bcgames

BC.GAME Receives License from Curacao

Fast-rising crypto-first gaming operator BC.GAME has recently checked off a huge milestone in its quest for expansion. The operator now has a gambling license and is now one of the very few officially regulated crypto-powered iGaming platforms. This license is from the jurisdiction of Curacao.

Anyone who has been paying even slight attention to the gambling sector will be familiar with Curacao. Officially referred to as the Curacao Interactive Licensing N.V. (CIL), it is one of the leading and most popular casino gambling licenses. Lots of operators often apply to be licensed and regulated by the body. Players trust its license thanks to the great reputation it has as a third-party regulatory body. It is best known for having a trustworthy, responsible, and stringent but fair licensing protocol.

Since BC.GAME now has a license from Curacao, it is safe to say that the company has proven that it adheres to all the rules and complies with all of Curacao’s applicable gambling regulations. This put the gambling operator in a unique position. First, the license further strengthens its beliefs and mission to provide outstanding security features. It also further affirms the company’s plans to deliver an optimal and provably fair gambling experience to the users.

“We have achieved a huge milestone by getting our gaming license and we are very optimistic about the future. Our new status as a regulated online casino allows us to offer 1000s of third-party games from the world’s top online casino slots and game providers. The gaming license means that we can also run a sportsbook and host live dealer games as well. We couldn’t be more excited.”

Chris Butler, the BC.GAME COO.

The license has been published on the Interplanetary File System (IPFS).

Huge Leap Forward for Crypto Gambling

While there has been massive growth in the crypto and gambling spaces, iGaming platforms that solely rely on digital currencies have found lots of difficulties when it comes to getting licenses. That said, BC.GAME’s achievement in this regard creates represents a lot of new enthusiasm for the future of the sector.

BC.GAME currently supports over 50 cryptocurrencies. Most of the other operators do not support that many digital currencies for either deposits or withdrawals. We should probably see more influx in terms of online casinos that get licenses from regulators across the globe. Moreover, this is an indication that more and more people are now warming up digital currencies.

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Crypto.com To Sponsor Formula 1’s New Sprint Races

Renowned international racing auto racing organization Formula 1 has become one of the latest entities to partner with the crypto industry. This is thanks to a multi-million-dollar deal between the organization and Crypto.com which is one of the fastest-growing crypto platforms in existence.

As per the terms of the partnership agreement, Crypto.com will now be able to enjoy a significant amount of brand presence around Formula 1 events. This will begin with the new Spring qualifying format that Formula 1 will be using to determine the starting positions of cars in some of its races.

Speaking on the new development, a spokesperson from Formula 1 said that they are very excited about the partnership. Crypto.com’s reputation as a leading crypto platform across the globe certainly opens doors for new ways of fan engagement. F1 director of commercial partnerships Ben Pincus has also confirmed that cryptocurrencies are “an area we are very interested in.”

All the Sprint races will go down in three rounds of the championship in 2021. After its launch at Silverstone, more events will likely head to Monza after which the next location will be selected. There is speculation that this could be either Interlagos in Brazil or the Circuit of the Americas in the USA

NFTs Coming to Formula 1

The idea that one of the biggest racing organizations will now be associated with the crypto industry is very exciting, to say the least. What is even more exciting is the fact that some arguably newer crypto technologies such as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) will be a part of the deal.

“As F1 continues to explore new ways for fans to engage and become more immersed in the sport, Crypto.com will also become the Official Cryptocurrency Sponsor and NFT Partner of F1. Mirroring the fan-first approach F1 has adopted to engage with new audiences, Crypto.com aims to democratize the world of cryptocurrency for fans, through education and experiences in the new partnership.”

To kick things off, Crypto.com will be presenting a brand-new award. This is yet to be announced but we expect some news on it ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.

All in all, this is a great step forward for the world of digital currencies. The sector is still fundamentally considered to be complicated. Thanks to such partnerships as the one between Crypto.com and Formula 1 we can expect even more growth. It is going to be very exciting to see how this partnership pans out going forward.

