Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies as a Payment Method

Cryptocurrencies are becoming an increasingly popular payment method among sportsbook players. Read this article and find out how to get and where to store your Bitcoins.

A Brief History and Impressive Growth of the Popularity of Bitcoin

If you’re wondering when was the first crypto block mined, it was in 2009, but the idea of cryptocurrencies was not particularly new at that time. However, in March 2009, the first decentralized cryptocurrency entered the virtual world, and the world was ready for the revolution!

That was the first currency that wasn’t related to any state or any other entity because Bitcoin was just Bitcoin. Nobody could (and can’t even today) predict and influence the growth and possible depreciation of this or any other blockchain virtual currency.

It’s interesting to note that cryptocurrencies get their name from the word ‘cryptography,’ a type of encryption used to verify and track transactions in the virtual market. In this article, we’ll mainly look at the history and rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (Litecoin, Monero, BTC Cash, and others), as well as different ways in which players can acquire and purchase crypto and where to store them before depositing in some of the best sportsbooks that have our recommendation.

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto, and is the Legend About Him Valid?

The whole story and urban legend began to spread far back in 2007 when the Bitcoin project actually started. A year later, three men (Neal King, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry) completed and submitted a patent grant application, classified as a strictly confidential application in the field of encryption. None of these people has acknowledged any relations to the mythical being called Satoshi Nakamoto, who’s supposed to be the creator of the idea of Bitcoin and the whole blockchain movement.

There’s still no answer to the question of who Nakamoto is and whether he’s real or a fictional person. His existence and wealth are speculated, as it’s assumed that he currently owns about 980,000 Bitcoins, and his wealth in December 2017 was estimated at 19.7 million USD in Bitcoins.

Where Can You Use Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies?

Although there are many cryptocurrencies and new ones appear every day, the most famous cryptocurrency currently is undoubtedly Bitcoin. People have accepted and loved this cryptocurrency for the simple reason that transactions through Bitcoin are fast, safe, and secure. Today Bitcoin can be used as a legitimate payment method because many online shops and services accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as means of payment. This is primarily because of low fees, instant transaction processing time, and security protocols are at the highest level, both for buyers and sellers.

Many well-known and popular online shops and sellers accept this payment method and consider it equal to the traditional methods such as payment cards (debit and credit), e-wallets (Skrill, PayPal, Neteller, etc.), and good old bank transfer. Therefore, if you plan to use your hard-earned Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies, all you need to do is find crypto-friendly websites and shops that accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method in your internet browser. Be sure that you’ll be very pleasantly surprised by the number and selection of goods and services you can buy online with cryptocurrencies.

The selection is large when discussing high-quality sportsbooks and online casinos that accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method. In particular, there are crypto-only sportsbooks, but lately, an increasing number of traditional online sportsbooks have also included at least some cryptocurrencies in their offers as a deposit and withdrawal method.

The advantages of depositing via cryptocurrencies in online sportsbooks are diverse. Still, first of all, we should mention that these transactions are completely anonymous and can’t be tracked by third parties. That means that the bettors don’t have to share their personal and financial information or even disclose their identity. We’ll explain how this is possible later in the text when we discuss collecting and storing Bitcoin, Litecoin, and other popular cryptocurrencies. The downside of the crypto deposit method is the fact that complete anonymity comes with specific problems, such as, for example, underage betting, which is prohibited by law in all countries in the world.

As we have already mentioned, more and more sportsbooks and online casinos start to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies daily, so we at BET-EXPERTS.COM compiled a list of the best sportsbooks that accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method.

How to Buy Your Cryptocurrencies?

Now that you understand the historical part of the cryptocurrency phenomenon, it’s time to talk about how you can buy Bitcoin and which are the safest places for storing your virtual currencies.

What is asked as the first question is how to get your Bitcoins, Litecoins, Moneros, and other cryptocurrencies. Since the beginning of cryptocurrencies, one of the main ways to obtain them has been so-called mining.

To fully understand how Bitcoin mining works, you first need to know the basics of blockchain technology, the foundation of all cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum. The technology acts as a public digital ladder of every transaction ever made. It records every transaction in the database, and the same database is copied and sent to every computer in the network.

