Are Privacy Coins the Future of Sportsbook Payments?

The crypto-digital currency revolution began just over a decade ago, though it has only been a mainstream topic for the latter half of that period. Bitcoin was the first crypto/digital currency to figure out all the problems which prevented earlier cryptocurrency attempts from becoming viable. Since BTC hit the market things have never been the same.

Bitcoin is a digital based currency which uses cryptography to send credits or tokens from peer to peer. It also allows people to send this new money to institutions (like sportsbooks for example). In fact, it is estimated that up to 90% of all financial transactions with offshore sportsbooks and casinos occur using cryptocurrency. It is this reason which you see us write articles about cryptocurrency from time to time.

We now have reached an age where there are hundreds of crypto-tokens all claiming to have their own special value or function. As time has moved forward it is perfectly clear that BTC is the “big dog” on the block and all others are just puppies waiting to grow. BTC may be the biggest dog on the block but this does not mean it is the best. It falls short in several areas when it comes to depositing and withdrawing money from sportsbooks.

Like I mentioned above, there are many tokens and each has its own features and value. One feature which attracted people to BTC in general was its apparent privacy. You could send a payment to anyone in the word and it would be just between you and them. However, this has proved not to be the case. Forensic accountants can track most any payment on the BTC blockchain and with enough incentive can do so even if the wallet address is changed for each and every transaction. This brings us to our main topic.

Privacy Tokens

Real privacy tokens do exist. They work much in the same way as other cryptocurrencies but their blockchain is hidden. Each and every token is indistinguishable from the other. I don’t have to tell you why these coins are so attractive.

What does strike me as a bit odd is that more sportsbooks and casinos are not offering privacy-based tokens to their customers as a payment method. Below I have created a chart listing five top sportsbooks which I chose at random. You can see which coins each sportsbook uses. I have listed the top six non-privacy based coins used by sportsbooks and below them you will find the top three privacy coins most commonly used by sportsbooks and casinos. This article continues below the chart.

Ever Evolving

Its true that cryptocurrency and the way people and businesses use them is ever-evolving. Are we naturally evolving to use more privacy-based coins? I would instinctively say yes, but sportsbooks have had a few years now to do so and seem reluctant. A few have those coins are on the ready however and a manager at one sportsbook who we interviewed stated “Basically we wanted to have a few of these options already integrated in our operation, so in case we need to quickly transition to offer these exclusively, we would have a couple ready to go.”

As you can see, that particular operation is ready in case they have to “flip the switch”. So I am guessing its a matter of time before they all start doing the same. In five years you may see them exclusively use privacy tokens and the days of using open blockchain based cryptocurrencies are a thing of the past.

List of Privacy Based Cryptocurrencies

Here we list the top privacy based tokens in order from largest market cap to lowest. Market cap is a good figure to study because it allows you to see the confidence people have in the currency. People vote with their dollars.

1. Monero – $4.84B
2. Zcash – $1.99B
3. Horizon – $829M
4. Verge – $440M
5. NuCypher – $295M

Note: Dash does not appear on the market cap list as they are not considered a privacy token by many exchanges. Their market cap is currently $3B. See updated Dash figures here

-for up to date market capitalization of these privacy tokens click here

Monero

Monero is our personal favorite privacy token. It has proved so hard to crack that the U.S. government awarded contracts to two start-up technology companies to see if they could do so. Also they have offered up a bounty of $625,000 for anyone who can break the Monero and Lightning Network.

More Info on Monero