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Update: Atari Crypto Casino Finally Launches with Virtual Party

Last Thursday, renowned Japanese video game company Atari followed through with its plans to launch a cryptocurrency casino. This was through a virtual launch party that was hosted in Decentraland. Needless to say, the launch was a pretty huge milestone for the company as it doubles down on its efforts to become a huge player in the world of crypto gaming.

One of the biggest highlights of the launch event was the amazing performance of Dillion Francis, one of the world’s most popular DJs, record produces, and accomplished electronic musicians. He performed a DJ set via a live stream in the Casino Quarter of Vegas City on Decentraland. Atari was so impressed with this performance that they have gone on to say that it broke every record for a launch party.

The NFT Sale

Dillion Francis was one of the people that were behind the special non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that were auctioned off during the launch event. For that, the DJ and musician teamed up with MERDA, a popular visual artist. They then created three amazing NFT’s all of which were inspired by Gerald the Pinata

Dillon’s and MERDA’s NFTs were auctioned off on OpenSea and other platforms during Atari’s launch party. One of them featured a “3D Pixel Gerald,” and it sold for 6.42 ether (ETH) – this is the equivalent of $17,788 as of the time of this writing. Also worth noting is that the launch party began with a doubled prize pool which then brought the total prize pool for the launch to a whopping $20,000.

More to Come

Atari also recently announced plans for the formation of a blockchain division known as the Atari Blockchain. This move further solidifies the company’s venture into the world of crypto. Likely, the move will also nudge other companies to work towards similar initiatives.

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Atari Crypto Casino Coming in 2021

In March, renowned video game developer Atari announced that it has plans to launch a crypto casino. Known as Atari Casino, the new crypto casino would allow users to enjoy playing the company’s iconic gaming titles such as Pac-Man, Pong, Space Invaders, and Asteroids among others using digital currencies like Bitcoin. While the game developer is yet to provide any information regarding a specific launch date, it is anticipated that the launch could be as early as May or even April depending on various factors.

Still, this is a very exciting move for Atari. Last year in October, the company launched its first digital currency. This was shortly followed by the announcement of its plans to join the Ethereum virtual reality game Sandbox. Needless to say, these were the first indicators of Atari’s growing interest in expanding its presence in the crypto space. It is safe to say, an Atari-owned crypto-based gaming site was inevitable.

Lucrative Collaboration

For this venture, Atari partnered with Decentral Games on the Ethereum blockchain. The two partners have been working on several Atari-themed games as well as Atari non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – players will be able to leverage the latter to earn more digital currency. NFTs have grown very popular over the past several months and it is not surprising to see that big brands such as Atari are trying to capitalize on it.

Atari Casino will be based in “Vegas City” which is a gaming district in Decentraland, the Decentral Game’s metaverse. For anyone who is not familiar with the concept, Decentraland is simply a virtual world where visitors can visit using their avatars.

“By combining our expertise in building crypto casinos with Atari’s decades of experience in developing video games, we are excited for our community to immerse themselves in an innovative and new gaming experience,” Decentral Games’ statement read.

Some of the amazing things that players can look forward to on Atari Casino include games of luck as well as several titles that require both skill and luck. Anyone familiar with Atari’s classic offerings will be very happy with the nostalgia-inducing games that will be available on the platform.

High Hopes

According to the joint statement from Atari and Decentral Games, they expect to see bets of up to $150 million in 2021. This is further expected to rise to a whopping $400 million over two years. These are some pretty ambitious projections but they are pretty confident in being able to pull it off. For now, we will just have to wait and see how it all plays out.

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India’s Parliament Proposes Crypto Ban

Last week, news broke of a proposal by the Indian parliament to ban what they termed as “private” cryptocurrencies. Now, crypto has always been on the sights of several governments around the world but not a lot has been done to threaten the sector in most jurisdictions. India is, on the other hand, a little different hence the attention.

