Beginner’s Bitcoin Online Casino Guide Updated for 2019

Remmeber when Bitcoin was a force to be reckoned with? the online currency was building up momentum like a 100-cart train hauling iron ore, it was hard to see the ride coming to an end. With its ups and downs, many looked at Bitcoin and the blockchain as dying concepts – but this is far from the truth.

The value of Bitcoin has come back from the ‘moon’, levelling out to a point that actually makes it manageable for everyday use. Did you know that Bitcoin online casinos are crushing it in 2019? With our complete beginner’s Bitcoin online casino guide which we have updated for 2019 – we will share with you a complete understanding of what the future of blockchain looks like, great tips to playing at Bitcoin online casinos and the best way to increase your chances of a sweet payday with online casinos.

What Is Bitcoin?

Well, Bitcoin is best understood by separating it into two easy to understand parts. The first part is thinking of Bitcoin as a virtual token – like a digital I.O.U. The second part is seeing Bitcoin as a protocol; a distributed network that maintains a ledger of the balances with regards to the virtual tokens part of Bitcoin – this network is often referred to as the blockchain.

Bitcoin and the blockchain is a system that makes it possible for payments to be sent between users without passing through any central institution or authority – so without going through a bank or payment gateway. This system and ledger are created and stored electronically and is produced by a massive network of computers from all over the world – all of which are processing these ledgers and transfers

the name for this process you will have heard before – this is known as ‘mining’ in the Bitcoin world.

Now, Bitcoin was the first real example of what we commonly refer to in 2019 as Cryptocurrencies and was created by a pseudonymous software developer, who went by the alias of Satoshi Nakamoto. Even to this very day, no-one knows who Satoshi Nakamoto really is, but the idea behind Bitcoin was to create a virtual currency exchange that was independent of any central authority and was able to be transferred electronically, securely; verifiable and completely anonymous.

What Happened To Bitcoin?

We won’t bore you with a complete analysis of the blockchain and Bitcoin’s birth, we will keep it simple and give you what you want to hear.

Over the last few years, there had been a mad hysteria over Bitcoin. As the cyrptocurrency took centre stage in the media, every man and their dog began to take notice. While everyone wanted to ride the wave and share their opinion on Bitcoin, there were also those that weren’t against the idea but simply had a case of serious FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and wanted to drop some cash, to get a piece of Bitcoin for themselves.

Whether it was wealthy investors or lucky people that jumped in on the Bitcoin bandwagon back in 2008, or the average mum and dad’s that were desperately wanting to get their own Bitcoin in the hope of becoming rich one day – the tide was becoming very unsettling and leading into Christmas 2017 the Bitcoin bandwagon was full to the brim.

Now, if you had Bitcoin, the consensus was that you were on the ‘inside’, and It was cool that you cared about not being left in the dirt again – the first time being for anyone who didn’t purchase Bitcoin on mere dollars and cents before it blew up to $25,000 per Bitcoin during its peak.

And then it happened. The value of Bitcoin began to haemorrhage as the media coverage continued its fear-mongering, and big holders (we call whales) began to liquidate their position in Bitcoin over a fear of losing everything.

Just like any volatile investment, the biggest losers in all this were the ill-informed small-time mum and dad investors who still didn’t know what Bitcoin was or how they got it for that matter. What they did know, was that they got in somewhere from 15 to 20 thousand and were now looking at getting out somewhere between 3 to 6 thousand – if they were lucky.

Bitcoin is still kicking away. Although the value is keeping steady and hovering around the $15,000 AUD mark – the support is still there for this technology, and industries are still looking at ways to introduce the blockchain to their businesses. A great example of this investment is the highly competitive and lucrative online casino industry. In Australia, online casinos have become a popular source of entertainment for us Aussies, while also providing great chances to score sweet jackpots.

Is Bitcoin The Only Cryptocurrency Worth Using?

Bitcoin may have been the first real and popular virtual currency (No – Habbo Hotel Cash does not count as a currency – so stop saying so!), but it is not alone in the deep jungle of virtual currency. In fact, there are over 1600 cryptocurrencies and as more enthusiasts and developers continue their quest for a piece of the Bitcoin market share, the technology will continue to develop with notable contenders in the race to usurp Bitcoin from their virtual throne.

If you are interested in learning more about the world of cryptocurrency, check out these worthy coins.

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum has the second-largest market capitalisation of the Cryptocurrencies and is similar to Bitcoin. Ethereum is a ledger technology which allows companies to build on by creating ‘smart contract’ technology, which is the ability to include both contract and terms into just the one transaction – over the blockchain. In layman terms, this is an improved version of what we have as ‘escrow’ accounts or payments.