To ensure that this virtual ladder is verified and updated, every computer in the network communicates with each other and cross-checks to see if all copies are valid and correct. These procedures publish and allow each transaction and thus make cryptocurrencies decentralized from every financial intermediary, such as a bank.

Suppose during the verification process it’s found that the copies of the data aren’t identical due to manipulation or fraud attempts. In that case, the network rejects the transaction, and this security protocol protects users. The transactions need to be created and added to the chain to update the blockchain with newly verified transactions. For this to happen, the blocks need to be verified by solving a complex cryptographic riddle. Thus, Bitcoin rewards individuals or groups that solve this riddle first with payment in cryptocurrencies. This process is called mining. Whether mining is profitable today is a tricky question, and we’ll not talk about it in this article. Still, we should note that there are severe problems with it, such as excessive electricity consumption.

In addition to this rather complicated and sometimes expensive way of obtaining cryptocurrencies, there’s one much simpler way, and that’s an easy purchase of Bitcoins. Our recommendation is always to make sure to buy your cryptocurrencies on licensed and regulated online exchange platforms.

Although the Bitcoin transfer is quite a complex process, the exchange platforms are made to be user-friendly, so even the users who have no experience in buying cryptocurrencies don’t have problems when purchasing. The most famous and respectable exchange platforms globally are Coinbase, Kracken, Bittylicious, and Coin Corner. All these exchange platforms will provide you with a similar service, although we prefer the Coinbase exchange because it’s very efficient and safe to use.

Once you complete your transactions and buy Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, it’s time to store them somewhere before you start using them in one of the preferred sportsbooks or online casinos.

The Best Places to Store Bitcoins

To buy and own Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, you need to have a Bitcoin wallet. These wallets are special programs that allow users to access and use cryptocurrencies. There are two types of Bitcoin wallets, called HOT (online) and COLD (offline) wallets.

Online wallets are less secure because codes, so-called private keys, are stored on devices connected to the internet, while offline wallets are almost 100% secure. However, there’s always a chance of human error, that is, the fact that the private password gets lost, in which case users lose their Bitcoins. Despite all that, we recommend storing smaller BTC amounts in hot wallets. In contrast, more significant amounts of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies should be stored in cold (offline) wallets due to greater security.

Before you decide which e-wallet to use, you need to know which of them are the best and most popular crypto wallets on the market. There are five types of crypto wallets, and all of them have their pros and cons.

Hardware wallets are considered cold wallets, and they are generally very secure. This type of wallet is recommended to individuals who want to store more significant amounts of Bitcoins or some other cryptocurrencies in their wallets. The most popular wallets of this type are certainly Ledger, Trezor, and BitLox.

Desktop wallets are wallets that are installed on your PC or laptop. This type of wallet is considered a hot wallet, and it can quickly become a victim of viruses, malware, and cyber-attacks. The most famous wallets are Jaxx, Electrum, and Exodus.

Mobile wallets, just like desktop wallets, are considered hot wallets, and they are designed for users who prefer to do their business via mobile phones. The most famous are Jaxx, Electrum, and Exodus.

Web wallets are the most convenient and least secure wallets since they’re made to be used efficiently and daily. They are the most common target of hackers, various viruses, and malware. The most famous wallets of this type are, without a doubt, Coinbase, Binance, Xapo.

Paper wallets are classified as cold wallets, and this term is used for the wallets that provide their users with very high-security levels. Still, the problem with this type of wallet is its durability. That’s why it’s necessary to check how long you can store BTC and other currencies in every individual wallet of this type.

Since sports betting is a very specific discipline that sometimes requires players to quickly move their money from one account to another, we believe that the best combination is to have one hot wallet for everyday use and one cold one on which you can deposit your winnings.

Conclusion

There are indeed many advantages of using cryptocurrencies as a deposit method in sportsbooks today. With this deposit and withdrawal method, players don’t need to disclose their personal and financial data since Bitcoin transactions are entirely anonymous.

Also, there are no transaction fees, and the transactions themselves are swift and efficient. After all, there’s no middle-man between your Bitcoin wallet and your sportsbook. All in all, we believe that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the future of the sports betting industry and many other industries.

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