As it stands, the country’s ruling party has control over both houses of Parliament which implies that there is a huge possibility that the proposed bill could become law. Known as the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021, the new proposal seeks to outlaw the use of crypto in India.

However, this does not mean that India will be completely cutting ties with crypto. Instead of the so-called “private” cryptocurrencies, the Indian government will be shifting its focus to providing a framework for creating an official digital currency. This will be overseen by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which will not only distribute the currency but also regulate it.

The Industry Reacts

This is not the first time that India has made controversial proposals with regards to the crypto sector and, as expected, the move has generated some buzz. Both local and international crypto investors have already weighed in on the issue.

To begin with, many members of the crypto industry have been very open to the idea of the government developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). This not only affirms the strength of crypto as a worthy replacement of fiat currency.

However, crypto stakeholders are not too happy about the plans by the country’s parliament to term certain digital currencies as “private”. In essence, any cryptocurrency that is not sovereign, including bitcoin, may be prohibited.

It is worth noting that, as it stands, there is no certainty about which specific digital currencies will be affected. This is because the government is also considering some unspecified exceptions in a bid to promote the underlying blockchain technology.

“The digital currency bill to be introduced in the Lok Sabha is a welcome step. Its success will depend on the details, particularly the definition of what the bill calls ‘private cryptocurrencies’. This is not a common term. Bitcoin is not privately owned by anyone. It is a public good, like the internet,” said Rahul Pagdipati, CEO of ZebPay.

A consensus among industry stakeholders is that these crypto-assets and the government’s digital currency are more than capable of coexisting. Hopefully, more consultations will be conducted to ensure that the new laws can adopt a more forward-looking approach.

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Cloudbet Unveils New Suite of Games Under Arcade Tab

Renowned crypto-firsts online betting platform Cloudbet has had a pretty busy 2020. The operator has over the past year been able to launch several new and innovative products all of which were heartily welcome by its massive customer base. However, that is not all that the company. To round up the year and give its customers a gift to bring to 2021, Cloudbet has recently unveiled a suite of exciting, provably fair games. All of these titles are now available under the newly-created Arcade tab on the operator’s website.

One of the things that Cloudbet is popular for is the outstanding quality of the games that it offers its customers. The same applies to its new selection of provably fair arcade games which will include some amazing titles like Aviator, Mines, Dice, and Plinko.

Already these games are getting a lot of attention from crypto and arcade game enthusiasts. Most people within the crypto community will probably already be familiar with the particularly because they are all timeless favorites that have received praise from the crypto community since their launch a little over ten years ago. For instance, Aviator is just an updated taken on the classic crypto game Crash – if you loved this game then you will probably really enjoy Aviator.

A Long Time Coming

As it turns out, the launch of the new arcade games is partly in response to customer feedback – apparently lots of people had been looking forward to the return of these arcade games. According to one of Cloudbet’s spokespeople, their customers had been asking for the inclusion of class crypto games that were available elsewhere.

The move is therefore not too surprising especially considering that the company has said time and time again that it is very committed to bringing in content and features that matter to its customers. As a result, the crypto-powered iGaming platform has been able to grow big enough that it is now considered to be the ultimate one-stop-shop for those looking for an amazing experience while playing their favorite crypto games.

More Developments

In addition to bringing several new features such as better sports odds and a state-of-the-art betting platform, Cloudbet has also been extending its reach in the crypto space. In 2020, the company added a record six digital currencies to its portfolio. This brings the total number of currencies currently supported by the platform to a 9 and summed up, this accounts for nearly 80 percent of the total market capitalization of all digital currencies.

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Hamster-Powered Marble Races Come to Ethereum

Crypto gambling continues to grow thanks to several innovative developments that have been causing quite a stir in the gambling industry. We have already seen lots of amazing innovations but, as it turns out, there is so much more to come. The latest development in the sector has come in the form of a new model of gaming.