Since Ethereum’s development and its subsequent release back in 2015, Ethereum has faced quite a few controversies. In 2016 the DAO (which is a platform for the autonomous governance of investment capital) platform was hacked, resulting in a third of the tokens being moved to a clone DAO. This event was significant at the time, as the value of these tokens that were hacked came in at an eye-watering $50 million.

To return the hacked funds to their owners, an irreversible change known as a “fork” was done. Unfortunately, over the past three years, Ethereum has been exposed to several hacks which had also resulted in further forks being created.

Currently, Ethereum has a market capitalisation of approximately $18.2 billion USD and a circulating supply of over 107.5 million coins.

Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin was created in October 2011 and the product of an ex-Google employee Charlie Lee who had a vision for a lighter take on Bitcoin – think of it like the silver to Bitcoin’s gold. Now, unlike Satoshi Nakamoto (the creator of Bitcoin), Charlee Lee is very active on social media including his awesome Twitter @SatoshiLite and his blog over at Medium.

What Litecoin brings to the table is a faster transaction confirmation time. In short, a merchant would get 2 transaction confirmations in a 10-minute timeframe; whereas, it would only achieve 1 transaction on Bitcoin.

Earlier this year Charlie Lee noted that he was now focused on making Litecoin more fungible and planned to do this by adding confidential transactions.

Litecoin has largely held steady since it initially generated value, maintaining a market capitalisation of approximately $4 billion USD with a circulating supply of about 63 million Litecoin.

Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin is everything that is great about the internet.

It’s creator Billy Markus, initially created Dogecoin as a ‘joke’ cryptocurrency alongside the boom that followed Bitcoin reaching its mainstream success. In typical fashion, and to the amazement of just about everyone, Dogecoin garnished a serious following online.

From the outside looking in – Dogecoin is a perfect display of what you need to consider when putting money into cryptocurrency – the markets are extremely volatile. In 2013, Dogecoin was just like Bitcoin in that it had a finite supply which was intended to be capped at 100 billion coins. It was later announced that Dogecoin would now produce an infinite supply. Following this, the value of Dogecoin took off and went up 300% in 72 hours, but 3 days later it dropped 80% in value because of how easily users could mine the coin.

In a sign of true community goodness, later that year Dogecoin was hacked and millions of coins were taken. The community, however, believed in Dogecoin and rallied together to donate coins to those who were affected!

A fair dinkum tear-jerker, Dogecoin currently has a market capitalisation of $300 million USD with a circulating supply of almost 121 billion Dogecoin.

Ripple (XRP)

Ripple took a different path to the others. The cryptocurrency was released in 2012, and is a form of cryptocurrency that is specifically aimed at banks using the technology (the Ripple Consensus Ledger) as a real-time network for international payments, like a settlement system, except with proven governance and the fastest transaction confirmation of its kind.

This means that Ripple is not an independent currency like Bitcoin or Litecoin, however, it does have rather interesting features like being able to represent real cash or commodities. The only downside is that the use of Ripple is really only limited to the banking industry.

Today, Ripple is holding strong with a market capitalisation of $11 billion USD and a circulating supply of just about 43 billion Ripple.

Monero (XMR)

Monero can be looked at in two ways as it is a cryptocurrency which strongly resembles Bitcoin just with a greater degree of anonymity. Anonymous! – that sounds great to most online users today, but when things look too good to be true, they generally are – with Monero the downside comes in the shape of an ‘alleged affiliation‘ with the Russian Mafia – take that with about as much salt as you’d like – we are still deciding what we think about this.

Now, while Monero was launched back in 2014 it was relatively unknown until it was picked up by AlphaBay (which you can find more about AlphaBay here) – which is basically one of the big markets on the darknet, and notorious for selling stolen information like uber accounts, identities, illegal firearms and drugs.

Interestingly, Monero has flourished since being linked with AlphaBay – this was actually the opposite of the PR damage that occurred when Bitcoin was linked with another of the popular darknet markets – known as Silk Road. Although, this was prior to the platform being shut down by the FBI in 2013.

Monero, with a little bit of help from AlphaBay, increased its market capitalisation from $5 million to $185 million in 2016, now settling at a respectable $1.1 billion USD and a circulating supply of over 17 million Monero.

How Does Bitcoin Compare With Other Commodities?

Fiat Currencies vs Bitcoin

Bitcoin is much like the traditional fiat currencies (fiat money being money that the government guarantees as legal tender). Like our conventional dollars, it can be traded digitally; however, it differs in these five ways:

1. Decentralisation – Bitcoin and the blockchain is maintained by volunteer coders (miners), being run by an open network consisting of millions of computers worldwide.
2. Limited Supply – there is no way to printing more Bitcoin like traditional fiat currencies. Each hour a small number of new bitcoins are released to the network, continuing to do so at a diminishing rate. Meaning, there can never be more than 21 million Bitcoins in circulation, so in theory as the demand grows and the supply remains the same, the value must increase.
3. Pseudonymity – while this has always been the underlying concept of BItcoin – that users are not identified or anonymous – Governments and law enforcement have found ways to identify users (we won’t get into this in detail though).
4. Divisibility – the smallest unit of Bitcoin is called a Satoshi, which is one hundred millionth of a single Bitcoin (0.00000001), making microtransactions possible.
5. Immutability – transactions cannot be reversed or tampered with.

