Provably fair gambling methods: how it all works | Altcoins
Provably fair gambling methods: how it all worksTweetWe all know that by virtue of using Bitcoins there is no need for us to trust other users and merchandisers/service providers the way we used to have to trust them before; neither have they to trust us. Bitcoins seem to be gradually solving the problem of cheating, and that is why BTC gambling companies are looking for new opportunities to offer provably fair virtual gaming solutions to their players. The benefit is mutual: eventually, it becomes impossible for both gamblers and operators to cheat each other. Frankly speaking, there is one rather simple anti-cheating method that even non-Bitcoin fiat currency casinos and gambling portals can easily introduce. But, to be able to better understand it, you first have to learn more about some of it specific technical features. To begin with, you should know that during the gaming process, all of the player’s input data is converted into hash strings, i. e. sequences consisting of letters and numbers. These strings are very difficult to solve, but the solution for them can, nevertheless, be easily verified, so if, theoretically, you manage to solve one of them, you will access all the data hashed in it, or, in other words, if you have the solution you can recursively prove its correctness or wrongness. Then, there is seed, an additional string of characters that modifies the hashed data. Now, we shall take a look at how exactly provably fair gambling mechanisms are implemented on Bitcoin gaming websites. Let us take a card game like blackjack first. As we all know, in blackjack a deck of cards needs to be shuffled randomly, and our goal here is to prevent the casino from learning which card exactly it will deal to us, and not deal the card from deck bottom. Thus, in provably fair Bitcoin casinos it all starts with the website shuffling the deck in a regular manner. After that, they need to make the shuffle hash available to you. Now you have to provide a seed randomly generated in your browser in manual or automatic mode, with the condition that there is no possibility for the casino website to learn or predict it. With the help of this seed the deck can be shuffled in such a manner that neither the player nor the gambling portal is aware of the card order. In real life this is achieved by cuttingв the deck. Then, after the hand is dealt already, the card deck is revealed in its initial form, so that the player is able to check whether it was dealt in accordance with the website’s hash. Afterwards, the final deck is revealed, and this is when a player can make sure whether the changes to the deck in its initial state were really made as predefined by the seed provided by the player. If both operations result with a match, then the fairness of this particular hand is proved. The case is identical with roulette-type games which need random numbers generated constantly, whether in the background, without the necessity for you to be involved, or with the usage of outresourced software. Actually, there are two options for you to verify the fairness of such games: the first is find some additional tips and step-by-step guides if you’re good at coding and cryptographic algorithms, and the second is asking for some uninvolved reliable experts’ advice, or, if you’re not that self-confident, have them verify the outcomes for you. Which is, again, trusting some third parties, and that is exactly something we do not want to do as long as we talk about online gambling. Probably, the very concept of provably fair gambling is a bit complicated to be understood by most players, not to speak of them using it for their benefit. Actually, fairness provability mechanisms on Bitcoin gambling websites have been used for less than two years now, which means these technologies have to wait some more, so that everyone could get the understanding of how useful they are. Speaking of provably fair techniques in online sports betting, we should mention that the bookmaking websites are actually supposed to have been naturallyв provably fair all this time, as it is impossible to learn betting result in advance, the more especially as you’re going to paid the odds you’ve been promised to get. Still, there can be certain problems with betting websites not paying to winning players the promised percent of the total prize pool, as nobody but them is aware of the total bet amount. Bitcoin may become one of the solutions to such problems, as the records of all the bets made in Bitcoins are stored in the block-chain meaning any player can see how big is the prize pool and compare it to the total payout amount.