Referred to as “Mia & the Marbles” the new model of gambling that is now available on Ethereum has been in development for over two years. It is a pretty ambitious project that has the potential to shake up the crypto gambling sector in many ways.

How Does It Work?

Mia & the Marbles (M&M) is powered by Mia, a female Djungarian or “winter white dwarf” hamster, and her trusty hamster wheel. With the help of a group of accomplished developers, Mia and her wheel make some very fun and engaging marble races possible. The result is a very unique and surprisingly robust marble-racing and wagering platform.

Needless to say, this is a rather unusual form of gambling but it is implementation has proven that there is indeed room for such extraordinary ideas. Speaking on the project, the developers behind Mia & the Marbles affirmed that participants can rest assured that they will be treated to all the benefits that come with Ethereum. That is, all the marble races are provably fair, provably live, and easily-verifiable.

“We can guarantee that the races are taking place in real-time and are not pre-recorded. We do this with our provably live video stream that shows the first 8 bits of the current Ethereum blockhash physically on the race track with 8 movable pegs. A high peg stands for a 1, a low peg for a 0.”

Also integrated into the new model of gambling is a compensation service. This has been put in place to sort out any races where accurate results cannot be introduced after two days.

More to Come?

Many ambitious projects are currently being pursued in the crypto gambling space but, as expected, not many of them see the light of day. The M&M project’s success is, however, proof that with the right kind of push, just about anything is possible. Even though the form of gambling the new game introduces stands out quite a bit for being unusual, the strong push for fair gambling was certainly bound to turn some heads.

That said, there are lots of opportunities in the online gambling and crypto sectors which means that M&M is probably just the beginning of even more launches.

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Cloudbet Now Allows Betting with Gold

Pioneering crypto casino and sportsbook Cloudbet has been known for pushing some of the biggest developments in the crypto betting industry. The company has been working very hard to push its business forward and in mid-October, it debuted yet another significant feature that has sent ripples through the sector. Cloudbet customers will are now able to bet online with gold.

Pax Gold otherwise referred to as PAXG, will be one of the many forms of payment that will be available to the platform’s users. Every unit of PAXG is backed by one fine troy ounce of a gold bar. The physical gold assets are in this case held in custody by the Paxos Trust Company. For many people, this makes the gambling platform more attractive since the virtual currencies in use are tied to physical assets and are therefore inherently more stable.

The historical decision to allow crypto users to bet using gold is, without a doubt, a very unique milestone for the evolution of the crypto sector especially with regards to the tokenization of physical assets. This simply means that gold has been made divisible, tradeable, and much easier to exchange on the online space thanks to smart contracts and blockchain technology.

According to a spokesperson from Cloudbet, this decision is definitely customer-centered in as much as it is also going to benefit the company significantly. The goal is to allow their users to “express their spending habits through the assets they choose to hold, rather than having to use currencies to which they hold no philosophical or economic attachments.”

The Stablecoin Revolution

PAXG is not the only stablecoin that Cloudbet customers have access to. The online gambling platform has already integrated USD Tether and USD Coin which are by far the most popular stablecoins on the planet at the moment. Clearly, Cloudbet is going all-in on when it comes to these rather special virtual currencies.

The reason for this is pretty simple. As hinted earlier, while stablecoins also offer all the best traits of cryptocurrencies, they are most popular because they are tied to physical assets or fiat currency. This makes them a much safer bet for just about anyone. Newbies are more likely to trust these than opt for other forms of cryptocurrency that are infamously volatile.

All in all, since they are the fastest-growing types of digital currencies at the moment, it will not be too surprising to see Cloudbet and other iGaming operators integrate even newer stablecoins in the near future.

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The Rise of Crypto Online Casinos During the Lockdown

The online gambling sector is already a pretty big deal with its value expected to rise to a whopping $125 billion by 2025. Needless to say, these are some pretty huge figures but considering all of the developments that have been going on in the sector, it is hard to dismiss these claims. If there is a time where online gambling showed its might it is during the lockdowns and shutdowns that followed the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe.

