Five years is an eternity on the scale of the internet and cryptocurrencies. Since the launch of Cloudbet a bitcoin games and betting site, the landscape has changed. One thing has been constant though, the presence of the community.
To celebrate five years at the forefront of the bitcoin game, let's take a look at the crucial role of community feedback and feedback in developing a platform that accepts cryptographic payments. To highlight this contribution, Cloudbet also announced a special anniversary promotion.
Let's see the important dates.
October 2013 - Cloudbet was born and announced on Bitcointalk
Cloudbet took its first bet in October 2013 for a value of 0.12 BTC (worth only $ 24 at the time) placed on the Korean K-League (football) ... and the bet was winning. Since then, there have been more than 6.5 million bets placed including many more winners, paid in bitcoin, thus contributing to the incredible growth of the dream of Satoshi Nakamoto the creator of Bitcoin.
Cloudbet has built a site that meets the needs of a growing number of players who appreciate the benefits of using bitcoin rather than using the fiat currency.
When Cloudbet was launched in October 2013, it was the first major site that allowed users to bet on sports with bitcoin. The site then works to fill the bookmakers' gaps by exploiting the power of bitcoin in an intuitive platform, declaring that it wants to build "the easiest way to bet with bitcoin".
At the time, a BTC was only sold at 200 dollars and the awareness of the enormous potential of cryptocurrencies was limited to the first users. Understanding the popular nature of Bitcoin (the founder of Cloudbet was inspired by Satoshi's white paper to build a payment engine), members of the small start-up unanimously agreed that the only way to get a Significant visibility and significant product feedback was to announce Cloudbet in the most active community of crypto-pheres, bitcointalk.org.
On the morning of November 13, 2013, Cloudbet posted an ad on Bitcointalk and immediately began to receive friendly but cautious responses, which may be representative of the community as a whole. Ideas are welcome, but trust must be won, and Cloudbet has begun to participate in the discussion, which now counts 267 pages and more than 5,000 messages.
November 2013 - Adjusting the limits
With experience in professional betting, the Cloudbet team understands the importance of offering significant betting limits - traditional bookmakers regularly limit, or even close, the accounts of successful bettors - that's why from the beginning the maximum bets were set at 50BTC, but at a time when the price was fluctuating so much that minimum limits had been set for small players.
Therefore, after the feedback from the players, the minimum bet limits have been adjusted 0.001BTC for most events. This is still the case today, but exceptionally high maximum limits have been maintained, as at the 2018 World Cup where the site accepted bets of 100 BTC for the final. The same goes for the casino where the hand on the gaming tables can go up to 5 BTC.
November 2013 - Instant withdrawals
As a crypto sportsbook and casino, Cloudbet is completely free from third-party payment providers and the inevitable delays in processing, and this has been taken into account from the outset. Just months after the launch of Cloudbet, the majority of withdrawals were automated and since then 90% of withdrawals have been processed instantly. The larger amounts are still processed manually, which, as rightly pointed out by Bitcointalk members, is frustrating, but this is done because of ensuring that the game is done responsibly, which means that the platform should check, on occasion, the activity of certain players.
January 2014 Rewarding our first players
After focusing on the critical aspects of its services, such as limits, markets, and payment processing, Cloudbet began to earn a loyal customer base. In order to reward these early adopters and attract a wider audience, Cloudbet has introduced a 100% first deposit bonus - up to 5BTC - which has been applied retroactively to existing customers.
The Welcome Bonus was to be a short promotion, but it is still available today, although active players can expect a wider range of ongoing incentives in sports betting and casinos.
February 2014 - Launch of Cloudbet Live Casino
Although the original idea was to be home to sports betting in bitcoin, it soon became clear that users wanted other ways to play. Thus, with the launch of the live casino, users could finally play with or against other players.
Each month, new games are added, including an expansion of the line of slot machines. The casino saw a number of successful players, the most impressive of which was the record of a 160 BTC winner!
May 2014 - Confidence and security
It had to be shown that the funds held by Cloudbet were secure, so it was decided that Cloudbet would offer cold wallet as a standard. If you're not sure what that means, let's say in a nutshell, all crypto-funds are kept offline - except those required to honor withdrawals - where they are impossible to reach for hackers. And this has been done since the first day.
Although cold storage was a good start, community feedback prompted the introduction of two-factor authentication (2FA) in May 2014. Largely available through the Google Authenticator app, this added security gives users a second level of authentication, to secure your Cloudbet account.
Security remained a key issue, and as recently as June 2018, further steps were taken to make the accounts even safer by adding SMS verification. By registering your phone number on your account, you get an extra level of security.
July 2014 - Live betting for the World Cup
It's not enough to be a bitcoin bookmaker, and without a great betting product, the benefits of crypto make no sense. The biggest development in the betting industry over the last decade has been live betting, so from the very beginning Cloudbet has focused on offering as much as possible a wide choice live markets. It started at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and has been growing every year since.
January 2017 - The first stages of localization
Although bitcoin has a proven track record as a global currency, it has become urgent to translate the site into many languages. That's why, in January 2017, the Korean and Indonesian version was launched. Then come Turkish, Chinese and Russian. More languages will come in the coming months.
April 2018 - Bitcoin Cash & Fork
The world of crypto gaming is almost unrecognizable since the announcement of the launch of the site in 2013. That's why the site has added Bitcoin Cash as the first altcoin in April 2018, the announcement was made exclusively on Bitcointalk. Note that Bitcoin Cash is not converted to Bitcoin to avoid additional costs to players. Players can deposit, bet and withdraw Bitcoin Cash in the same manner as bitcoin.
Introducing a new currency might seem enough. But the site has done more by honoring the fork of Bitcoin Cash. Thus, each player with Bitcoin during the fork that led to Bitcoin Cash, was credited his account the corresponding amount BTC => BCH. The addition of Bitcoin Cash has proven to be a popular choice, with more than 11,000 BCH paid in earnings since its launch.
May 2018 - More than just a bitcoin betting site
Cloudbet has come a long way over the last five years, but as this activity is based on cryptocurrency, progress also testifies to the resilience of cryptocurrency No. 1 Bitcoin. In order to talk about Cloudbet's intrinsic connection with the Bitcoin movement, a blog was created in May 2018. In it, there will be a plea for cryptocurrency, complete guides on sports betting and games. casino as well as the place to learn the basic types of bets up to the complexity of progressive betting strategies.
Errors can be made
There are things the community wants to do. Sometimes withdrawals can be delayed and support has not always been up to snuff. But another dedicated office has been opened so that we can respond to requests as quickly as possible, regardless of the time zone.
Thanks to early improvements and feedback from the early adopter community, membership growth appears to be on the rise despite a difficult year for bitcoin.
What does the future hold?
From 2013 to 2018, five years is an eternity in crypto, so it is difficult to know for sure what the future holds, but it is certain that crypto-currencies will go towards adoption. For this reason, Cloudbet plans to add new crypto-currencies, reorganize the site and improve the player experience, but above all, listen to what the community wants and progress on the fledgling crypto industry wave. -monnaies.
What do you think of Cloudbet? Do other sites benefit from significant input from the community? Tell us with a comment.