What Casino Games Can Be Played With Bitcoin?

We see so many players asking this question in online casino gaming forums – “what kind of games can I play with Bitcoin?”. Now, the great thing about online casinos is that they are for the most party rather progressive and quick to offer new technology or promotions. For this reason, when you are thinking about getting into Bitcoin, simply think of it as another currency just like you would if you had to pay for something in USD. Don’t look at it as a gimmick.

Once you have decided to start playing with Bitcoin at online casinos, you will quickly find that you are able to play all the same great casino games you would normally play. The only difference being that these games have an alternative currency, and they are usually developed slightly differently – which means that you won’t have the exact gaming themes you are used to, but much of it is the same.

In terms of popularity, the most common online casino games that are using Bitcoin are the pokies, with standard 3-reeled, 5-reeled video pokies, 3D pokies, and the big money – progressive jackpot pokies at our recommended Bitcoin casinos.

But wait… The fun does not stop there. If the pokies aren’t your thing – maybe you are a fan of the traditional and very popular online casino table games, you are in luck because most online casinos that offer Bitcoin as a currency, also offer these popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, Craps, Sic Bo, and Roulette – if you aren’t familiar with these casino games then be sure to check out our awesome casino guides right here!

You can even test out your poker face (albeit virtual – but hey you can still practice your hand ranking knowledge – which we talk all about here) with online games of video poker using Bitcoin. Playing video poker online is great, as there is no dealer or other players to ruin your gameplay. This is also helpful if you are trying to learn to play the game – as it removes much of the social anxiety that comes with learning to play a new game in front of lots of people at your local casino.

Are Bitcoin Casino Games Different?

Most online casinos offering Bitcoin as a currency have specialist games, which are mostly only different when playing the pokies. This is because there really isn’t much room for interpretation or manipulating the themes of the popular tabletop games like blackjack and roulette.

Realistically, this is not a problem because even if you are comfortable with only playing your favourite games – it does get old playing the same games, day-in and day-out and hey, you might find a new favourite? While many of the Bitcoin pokies have a trendy matrix-like futuristic theme, they do shine new light into the generic animations you will have come to expect from the online casino gaming.

How Do I Bet With Bitcoin or Cryptocurrency?

Betting on games with Bitcoin is so easy! We get it though. You are probably worried a little because the entire process of obtaining Bitcoin can be quite complicated. Thankfully, making Bitcoin bets is very simple.

Betting with Bitcoin at online casinos is no different from other bets that you would make with Aussie or American dollars. Games have been developed so that it is easy to understand and split your Bitcoin into smaller bets and denominations – all within the accepted currency range.

Our pro tip – if you feel unsure about how much you are wagering, whip out your trusty mate Google and search the amount of Bitcoin you are looking to wager per spin or hand with ‘to AUD’ or ‘to USD’. Just make sure that you are taking note of the number of digits that are in your Bitcoin as with so many digits it can be easy to misread or mistype.

Should I Play Casino Games With Bitcoin?

We recommend testing out Bitcoin casino gaming and making a bet with your Bitcoin. It is an easy choice because there are so many benefits to using Bitcoin in online casino betting. Enjoy the action faster and make instant deposits with no extra costs. More importantly, unlike using Aussie dollars or American dollars, you can withdraw your Bitcoin instantly, and generally casinos do not offer fees on these withdrawals – in fact, you will also get your payout significantly faster than if you were requesting a cashout in AUD or USD.

Playing with Bitcoin also opens you up to play great casino games with great bonus promotions for your Bitcoin, like the many bonuses you can grab from the Bitcoin Casinos that we recommend.

Looking forward, Bitcoin will be around well into the future, and as it continues to develop and the technology gets better. If you are already playing online casino games with your Bitcoin: you will be getting significant experience and more importantly, be generating Bitcoin. Which unlike winnings in your standard currencies, Bitcoin can be making you interest – as it sits in the exchanges with its value steadily going up (or down).

Our list of recommendations for Bitcoin really could keep going on, but it is probably time you started to check out some of the great offers available at online Bitcoin casinos. Head over to our casino reviews and check out the great Bitcoin welcome bonuses and promotions on offer and get started in your Bitcoin futures. If you still aren’t sure, well we also have killer bonuses for the Aussie dollar too!