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Mastercard Strikes Crypto Deal with Bakkt

Posted on November 4, 2021November 3, 2021 by Kelley N.

In a recent announcement, Mastercard which is one of the world’s biggest financial service providers revealed that it has partnered with Bakkt, a popular digital assets platform. Thanks to the arrangement, thousands of Mastercard’s banks and merchants will now have the chance to integrate cryptocurrencies into all their products. Giving Mastercard’s partners the ability to offer crypto solutions is set to significantly boost the already rapidly-expanding crypto ecosystem.

Speaking on the development, Sherri Haymond, executive vice president, Digital Partnerships at Mastercard mentioned that the move aligns with the company’s goals. With Bakkt on board, they intend to apply their innovative approach to ” power our partners to offer a dynamic mix of digital assets options” and “also deliver differentiated and relevant consumer experiences.”

How Will This Work?

Consumers in the United States will have the chance to buy, sell and hold digital assets like cryptocurrencies. Enabling this will be the highly-acclaimed custodial wallets that are the backbone of Bakkt’s fast-rising crypto business. At the outlets where MasterCard is accepted, the users will have their digital assets exchanged for fiat to complete the transactions.

As if that is not enough, Mastercard’s loyalty solutions will also apply to the digital asset payments that its users will make. This applies to both Mastercard credit and debit cards. Rewards from the loyalty programs will even be converted to crypto in some cases. Merchants will no longer have to stick to redeemable loyalty points. Instead, they can just offer rewards to their customers in the form of crypto.

What Could This Mean for Online Gambling?

Online casinos form one of the biggest industries that depend on payment service providers such as Mastercard. Many modern-day online casinos have also started integrating digital currencies on their platforms. This is, of course, a very important step forward for the sector.

To begin with, it means that casinos that had not switched to using digital currencies may now have the chance to be a part of the revolution. It will certainly take some time but we are already off to a great start.

Secondly, this is a great way of increasing mainstream adoption of digital assets. Several great online casinos accept crypto payments. However, lots of people are still holding out. With the backing of yet another huge player in the financial sector, mainstream adoption of crypto just got yet another big boost. It will be like having the best of both worlds, that is, a popular payment service and what is considered to be the future of global finance – crypto.

PokerFi.Finance to Unite Crypto and Poker Users

Posted on October 4, 2021October 3, 2021 by Kelley N.

The utilization of crypto and related technologies in the world of gambling is not an entirely new thing. Still, there is so much to be discovered in the sector. New entrants debut innovative technologies and products regularly and this is what keeps it going. For poker players, it is now more apparent than ever that crypto is a huge part of the industry.

As part of an ambitious plan to further unite poker players and crypto enthusiasts, PokerFi.Finance has come up with an innovative approach for financial transactions in live and online poker. The main goal of this is to bring more awareness about crypto to poker players. It further provides this group of people with an incredible system through which they can earn some passive income. This should further give more people more reason to be a part of it.

How It Works

PokerFi.Finance which is also referred to as Poker Finance token is essentially a digital currency. It is linked to BEP-20 on the Binance Smart Chain and is built on a foundation of three ideas. That is to improve Decentralized Finance (DeFi), offer great poker games and deliver a deflationary system.

The deflationary nature of the system will likely be the most eye-catching thing for many people. That is because it means that the token holders will be able to earn in dollars with dividends and they will not have to sell their coins to make that possible. As for the actual figures, PokerFi.Finance token holders will have the chance to earn a 6 percent fee for every transaction. A 3 percent share is automatically distributed every 12 hours to everyone with over 35,000 coins in their token wallets.

More Perks

When it comes to actual poker gaming, the users of the PokerFi.Finance platform also have a lot to look forward to. The players will get the chance to rake back up to 70 percent of their spend on the site. This is paid out weekly in $BUSD. In addition to that, the side features an amazing loyalty program. Referred to as the PointFi rewards program, it is made to cater to all users with accounts on the site. Once registered, the players get 1FP for every $1 wagered.

The total rake of the site will contribute to growing the value of the PokerFi.Finance token. 2 percent of the total rake is dedicated to that goal. Players still can get to reap the benefits of this too. Qualifying players will receive a 5 percent share of the total rake.

Virtue Poker to Hold Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament

Posted on June 4, 2021June 1, 2021 by Kelley N.

