn out to be the case.

In October this year, the EU passed a new set of consumer payment protection rules, which will aim to promote the use of innovative online and digital payments. The case was brought before the European courts in an attempt to provide clarity on the use of cryptocurrencies, which are increasingly becoming used as a means to pay for everyday goods and services. The European high court has ruled that digital currencies can be exchanged tax-free in the European Union. Despite this development, there still is not a comprehensive set of rules for the use and exchange of bitcoin in the EU.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has recently called for governments to develop thorough regulation solutions for the use of cryptocurrencies. The EBA believes that bitcoin should be regulated through the development of a comprehensive framework.

Governments around the world have been struggling in recent years with how to best regulate bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency has been expanding in popularity and becoming more and more widely used.

Bitcoin is frequently used within the gambling community as the digital currency is noted for its speedy transactions and its complete anonymity. It began as an experiment but has become a legitimate form of payment, used by million of people. It has encouraged the growth of many other decentralised, peer-to-peer currencies, which do not incur any fees or charges, and do not involve banks. This becomes problematic for governments, who are unable to control the currency.

In March this year, the UK announced a series of initiatives to deal with bitcoin in a report published in conjunction with the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s annual budget speech. The announcement was the UK government’s first attempt to manage the regulatory and consumer safety issues surrounding digital currencies. The Treasury intended to consult the views of digital currency companies and the general public on the issue of bitcoin use, but there has not been much progress made by Parliament on the matter since then however.

In the USA, there have been some measures to bring bitcoin use under the the existing legal frameworks regarding money services. Changes in legislation to accommodate bitcoin are making their way to state level to be approved.

Many financial commentators have stressed the importance of regulation for bitcoin use. Consumers need to be made aware of the risks associated with digital currencies, particularly when it comes to refunds or losing money. There is a lack of specific regulations to cover bitcoin users for losses.

The Las Vegas professional poker player came to the attention of US authorities in August last year, when his website was discovered to be missing the required licensing. It was subsequently shut down and Micon was sought on a warrant in February this year, with his property searched and a small amount of Bitcoin seized. Nevada officials confirmed that Micon left for Antigua after his arrest warrant was issued.

On Tuesday 3rd November, Clark County Distrcit Court Judge Kerry Earley handed Micon his sentence, which could potentially have entailed a ten year stint in state prison as well as a $50,000 cash fine. He was instead given a more lenient verdict, with a two year probation stint which he must complete in Las Vegas. He plans to move to to Antigua when his probation is finished and take up a job in the technology office of a newspaper there.

Judge Earley had the option of giving Micon a three-year probation, but decided on two after accepting the plea of his defence attorney Richard Schonfeld, who argued that Micon had acted responsibly in relation to the charges brought against him.

Micon faces 2½ years in state prison if he violates terms of his sentence in any way. Should he complete his probation period successfully, the felony charge against him will be reduced to a lesser charge of misdemeanor.

The Seals with Clubs/Bryan Micon case is considered the first-of-its-kind; the first case dealing with bitcoin and illegal Internet gambling to arise at state-level prosecution. It is Nevada’s first illegal online gambling operation to be prosecuted since the state introduced its regulated online poker market in April 2013.

Three states currently have legalized the practice among players who log in within their state lines – Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. Philadelphia is also in the process of also adapting its gambling legislation to allow for online games.