Aaron Decker | Bitcoin Slots.us

Choosing a Crypto Bookmaker for the FIFA World Cup 2018

Posted on June 26, 2018June 25, 2018 by Aaron Decker

We are over a week into the 2018 FIFA World Cup that is currently taking place in Russia and being watched by an audience of more than 3 billion people from all corners of the globe. Like many other sporting events, the World Cup has also been a great opportunity for a little more excitement and side action in the form of sports betting which is enjoyed by a vast number of soccer fans.

Sports betting has been on the rise and even crypto has caught on to the trend. While betting on the previous World Cup was nearly unheard of, specifically because it was still at its infancy, this year’s World Cup is proof that crypto is here to stay – not just as an asset for gambling but also as a mainstream currency.

The debate about the viability of crypto aside, it is quite obvious that crypto sports betting has evolved tremendously in the past four years. As such, instead of worrying about the scarcity of crypto-powered bookmakers, this time around we will only need to stress (just a little) about finding the best one. So, how do you find one?

The Currency You Want to Deal in Matters

Bitcoin is still, without a doubt, the king (or queen) of digital currencies. However, we cannot ignore how important other altcoins are in the crypto ecosystem especially when it comes to betting. Bitcoin betting is still offered in most of the bookmakers but in sites like BetOnline, the punters can bet using Dash Litecoin and Ethereum while other like Bovada and Cloudbet accept bets in Bitcoin Cash. Whichever site you choose, just make sure it supports the digital currency you hold or wish to bet with.

Still, on the digital currencies, we all know how crazily the prices of cryptocurrencies fluctuate. Many gamblers, therefore, prefer to have their digital currencies converted to fiat currencies like the dollar, British Pound or euro once they are deposited. It is advisable to look for bookmakers like Bovada and Pinnacle that allow you to do this.

Go for the Best Promotions

Compared to the traditional online bookmakers, crypto-powered bookmakers usually have rather disappointing promotions especially when it comes to crypto-only sports betting platforms where the users can create multiple accounts. Fortunately, the World Cup has allowed for the creation of an exception – sites like CloudeBet and Nitrogen Sports are currently running World Cup free bet offers and promotions. You are certainly bound to come across more of such sites if you look hard enough.

In conclusion, there are a number of other things that you may need to consider before you settle on a specific crypto bookmaker – these include; how high the betting limits should be, withdrawal speeds and the legality of crypto gambling in your jurisdiction. All these are enough pointers to get you started on your way towards some exciting side action as you enjoy the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Two Major Russian Banks Piloting Bitcoin & Crypto Portfolios

Posted on June 19, 2018June 18, 2018 by Aaron Decker

According to June 15 Kommersant newspaper report, two of the largest banks in Russia are piloting cryptocurrency portfolios for their private clients and retail investors. The initiative that will be conducted under the watch if the Bank of Russia will involve the Alfa Bank and Sberbank, both of which will be offering the aforementioned private clients shares in a special fund that will be trading the six most popular digital currencies on some of the major cryptocurrency exchanges including Bitstamp and Kraken.

“We’d like to offer our clients an absolutely transparent way to invest in digital assets with a full compliance with regulations that will let them invest in the product they are interested in Russia,” Sberbank Private Banking deputy chair Ana Ivanchuk said.

Sberbank is the main state-owned bank, and thus, it is the Russian government’s primary employee paycheck processor. Alfa Bank, on the other hand, is the country’s largest private bank. Both plan to venture into cryptocurrency trading with the help of AddCapital investment fund, Group IB, and the National Settlement Depository. Add Capital is one of the entities that will be immensely helpful to the venture – the investment fund previously participated in the recent pre-sale of Telegram tokens and in this case, it will be in charge of the technical solutions for the banks’ project.

“Digital financial assets will sooner or later become a large part of the global economy and cannot be ignored. Our goal is to speed-up the recognition of the digital assets as legitimate financial assets as soon as possible,” the manager of Alfa Bank’s private banking branch, Anton Rakhmanov pointed out.

