The gambling industry is both highly profitable and highly competitive so when new technologies emerge it is usually one of the first industries to incorporate them. This was especially true in the mid 1990’s when the Internet first started to gain traction. The first online gambling sites grew swiftly in popularity with rapid innovations and fast growing user bases. Now with the invention of blockchain, casinos are some of the first business to fully utilise the potential of the technology.
In this article we take a look at the history and evolution of Blockchain Casinos.
Satoshi Dice: First Onchain Casino
The first ever onchain dice game was launched in 2012 By well known Bitcoin Bull and founder of Shapeshift Erik Voorhees. Erik sold the site in 2013 for 126,315 which at the time was worth around 11 Million US Dollars. Satoshi Dice sold shares on MPEx exchange for which holders received a monthly dividend. After its launch in 2012 it swiftly became responsible for the highest volume of bitcoin transactions across the network.
The First Blockchain Casino: Satoshi Dice
Bitcasino: First Licenced Blockchain Casino
The first Blockchain Casino with a gambling licence was Bitcasino which launched in 2014 bringing an air of respectability to the space and the full range of games found in traditional online casinos such as Slots and Table Games.
Bitcasino
Fortune Jack: MultiCurrency Crypto Casino
Not long after the launch of Bitcasino, FortuneJack launched. The first Blockchain Casino to offer the ability to gamble with multiple ryptocurrencies not just Bitcoin. Regulators had not caught up with crypto at this point and players were able to play in full anonymity with no need to register and no KYC. Whereas most online casinos have restrictions on withdrawals Fortunejack was able to offer swift withdrawals and payouts.
FortuneJack
Tronbet: Blockchain Casino Mining
Until 2018 most blockchains had been either to slow or too expensive for high volume games but Tron's speed and affordability made it perfect for gaming. Tronbet took advantage of this and was the first DApp to launch on the Tron Blockchain in October 2018. Where Tronbet stood out was the ability to mine tokens through play. These tokens when frozen earned you a percentage of the DApps daily profits paid out at the end of the day.
The model spawned hundreds of competitors and the phenomenon of first day mining where early players mine hard for the first few days/weeks while mining difficulty is low, amassing large amounts of tokens in the process and ROI'ing rapidly.
As Tronbet grew in popularity it started to incorporate sub tokens and more advanced games. In 2019 Tronbet Merged with TronAce and was acquired by the Tron Foundation. WINk was born.
Tronbet
WINk: Decentralized Wealth Redistribution
The first Blockchain Casino to put all the pieces together in a decentralized way, WINk has onchain games, two gambling licences from Curacao and Costa Rica and the ability to mine sub tokens through play. The first gaming DApp to launch on Binance's Launchpad, WINk's turnover in 2019 was over 2.8 Billion Dollars making it by far the most successful DApp in the world.
Where WINk stands apart from other Dapps and Blockchain Casinos is their ambition. They're not simply a cryptocurrency casino they plan to disrupt mainstream online gambling. Soon they will integrate the Poloniex wallet directly into the site and begin mainstream marketing. This will arguably be the first attempt outside perhaps Brave to target non crypto users and introduce them to the decentralized model.
WINk's revenue sharing model that gives players daily dividends is vastly superior for the end user and in a time of recession even more so. This has the potential to become the dominant model in the world of online gambling and if thats the case could also herald a new era for the internet.
WINK's Redesigned UI Coming Soon https://worldofwink.com/2020/04/15/blockchain-casinos-a-history/