Renowned blockchain-powered poker platform Virtue Poker is looking to deliver yet another win to the crypto-ecosystem thanks to an upcoming poker tournament. The company will be celebrating its recent launch and developments through the poker tournament which is expected to go down sometime in early June. Having been under development for five years, the Phil Ivey-led online poker operation has so much going for it and it is all about to get even better.

Lots to Look Forward To

Virtue Poker did not seem to have much of a problem pushing its upcoming celebrity poker tournament. Backing the venture are some very well-known industry investors including Pantera Capital, ConsenSys, and DFG Group among others, all of whom could further help solidify its credibility. That said, the no-limit Texas Hold’em poker tournament will be a great launchpad for the company’s ambitious plan for the industry.

Already there is a solid lineup of people that are expected to attend. These include celebrities, influencers, and many poker industry leaders. Most notably, Phil Ivey who also happens to be a Poker Hall of Famer will be among the people that will grace the poker tournament. Other notable figures that will be participating in the tournament include the Virtue Poker Pro team, Ethereum Co-Founder Joe Lubin, Founder and CEO of Ethernity Chain Nick Rose, and NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce.

“Virtue Poker is excited to take this next step to drive awareness and adoption of the world’s first blockchain-based P2P poker platform. Through our partnership with SuperStarter and our execution of our Celebrity Poker Charity event, Virtue Poker will be able to grow our community’s foundation as well as showcase the platform to a broad audience,” Virtue Poker CEO Ryan Gittleson.

The winner of the planned tournament will get to decide on a charitable organization that will receive the proceeds from the event. Virtue Poker will also issue all of the celebrity participants with NFTs and these will act as bounties of sorts during the tournament.

Where to Catch the Action

For anyone that will be interested in watching all the action that will go down during Virtue Poker’s tournament, look no further. The operator will be broadcasting the even as it unfolds on Twitch. In addition to that, fans of the participants will also be able to watch on the channels of these players.

Crypto giving back to the community is certainly a good thing but this is also bound to mark yet another huge leap for crypto and blockchain as they move towards mainstream adoption.

Atari Launches Crypto Casino on Decentraland

Posted on May 4, 2021May 2, 2021 by Kelley N.

Atari is arguably one of the most iconic and most recognizable brands in the world of gaming. However, the company has had some ups and downs over the past decade or so, a situation that has forced it to find other ways of keeping the business going. A few years ago, crypto and blockchain would seem to be the most unlikely of places for the company to venture into but that is no longer the case. Now, it is full steam ahead for Atari’s new blockchain division.

In early March, Atari announced its plans for an Ethereum blockchain casino in partnership with Decentral Games. For this venture, the video game-turned-casino company planned to feature a range of nostalgic games and Atari non-fungible tokens (NFTs), both of which its users can be leveraged to earn more digital currency. This, they projected, would bring over $150 million in 2021 and $400 million over two years.

Last Thursday, all those plans finally paid off when Atari finally held a virtual launch party for its new crypto casino project. The branded casino launch party featured DJ and Produce Dillon Francis who played a live set and went to participate in a huge sale.

The NFT Sale

One of the biggest highlights of the launch party was the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which, as mentioned above, Dillon Francis also participated in. The special NFTs that the DJ sold was a collaboration between him and renowned visual artist MERDA. All three NFTs that they collaborated in creating were inspired by Gerald the Pinata which, as it turns out, contributed to their value immensely.

The auctioning of the NFT was done on OpenSea as well as other platforms where they fetched thousands of dollars in crypto. The “3D Pixel Gerald,” for instance, sold for 6.42 ether (ETH), the equivalent of $17,788.

What Next for Atari?

While this is an exciting new venture for the Japanese video game company, it has no plans to abandon its roots. According to its officials, Atari will continue to operate and develop its successful free-to-play mobile games. They will, however, be shifting new development to console and PC, with “an emphasis on revitalizing classic Atari intellectual property for the modern era.”

That said, it will also leverage the unique position of its brand name in both gaming and non-gaming-related fields (including hotels and casinos). If the success in licensing the Atari-related brands for use in NFTs over the recent past is anything to go by, this might just work.

Online Gambling Rise Continues Amid Surge in Crypto Activity

Posted on March 4, 2021March 3, 2021 by Kelley N.

