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Provably Fair Games: Is it The Future Of Online Gaming?

Technological advancements have seen a spurt in the number of online casinos. Hot on their heels is the movement towards betting on crypto rather than fiat currency. 

Currently, industry statistics place the casino industry’s worth at $67 billion. The statistics indicate that these figures will continue to grow. Statista projects that the industry will hit the $92.9 billion mark by 2023. A significant part of this growth will emanate from provably fair games.

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So what are provably games? How do they function? What impact will they have on the online gaming industry? This article will answer all that. First off, though, let’s examine the reasons for the growth of online gambling.

Factors Contributing  To The Growth of Online Gambling

Several factors explain the rise in online gambling. The following are just a few of them.

Increased Internet Penetration

First is the proliferation of the internet. The rapid development of internet connectivity allows for uninterrupted play from anywhere across the globe.

Growth of Mobile Applications

Coupled with the increased penetration of the internet is the growth of mobile applications. These apps help bring the gaming sites and platforms to the player’s fingertips.

Acceptance of Virtual Currencies

Additionally, the increased acceptance of virtual currencies has boosted online gaming. 

Enhanced Security

The use of Blockchain technology and cryptos has enhanced the security of gamers. It is incorruptible and secure, limiting the chances of identity theft.

Convenient Transactions

Again, cryptos enable real-time transactions, a feature that many find convenient. Moreover, they allow people from different regions to avoid geo-restrictions that come with fiat currency usage.

Adoption of VR Technology

The adoption of VR technology is fuelling market growth. In contrast to legacy casinos, VR casinos offer their patrons a more immersive and realistic experience. 

Increased Competition

Also, the heightened competition between the service providers has led to innovative products and solutions for gamers. These fuel demand for their offerings.

What is Provably Fair?

Provably fairness is a process that allows gamers to verify the fairness of the online games they’re playing. To achieve this, casinos adopting blockchain technology use a provably fair algorithm. This algorithm generates an encrypted key containing the game’s result. It then sends it to the player alongside a verification key. The latter helps them to ascertain the correctness of the game at its end.

Are Provably Fair Games any Different  From Your Typical  Casino?

There are notable differences between casinos that employ the provably fair process and the regular ones.

Provably Fair Algorithm

For starters, the former uses the provably fair algorithm to stake hands. It keeps the hands in a hash that players can verify. Thanks to the algorithm, gaming sites and casinos needn’t use third-party companies. Again, they don’t require any authority’s acknowledgment as they operate on the blockchain.

Random Number Generators

On their part, regular casinos use random number generators to select the outcomes for the played hands. The players cannot verify the correctness of the hands and their trustworthiness depends on the third-party company behind them. Finally, for legal compliance, they are subject to external authority’s reviews.

How Does the Provably Fair Casino Function?

There are many ways in which you’d implement the provably fair method. In this article, we look at one of the common ones. It involves calculating outcomes using three variables: the server seed, the client seed, and the nonce.

The Server Seed

The server seed is also known as the host seed. It is that variable which the gaming or gambling site provides the player. It comes in twos, the unhashed server seed and hashed server seed. A combination of these two reveals the winning outcome.

Client Seed

On its part, the client seed or public seed is the variable the client(gamer) provides. They do so through their browsers’ downloadable client. 

The Nonce

Finally, the nonce is a random number that increases every time you play a new bet. It starts from zero and automatically increases by one with every turn played.

Tied Hands

Before you begin playing, you will get an encrypted hash of the server seed. The same goes for every other player. This hash holds the details of the game you’re about to play. As such, the casino cannot change it even if it wanted to. You also cannot manipulate the results of your hand.

You See Some and Miss Some

Although you and every other player receive the hashed server seed, you don’t have access to its unhashed version until the game’s end. If you did, you’d know the outcomes of the game before playing. You can only reveal the details at the game’s end through its decryption

It’s Your Take

Soon after your browser will help you generate a random client seed. You may customize it to suit your preferences by adding numeric values to the main seed. Alternatively, you may use it as provided. As you can customize it, it gives you a say in the game’s outcome even though it’s hidden from you. 

The Big Reveal

Once everyone plays their turn, the client seed communicates with the server seed, indicating the session’s end. Then sets in the process of decrypting the server seed. The decryption of this seed reveals all the hands within it. You may then verify the results provided using online software.

No Pulling Fast Ones

You can take comfort in the transparency of the process as all actions occur on an immutable blockchain. The public nature of the transactions means that there are many eyes on the process. Verifiers can check the integrity of the results. Further, they could look into the game’s total percentage payout since inception. This way, they dissuade a casino from cheating.

How Do You Verify Results?

As stated early on you don’t get access to the unhashed server seed. If you did you and any other player for that matter, would be privy to all the information on the winning hands. It’d then make nonsense of the whole gaming process, wouldn’t it now? As such it remains inaccessible until the game’s end. It is, however, essential in authenticating results. How so? At the end of the gaming session, you’ll use your hashed server seed to decrypt the unhashed one. You can then proceed to verify the outcomes.

Here’s how to go about it:

Match the Hashes on the Server Seeds

First, ensure that the hashed server seed the site sent you matches the hash of the unhashed server seed. If they do, then the site gave you the genuine sever seed. You can then proceed to verify the results. 

Authenticate the Server Seed

To authenticate the server seed, you could use an online tool, for example, Xorbin. It helps you generate the SHA 256 hash for the unhashed server seed. After confirming that the two hashes match you can calculate and compare your results with the ones your site publishes.

Generate the Roll-Result

Alternatively, you can manually generate every roll result. After that, you compare them with the results on the gaming site. It is an arduous process, and you would do better using one of the many online provably fair verifiers. It’s best to use a third-party verifier as opposed to the site-provided ones.

How is Provably Fair a Game Changer?

It’s easy to see why provably fair is a game-changer. First, there’s the use of cryptos in place of fiat currencies. In the recent past, there’s been greater acceptance of cryptos as a store of value and medium of exchange.

Currently, all signs point to their increased adoption globally. By adopting them now, gaming sites using the provably fair approach are embracing the future already.

Enhanced Transparency

Secondly, provably fair games enhance the transparency of the gaming process. Through such means as hashing, provable algorithms and public verification of outcomes they help restore the public confidence in games.No longer are outcomes dependent on third-party verifiers. Neither is the outcome suspect because it’s shrouded in mystery.

Challenging The Status Quo

Casinos and gaming sites that embrace provably fair technology have the edge over their traditional counterparts. Through it, they show their fidelity to openness and fairness. The two are keystones of future gaming/gambling. Such platforms challenge the status quo and attract many customers. 

Final Thoughts

Every gaming/ gambling enthusiast’s wish is to have a fair chance at whichever game they’re participating in. In the past, however, casinos and gaming sites have attracted suspicions on how they settle games/bets. 

As such gamers have sought to introduce more transparency and fairness in the settlement of games. In provably fair, they have a solution. The mechanism’s hashing algorithm provides irrefutable evidence that no one interfered with the playthrough.

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