Among the six most popular cryptocurrencies that will be offered are Ethereum, bitcoin cash, Litecoin, and bitcoin. The remaining digital currencies will be confirmed at a later date. However, in a year or so, the combination of digital currencies will be revised and their proportions balanced by trading algorithms at least four times. These trading algorithms will be self-adapting depending on prevailing market situations.

According to AddCapital investment fund’s chief executive officer, Alexey Prokofyev, the investment process will allow investors to purchase a share of the fund. These shares are liquid and the clients can, therefore, send them for fiat currencies any time.

The custodian of this arrangement will be the National Settlement Depository, an entity which is part of the Moscow Exchange Group – the portfolio process will take about 45 days for testing but the specific dates for this are yet to be disclosed.

The degree of willingness that these two banks have shown is certainly bound to pilot cryptocurrency investments products to greater heights. We can now expect more and more institutional investors and financial institutions to venture into the cryptocurrency space.

Apple Bans Cryptocurrency Mining on iPhones and iPads

Posted on June 12, 2018June 11, 2018 by Aaron Decker

During Apple’s recent Worldwide Developer Conference, the company updated some of the cryptocurrency app rules for its App Store. First spotted by Apple Insider on Monday, the new rules are a tad bit stricter and will apply to digital currency wallets, cryptocurrency exchanges as well as platforms that facilitate Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

The new App Store guidelines restrict apps from mining cryptocurrencies unless the process is performed off-device. Apparently, the motivation behind this new policy is the concern that cryptocurrency mining contributes to much more battery drain in mobile devices.

To put this into perspective, the new guidelines detail that any cryptocurrency-related applications in the App Store must adhere to a rather strict set of guidelines that encompasses the cryptocurrency wallets, exchanges, ICOs and cloud mining platforms.

“Apps, including any third-party advertisements displayed within them, may not run unrelated background processes, such as cryptocurrency mining unless the processing is performed off device (e.g. cloud-based mining). Wallet Apps may facilitate virtual currency storage, provided they are offered by developers enrolled as an organization,” goes Apple’s revised rules. “Exchange Apps may facilitate transactions or transmissions of cryptocurrency on an approved exchange, provided they are offered by the exchange itself.”
“Initial Coin Offering Apps facilitating Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), cryptocurrency futures trading, and other crypto-securities or quasi-securities trading must come from established banks, securities firms, futures commission merchants (FCM), or other approved financial institutions and must comply with all applicable law.”

Unfortunately, there a number of apps in the App Store that are certainly going to feel the pinch of the new policy as the guidelines further detail that even applications that offer digital currencies for the completion of various tasks are no longer allowed to do so.

“Cryptocurrency apps may not offer currency for completing tasks, such as downloading other apps, encouraging other users to download, posting to social networks, etc.,” the fifth and last revised rule reads.

Is This a Trend?

It definitely feels likes one. Apple’s App Store has never been particularly cryptocurrency friendly and this has been evident from the stricter rules that are not found in other application marketplaces such as Google Play. In 2014, the App Store kicked out all Bitcoin-related applications before following through in 2016 when they asked all the companies with apps on the marketplace to remove digital assets such as Dash of from their apps.

Apple’s App Store is one of the most popular application marketplaces in the world. It boasts of over 283,000 games and a whopping 2.3 million non-gaming apps. Considering the large number of cryptocurrency applications that exist today, the new policy, in conjunction with other anti-crypto efforts, is going to have a huge impact on how things play out from here on out.

Slotland Launches New $1,000,000 Crypto-Only Online Casino

Posted on June 9, 2018June 9, 2018 by Aaron Decker

Renowned online casino business, Slotland Entertainment S.A. has recently launched CryptoSlots.com, its new cryptocurrency-only online casino which also happens to feature a million-dollar jackpot game as well as a neat selection of 21 unique slots and video poker games. The new online casino currently supports bitcoin, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash transactions – the company has however promised that it will add support for more digital currencies in the near future.