The past couple of years or so have been monumental to the growth of arguably two of the most important sectors in the world right now. Crypto and gambling have both proven that they are here to stay time and again but we would understand if you are still skeptical. Speculations and predictions seem to be all the buzz but one undeniable thing is the significant effect the two sectors are having on each other and the rest of the world.

Several digital currencies have over the past couple of months been enjoying new streaks of popularity. Bitcoin, for instance, has recently reached record highs of over $50,000, something that nearly no one saw coming. Its price is however not the only thing that we are interested in – these price surges have been one of the main drivers of the growth in popularity that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been enjoying lately.

As it turns out, it is not just individuals that are jumping on the bandwagon. Several institutional investors have begun to take the sector very seriously which goes to show just how big of a ripple effect the price surges have had on the global economy.

Still, very few industries have benefited from the crypto boom as much as gaming and entertainment companies. Gambling has long been one of the most popular sectors and with its stakeholders showing a lot of enthusiasm when it comes to adopting new technologies, its utilization of crypto and blockchain technologies was always bound to happen.

Big Promises

When cryptocurrencies first became a thing, no one would have imagined that these tokens along with the related technologies would have such wide-ranging use-cases. Gambling companies, however, seized the opportunity as many of the things that the crypto was promising would be immensely beneficial to their businesses.

Perhaps the most notable aspects of crypto that have been pushing its adoption in gambling are decentralization, transparency, and safety. In essence, they have created what can only be described as an online gamblers’ heaven where the games are provably fair, the transactions are cheap and fast, and the user data is completed protected.

Now, not all gaming companies have been quick to make some of these changes especially considering how volatile the crypto market often gets. Still, it is very important to acknowledge just how far we have come and how close we are to finally achieving the dream of a whole new financial system. One that is not only safe but also fair and reliable.

New Digital Currencies on the Horizon

Posted on September 4, 2019September 2, 2019 by Kelley N.

The world seems to be slowly warming up to the idea of digital currencies. Already, there have been a couple of institution-backed efforts to introduce newer kinds of digital currencies such as Facebook’s Libra and while many of them are yet to take off in major ways, there is a lot of enthusiasm about them.

Manny Pacquiao Releases His Own Cryptocurrency

Philippine celebrity boxing champion turned politician and singer Manny Pacquiao has recently launched his own cryptocurrency with the support of a number of private investors including Michael Owen who is an ex-Liverpool and England soccer star and Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family. He is clearly very serious about this token.

Referred to as the ‘Pac’, the digital currency or token has already been listed on n Singapore’s Global Crypto Offering Exchange (GCOX) which means that fans can buy merchandise and interact with the Filipino boxer on various social media platforms. Jeffrey Lin, the Founder and CEO of the Global Crypto Offering Exchange (GCOX), has been quite welcoming to the idea and has even said that Pac will not only raise money but will also build a token ecosystem.

As it turns out, Manny is not the only one who has had his sights set on the world of crypto. American singer-songwriter Jason Derulo is also reportedly planning to launch his own cryptocurrency on GCOX.

China’s State-Backed Digital Currency Coming Soon

Meanwhile, China is also reportedly on the verge of launching its own cryptocurrency sometime in the next few months. When it launches, the new currency will initially be issued to a total of seven institutions. These institutions will include the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, Alibaba and Tencent; and Union Pay, an association of Chinese banks – they will be tasked with dispersing the cryptocurrency to the over 1 billion Chinese citizens as well as to any party doing business in the country’s fiat currency.

Speaking on behalf of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), Mu Changchun, its deputy director, has revealed that the new digital currency will use a two-tier system. The first tier will connect the Chinese central bank with commercial banks while the second tier will connect the commercial banks to the retail market.

It is, however, worth noting that the currency will not be a ‘cryptocurrency’, at least not in the traditional sense. A report by Binance states that central authorities will be able to gather information and unlike other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, it will be “fully non-anonymous”.

Pbet to Redefine Gambling with Its Blockchain Solution

Posted on August 4, 2019August 2, 2019 by Kelley N.

Its been over a decade since the blockchain, as we know it, came to be. In that period, technology has proven that it is a useful tool for a vast range of applications beyond digital currencies and one of the sectors that have embraced it is the gambling industry. It has been said on more than one instance that the very dynamic blockchain technology is set to completely redefine the gaming industry – this is already happening.

