Can Ethereum casino games disrupt the online gaming industry?
(or: The cost of gaming on the ethereum blockchain…)
In Ethereum gaming, we took a look at the existing solutions… and although on the most part, they are providing a fair and player protected experience (the RNG in many implementations is provably fair — often committed in advance of the games, or chosen independently by the blockchain using techniques like block-hash etc, and the gameplay is processed inside a smart contract where the game outcome decision can also be provably fair)…. However, the new problem is transaction fees — notably Gas Costs. If each transaction — each bet. each win — is done on-chain, then each bet and each win requires a payment of gas to the network. A slow and expensive way of implementing the games that is uneconomic and uncompetitive.
If blockchain casino games are supposed to disrupt the incumbent online gaming industry they can’t just be more fair — they also have to be lower cost! And so far at least, every ethereum casino game is significantly more expensive to play than the incumbent games people are already playing, which would mean there’s zero chance they will succeed in disrupting the incumbent online gaming business. Players simply wont pay extra for fairness! (and we’re talking a LOT extra)
We think that this new generation of ethereum casino games are to be applauded for their innovation and in most cases their fairness. They have definitely improved the experience of player trust and we think that all of our peers have made great strides to help the player receive a fair game. At FunFair our motto is Fun, Fast and Fair and we mentioned above that we think Frugal is important too. We think that most ethereum games often can most likely tick the Fair box, but they usually are much worse on the other F’s (Fun, Fast, Frugal etc) — and for them to compete with incumbent online games they need to have all of the above! Just being Fair isnt enough. Some of these games are just science experiments that prove the game was possible, but theyre so unplayable and un-fun we think players will never give them serious consideration (apart from in blockchain, where players are more tolerant of high gas costs and pretend they don’t really exist)