How It Works

When players deposit their cryptocurrencies on to the CryptoSlots.com platform, their deposits are automatically converted to USD for gameplay. This is just to ensure uniformity since different customers will make deposits in different digital currencies. Also, just like the deposits, making withdrawals from the platform is very easy and quite fast, especially if you are using Bitcoin Cash – this does not mean all the other cryptocurrencies fall short in this regard. The platform is updated and improved on a rolling basis and this means that the service is always optimal regardless of the digital currency you choose to deal with.

“In our other casinos, we’ve seen a huge increase in players opting to play in cryptocurrencies to avoid banking delays and complications,” said Slotland’s General Manager, Michael Hilary. “CryptoSlots is designed to make it easy for players to play in crypto, but still bet in USD. Crypto also allows for increased player anonymity since all that’s required is an email address and crypto wallet.”

To get started, a player needs to sign up first, a process that is very quick and easy as the player only needs to provide an email address. Furthermore, you can do this from a wide range of devices including smartphones, computers, and tablets.

The Perks

As mentioned earlier, CryptoSlots launched with 21 unique games that include some of the most popular slots, video poker, and the exclusive Jackpot Trigger – the exclusive Jackpot Trigger is the highlight of the launch thanks to its huge prize. However, if you are looking to win big from the Jackpot Trigger then it is worth noting that the game is played exclusively with tokens collected from playing any of the other CryptoSlots games.

Slotland Entertainment S.A. intends to add many more games from WinADayCasino.eu and Slotland.eu in the near future. Still, all the existing games are provably fair, that is, the platform relies on the latest, top-notch technology to test the randomness of all the game results.

Last, but not least, CryptoSlots also offers some of the most generous Welcome Bonuses to new players on their first 3 deposits which is a huge boost to their starting balance. There are also weekly cashback bonuses that will refund 3 percent of net losses.

New York Legislature Proposes Creation of Crypto Task Force

Posted on June 5, 2018June 5, 2018 by Aaron Decker

The past few weeks have been rife with extended efforts to regulate and control cryptocurrencies and New York has become the newest entity to launch its own efforts towards the same. The state’s legislature may soon send a cryptocurrency task force to investigate and report on the current state of global cryptocurrency as well as blockchain utility and legislation.

This move is part of the efforts by the state to establish formal cryptocurrency rules that could, in turn, contribute immensely to the widespread adoption and subsequent mainstream use of cryptocurrencies. The nine-person task force will be expected to provide a detailed report of their findings by December 2019 as stipulated in the summary from a meeting that was held on May 30.

New York has always been at the forefront of the cryptocurrency revolution with a number of innovation-focused approaches to digital currencies and blockchain technology. In fact, the state is hoping to capitalize on various new developments that will eventually make it a leader in blockchain technology.

As such, there is a need for cryptocurrency rules and guidelines so as to bring awareness to the users. This essentially makes the case for why the task force that was launched by the New York State Assembly. A report is expected from the Cryptocurrency Task Force department by 15 December 2019 – the report will be received by the governor who is the temporary Senate president and the speaker of the state assembly.

What Is Expected of the Task Force?

As reported by BCFocus.com an official document was released by the New York Assembly tasking the Cryptocurrency Task Force to report back on, among many other areas, the following key points:

Review of the impact of the department of financial services’ regulations on the development of digital currency, cryptocurrency and blockchain industries in New York State.
The number of digital currencies presently being listed and their approximate proportion of market share.
Report on the number of exchange happening in New York and their average trade per month.
Impact of cryptocurrency on state and local tax receipts.
Different types of departments who are investing in cryptocurrency.
The energy consumption necessary for coin mining operations and other policy considerations related thereto;
The transparency of the digital currency marketplace and the related potential of market manipulation and other illegal activities.
A review of laws and regulations on the digital currencies used by other states, the federal government, foreign countries, and foreign political and economic unions to regulate the marketplace.
Legislative and regulatory recommendations, if any, to increase transparency and security, enhance consumer protections, and to address the long-term impact related to the use of cryptocurrency.