Pbet, a rising crypto-powered gambling platform is one of the companies that is championing the quest to “blockchainize” the gambling industry. That said, it is easy to see that the casino is much more than a mere cryptocurrency casino. The gaming company has come up with a complete blockchain-based crypto-based gaming platform that is set to spark up a revolution of sorts in the gambling industry. In essence, with the new platform, Pbet is addressing some of the most user-oriented concerns when it comes to online gambling – these are fairness, transparency, safety, and security as well as affordability.

Pbet’s innovative and revolutionary idea is a blockchain crypto-based Unified Gaming Platform and its intended to create a convergence between land-based casinos and online gambling sites. All this will be added while combining both the players, the casinos and the Pbet platform itself with each set to benefit from added value.

“We are driven by the mission to combine all 3 pillars- physical casinos, players and Pbet- through our disruptive blockchain crypto-based Omnichannel Gaming platform business model. Our state-of-the-art platform is strategically designed to benefit both the players and casinos through blockchain technology”, stated a Pbet spokesperson.

The Perks

To begin with, Pbet’s new blockchain solution is set to give the players even more reason to trust the gaming platform and this will be achieved through the transparency of information. This will help to address trust issues which have always been a major concern for players across all major online gaming platform despite the operator’s efforts to address the issues.

Fairness aside, players have also complained about the slow nature of the payments at the casinos as well as the high transaction fees that they are charged. Pbet’s gaming platform will be addressing this issue by introducing a payment solution that will fix both of these problems – it will be fast, reliable and very affordable. Considering the tremendous improvements that have been made to blockchain technology, the users can expect near-instant transactions speeds.

Moreover, Pbet has also recently announced its Omni-Channel Pbet Reward Club. This will assist its partner casino to benefit from hospitality sectors in order to provide freebies which are meant to assist with player acquisition and retention.

Is Facebook’s Libra The Future of Cryptocurrency?

Posted on July 4, 2019July 3, 2019 by Kelley N.

Mid last month, Facebook finally revealed the details of Libra, its digital currency that will allow users to not only make purchases but also send money to each with close to zero costs. On paper, the cryptocurrency is a near perfect iteration of the concept of digital currencies especially because it bears many of the traits of ideal cryptocurrencies while at the same time being backed some of the top players in the financial sector. Yes, that is right. Libra will not be under the full control of Facebook – instead, the company will have just a single vote in the governance of the currency alongside other members of the Libra Association who will include Uber and Visa among others, each of whom have invested no less than $10 million in the project.

The Libra Association will be responsible for the promotion of the open-sourced Libra Blockchain and eh developer platform with the Move programming language in addition to signing up various businesses to accept Libra for various payments. Libra users will be able to use pseudonyms to buy or cash out their Libra both online and at grocery stores after which they can choose to spend it using third-party wallets apps or the Calibra wallet that was created by Facebook themselves.

What This Means for Bitcoin

Ever since it was announced, Libra has generated a tremendous amount of hype and this makes it less of a competition for other digital currencies like bitcoin. In fact, the international debate over Libra has, in a way, elevated the conversation around digital currencies as a whole and since bitcoin is the most popular one, a lot of attention has been shifted towards it.

Furthermore, regardless of how everything turns out for Facebook’s Libra, it will be a confirmation that blockchain-based solutions will definitely have a lot to do with the future of currency.

Lawmakers Ask Facebook to Freeze Libra Project

Barely a month after its announcement, Facebook’s Libra seems to have finally met its first hurdle after United States lawmakers formally called on the company to halt all development of the project. The House Democrats who sent the letters said that the company will need to wait until both Congress and the regulators get time to formally investigate the possible risks that the digital currency poses to the world’s financial system.

“If products and services like these are left improperly regulated and without sufficient oversight, they could pose systemic risks that endanger U.S. and global financial stability. These vulnerabilities could be exploited and obscured by bad actors, as other cryptocurrencies, exchanges, and wallets have been in the past,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee wrote in the letter.

The Facebook executives have not responded to the letter but when they do it is speculated that they will be able to able to offer clarifications some very important issues especially with regards to the potential risks to data privacy. It is even more serious in this case since Facebook has a rather skewed reputation when it comes to data protection.

Online Crypto Sportsbook and Gambling Platform Goes Beta

Posted on April 4, 2019April 2, 2019 by Kelley N.