The gambling sector is pretty huge but nearly all sectors saw tremendous plunges in revenues and operation. Online gambling, on the other hand, actually rose quite significantly. An uptick in iGaming traffic was expected but no one would have imagined that would to the extents that we have witnessed.

As always, crypto and blockchain are playing a huge role in this transition. Innovation is an important aspect of the sector’s growth and one of the areas where we have seen some of the most developments is in the utilization of digital currencies and related technologies.

One of the things that have been key to the developments in the sector is the concept of the casino of the future. The pandemic and all of its impacts have fast-tracked a number of things. Now, rather than just thinking about the casino of the future, we are pondering over what gambling and entertainment will look like post-COVID-19.

Decentraland and Post-COVID Gambling

There are tons of ways that crypto has been used in casinos but perhaps the most exciting development as of this writing is the emergence of Decentraland which is essentially a crypto-centric version of Second Life. It is the very first Ethereum-powered space that is a fully user-owned virtual habitat where the currency used is referred to as non-fungible token (NFT).

This very ambitious project stands particularly because it exists in perpetuity. This means that it cannot be shut down and since it is virtual, it cannot be impacted directly by such things as pandemics. In fact, the virtual habitat already has space for all things casinos and entertainment. Crypto Valley, its large virtual business district has a casino and even virtual conference facilities that are working exceptionally well despite the project is just beginning to catch our attention.

Everything is divided into quarters in Decentraland and each serves a purpose. Speaking on the development, the masterminds behind this innovative venture pointed out how “each quarter presents a different context for gaming, from the out and out glitz of the Casino Quarter, to sophisticated gaming rooms with Las Vegas-style stage shows in the Entertainment Quarter.”

Clearly, the casino of the future is going to be a very fun place to go to, and maybe it might arrive sooner than we expected.

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Binance Partners with Swipe for Crypto Card

The crypto community has welcomed great thanks to a new move by Binance that will make crypto payments much easier and more familiar than ever before. Thanks to the partnership between the huge crypto exchange and Swipe, users of digital currencies may soon be able to use a crypto credit card for their payments.

Rumors of a potential partnership between Binance and Swipe have been floating around for quite some time. It was initially anticipated that Binance was planning to buy a majority stake in the crypto startup. While the page that details the partnership has since been taken down, there is enough evidence suggesting that Binance is well on its ways in disrupting the payment card ecosystem.

The first time that Binance unveiled its crypto debit card was back in March. According to the company, the move was meant to give crypto users a fiat gateway through which they pay for goods and services. The hype seemed to have cooled off but that is perhaps because the company was working on getting a partner to push that particular project to even greater heights.

Thankfully, the goal of the crypto card is not just to cater to existing crypto users – it is also quite easy to see that it is geared towards appealing to non-crypto users as well. The card has been advertised as being very similar to other bank-issued cards which means that it will certainly be just as easier to use. Moreover, preregistration for the card cost as a little as $15 which may have been quite the incentive for more adoption of crypto.

The Rise of Crypto Cards

Crypto card usage is not even close to peaking, at least not yet. This is very understandable considering the massive interest that both individuals and companies have shown towards crypto. Even PayPal has reportedly been considering direct sales of crypto and Visa may also be pursuing similar ambitions. These alone are enough to prove that perhaps its time to take crypto to the next level. That said, crypto cards are going to be a huge part of the next phase of the payments revolution.

We can, however, not overlook the issues that have already cropped up in the space. For instance, crypto debit cards that were issued by Wirecard stopped working after the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) suspended Wirecard Card Solutions (WCS. This is a very big deal especially because of the picture it paints of the gaming industry. Still, it is a great opportunity for the industry to learn and find ways to ensure more reliability. Maybe that is why Binance is so cautious about its next move.