New York is among the growing number of states that are spearheading the gradual transition towards better understanding and the inevitable widespread adoption of the burgeoning technology.

IMF Director Urges Central Banks to Compete With Crypto

Posted on June 2, 2018June 2, 2018 by Aaron Decker

While the role of cryptocurrencies in the evolution of currency remains a valid debate, one of the key concerns, especially for traditional financial institutions, has been the uncertainty associated with how these digital assets will affect the existing fiat monetary system that is under the control of central banks.

Dong He, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Deputy Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM) recently published a report to address the challenges that the central banks have faced since the emergence of digital currencies. In the report, He elaborated his belief that someday when they achieve wider adoption, cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets may reduce the demand for money from the central banks.

“As a medium of exchange, crypto assets have certain advantages. They offer much of the anonymity of cash while also allowing transactions at long distances, and the unit of transaction can potentially be more divisible. These properties make crypto assets especially attractive for micropayments in the new sharing and service-based digital economy,” he wrote.

At the moment, most, if not all, existing cryptocurrencies are plagued by criticisms pertaining to their capacity to be a dependable medium of exchange. Therefore, it is safe to say that, for the time being, digital currencies are too volatile and too risky to pose much a threat to fiat currencies. In addition to this, digital currencies still lack the same degree of trust that is enjoyed by fiat currencies owing to the numerous cases of fraud, security breaches and operational failures that are characteristic of the crypto world.

However, this safe zone may not last too long – crypto assets and currencies are technological innovations and thus, over time, continuous development will certainly improve on some of these pressing issues and eventually make crypto just as appealing as fiat currencies.

Banks Advised to Step Up

A future where crypto assets are just as acceptable as fiat, or even more appealing than central bank money, is very possible and perhaps Mr. He has already seen its inevitability. In fact, he did mention that the only factor keeping crypto assets from rapid adoption is their volatility.

According to the IMF Deputy Director, central banks have the opportunity to effectively adapt with the times by addressing some of the shortcomings of the traditional global banking ecosystem in order to compete well with the emerging and rapidly growing digital currency technology.

“That means rigorously applying measures to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism, strengthening consumer protection, and effectively taxing crypto transactions,” he explained. “The best response by central banks is to continue running effective monetary policy while being open to fresh ideas and new demands, as economies evolve.”

The sentiment that crypto will eventually grow to be a formidable opponent in the mainstream financial industry is shared by many including Christine Lagarde, the IMF Chief who during an event in March proposed that regulators should deploy similar technological mechanisms in order to “fight fire with fire.”

Lightning Box Ventures into Portuguese Market with 9 Slots

Posted on May 29, 2018May 29, 2018 by Aaron Decker

Sydney-based independent video slots developer and multi-channel supplier, Lightning Box Games has been given the go-ahead to enter the Portuguese market. The venture will be facilitated through the SG Digital platform which will see to it that Lightning Box’s brand of fun and exciting slots titles are accessible to Portugal-based slots lovers.

Lightning Box’s efforts to the penetrate the Portuguese market paid off when the company was granted a license by the Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SIRJ), Portugal’s leading regulatory body. The license was a green light for the slot developer to go ahead with a planned release of nine new games that are certainly bound to catch the attention of the Portuguese gambling market.

The rollout of the slots developer’s games will happen in phases with the first wave of releases across the market being the: Silver Lion, Stellar Jackpots-Chilli Gold x2, Stellar Jackpots-Serengeti Lions, Stellar Jackpots-More Monkeys, Respin Rhino, Dolphin Gold, Redroo, Mild Rockers and Blazing Goddess.

As it stands, having been allowed to pursue its operation in the country, Lightning Box has been in a number of related distribution-related talks with some of the most notable operators in the country.

“We are thrilled to be given the opportunity to expand our footprint into Portugal, an online market that could present a number of new operator partnerships for us. We look forward to announcing those partnerships and the release of more games to the Portuguese market in due course,” said Peter Causley, Lightning Box’s co-founder and Managing Director.