Wagerr, a new generation online cryptocurrency sportsbook and gambling platform has recently opened access to its 3.0 testnet in private beta, that is, this is now available to a small group of customers – 50 to be more precise. The expansion will allow the core group of valued users within the crypto community to test the company’s new 3.0 mainnet fork before it is finally released.

Wagerr’s new version 3.0 upgrade includes a complete redesign of the website interface and the backend betting protocol – these are meant to not only improve scalability but to also assist in making the overall system much more efficient than it was before.

More About Wagerr

Wagerr is a decentralized online gambling platform that touts itself as the blockchain for betting. The platform uses its native WGR token to facilitate payments made within the Wagerr ecosystem thus providing its users with fast, extremely affordable and effortless payouts – the token is a proof-of-stake coin which uses coin “weight” and a randomization system to calculate the chance of rewards staking. To provide its users with the highly secure and fair betting services it boasts of, Wagerr utilizes various forms of blockchain technology including master nodes and smart contracts. In addition to that, the gaming platform has recently made significant upgrades to its Oracle Masternode system.

Oracle master nodes use Application Specific Smart Contracts (ASSC) to ensure both stability and security on the network and this, in turn, provides platforms such as Wagerr with a secure and decentralized network that assists in keeping the sportsbooks updated while also verifying the bets made through the smart contracts. Moreover, the system includes a revenue model that allows the customers to make a bit of additional income through the Wager platform by becoming one of the masternodes on the Oracle system.

Lightning Spin Becomes First-Ever LApp to Sell

In other stories, Rui Gomes, the creator of Lightning Spin which is one of the pioneering Bitcoin Lightning Network’s pioneering lightning applications (Lapps) also recently announced that he was selling it. With the Lapp players “could pay 6¢ for a single spin, (1 BTC was around $6,000 back then) and withdraw your winnings in seconds — something that would be impossible with the fiat system and would be increasingly difficult on Bitcoin’s base layer.”

While very little details have been disclosed about the buyer of the gaming app, Gomes assured fans of the game that the new owners shared his vision and therefore they can expect the same features and perks as they did before.

Crypto Mining Businesses in Japan and China Close Up Shop

Posted on January 4, 2019January 3, 2019 by Kelley N.

The world of crypto had its fair share of lows in 2018 and, even though it did not seem like it at the time, the effects of the year-long bear market of the last year affected much more than the prices of the digital currencies. Some of the worst-hit sectors were those that had a direct link to crypto, that is, related businesses such as large-scale mining businesses suffered greatly. This was primarily because the crypto market was beginning to become less appealing to some of the largest firms in the world and they began to slowly pull the plug on what were once some of the most lucrative operations in the industry.

China’s Bitmain to Pull the Plug

Crypto mining giant, Bitmain was once considered a titan in the digital currency mining business, not just in China but in the whole world as well. In fact, the company controlled close to 80 percent of all the hardware that was used in the generation of new digital currencies. Well, not anymore. The company is no longer as highly regarded as it was a short while back and there are even reports that it is planning to lay off between 50 and 80 percent of its staff. This is despite the fact Bitmain controls some of the largest mining pools on the planet and is the leading supplier of the mining equipment, both of which gave it significant control over the bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash networks.

Unfortunately, as the prices of the digital currencies continued to dwindle in 2018 and the level of difficulty in minting new digital coins remained high, there was a significant drop in profitability. As a result, a number of companies including Bitmain have chosen to exit the large-scale cryptocurrency mining business which is no longer viable since the cost of hardware and power is much higher than the value of the digital currencies that are mined.

The Situation in Japan

According to Japanese media, GMO, one of the country’s retail giants, is pulling out of the bitcoin mining hardware industry in Japan citing increased pressure on the profitability of the business due to increased hash rates and mining competition. The move, as it turns out, reportedly cost GMO a whopping 25 billion Yen. Despite exiting the crypto mining hardware business, GMO will still continue to mine and also plans to launch a cryptocurrency exchange in the near future.

Japanese e-commerce company DMM is also reportedly leaving the business through the closure of its crypto mining firm in Kanazawa. As expected, the company also cited declining profits as the main reason for the move. The company now intends to focus on its crypto exchange platform that has already achieved full regulatory and license status in Japan.

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