The Lightning Box brand was founded in 2004 by David Little and Peter Causley and since then it has managed to produce a series of some of the most highly commercially successful games like Dragon Palace, Astro Car, Five Pirates and Frogs ‘n Flies. All these games still remain to be some of the most popular titles in many places and they continue to be regularly updated in order to give the customers the best possible experience.

This move could just the beginning for the Portuguese gambling market as they might soon be able to enjoy the slot maker’s entire portfolio of games. SG Digital – mentioned earlier – is one of the Lightning Box’s partners and a major games aggregator whose platform will be used by Lightning Box to offer Portuguese player the thrills of the nine new slots. Also, by acquiring the license from Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos Lightning Box will be operating in accordance to the law and in addition to the fact that its games are regularly checked for fairness by independent auditors, the platform offers the best possible slot experience one can find anywhere in the world.

Betsoft Gaming Gets into More Content Partnerships

Posted on May 22, 2018June 11, 2018 by Aaron Decker

Renowned game developer Betsoft has been quite busy inking a number of lucrative partnership deals with both rapidly growing and established gaming brands. One of the most recent developments for the casino game developer is a new partnership agreement with Superlines, a popular and rapidly growing brand casino – Betsoft will provide a selection of slot titles to the casino.

The Betsoft-Superlines agreement covers an extensive range of RNG titles all of which have been approved for key regulated casino markets. This will also include a decent number of titles from the very popular Slots3 series.

Superlines was launched in April last year with a generous bonus arrangement and 24/7 access to multilingual customer support in mind. Despite being just 12 months old, the casino has already grown into a popular destination for gamblers in Europe and Nordic countries. It joins its sister casinos, Africasino, Spintropolis, and Nordicasino, that have also been benefitting from Betsoft’s outstanding casino game titles.

“With the promise of VIP support, the biggest names in slots, and a strong promotional calendar, Superlines has attracted an extremely loyal and varied audience in a very short time,” Miguel Micallef, Betsoft’s account manager said. “To keep all kinds of players engaged, and to offer something new to everyone, every visit, Superlines now needs to acquire and promote a portfolio of high-quality games from industry-leading brands. Betsoft is pleased to be able to offer the right mix of quality and variety to meet the needs of their discerning player base.”

Superlines will now be the only one reaping huge perks from this new partnership – the arrangement will allow Betsoft’s new games to quickly and easily get integrates with Superlines casino’s platform. According to Arik Weiss, Superlines’ chief marketing officer, key Betsoft titles will still be featured prominently in advertisements as part of the platform’s customer acquisition strategy.

“Casino Superlines is a successful new brand: it has achieved wide exposure and attracted a lot of loyal players since its launch. Those players see the Betsoft logo as a seal of quality, so by promoting Betsoft games in premium positions, we will be able to attract more of them to the best new titles, as well ensuring that we deliver a top-class gaming experience at every turn,” Weiss explained.

Betsoft’s “Games of Fortune” Slots to Feature in $1,000 Slots Tournament

Intertops Poker and Juicy Stakes Casino customers will this week be given the opportunity to earn points for the $1,000 tournament by playing three of Betsoft’s popular Games of Fortune slots. They are Reels of Wealth, Treasure Room, and Royal Reels. The Betsoft games were picked specifically because of their unique bonus features. However, players will also get to pick from a wide selection of unique online slots and table games from other reputable game developers such as Worldmatch and Lucktap.

So, if you want to get in on the action you have between May 21 and Sunday 27 to do so. Players earn a single point for every spin worth $0.10 or more any of the games that will be featured on the $1000 slots tournament.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Venturing into the Cryptocurrency Space

Posted on May 19, 2018 by Aaron Decker

In September last year, JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon referred to bitcoin as a “stupid” and “dangerous” thing and that he would fire in a second anyone caught selling or buying the decentralized digital currency. Like many of his prominent counterparts in the global finance industry, his sentiments about crypto carried a lot of weight. The perceived threat that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies pose to the financial world has been a knee jack reaction that can mostly be attributed to the rapid growth and subsequent widespread adoption of crypto.

However, Dimon’s stance appears to have changed. JPMorgan is now looking into the applications of cryptocurrencies despite their purported threat to the financial industry’s business model. The move begun with a high-level reshuffling that involved the shifting of Oliver Harris to a cryptocurrency strategy position within the investment bank – Oliver Harris is a former Fintech and In-Residence initiative head. In his new role, Harris will be looking into the risks and rewards that are associated with digital assets and blockchain technology.

Just recently, Goldman Sachs got into crypto by setting up a bitcoin trading desk and hiring Justin Schmidt, a trader specializing in exchanging cryptocurrencies. To many, this seems to be the motivation behind JPMorgan’s surprising change of heart, especially when putting into consideration its CEO’s harsh remarks towards bitcoin just a few months ago.

“The Bitcoin to me was always what the governments are gonna feel about Bitcoin as it gets really big, and I just have a different opinion than other people. I’m not interested that much in the subject at all. The blockchain is real. You can have crypto yen and dollars and stuff like that. ICO’s you have to look at individually,” Jamie Dimon recanted his previous statements during an interview with Fox in January 2018.

JPMorgan ranks as the world’s 10th largest financial services company by revenue which makes it one of the financial industry’s biggest names alongside the likes of Goldman Sachs. As such, their entry into crypto will certainly have a profound avalanche effect as far as the adoption of crypto among Wall Street companies goes.

Huawei to Offer BTC.com Bitcoin Wallets to Users in China

Posted on May 12, 2018May 12, 2018 by Aaron Decker

According to a report by Bloomberg, Huawei, the third largest phone maker in the world will be installing bitcoin wallets on its phones in a bid to tap China’s brisling cryptocurrency market. Regardless of the stringent rules imposed by the Chinese government to crack down on crypto trading and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), the cryptocurrency market continues to thrive since owning the digital currencies has not been deemed illegal.

The bitcoin wallet will debut on Huawei’s newly launched app store known as the Huawei AppGallery – it will, however, come pre-installed in all the new smartphones that the company will release. It is anticipated bitcoin wallet app will have the most impact in China where Huawei happens to be the leading smartphone seller.

People in China have little to no access to apps from other parts of the world because the country’s government has blocked access to the Google Play Store and parts of Apple’s App Store, a move that has limited access to a vast array of crypto-related services. Well, not anymore.

“BTC.com is democratizing Bitcoin by breaking down barriers to entry and ensuring new users can access Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash in a simple, secure and trusted environment,” said Alejandro de la Torre, VP of Business Operations at BTC.com. “China is almost a ‘cashless economy’ today, accounting for almost 62% of all global mobile transactions. This dwarfs the estimated $49.3 billion in total mobile payment transactions in the United States in 2017, which highlights the amazing opportunity cryptocurrencies have in replacing fiat currency as the currency of choice for mobile payments. Huawei is leading the way in terms of adoption of blockchain technologies, and we’re excited to bring BTC.com to Huawei’s user base for the first time.”

BTC.com is a platform that allows users to safely store their private keys thus granting them full control of their cryptocurrencies. A huge chunk of the world’s population uses mobile devices to access the internet, something that has propelled the popularity of cryptocurrencies and mobile payment services.

In China, for instance, 95 percent of the internet users access online services on mobile smartphones. This new partnership between Huawei and BTC.com is a well-timed move that will get more internet and crypto users on board. The bitcoin wallet both companies will be bringing to the users will allow users to easily and securely send and receive Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

“Cryptocurrencies have recently expanded the human understanding of digital economy at a large scale. From our leadership position in China, the tip of the spear of mobile payments, we expect to see massive growth in global cryptocurrency adoption habits in the near future. That is the reason why Huawei selected BTC.com as our recommended quality app to manage digital currencies. In addition to being simple and secure to use, BTC.com offers an exclusive reward to all AppGallery users by gifting a starting amount of cryptocurrency,” Dr. Jaime Gonzalo, VP of Huawei Mobile Services said about the partnership.

Author: Aaron Decker