Cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more mainstream. At this point in time, it’s safe to assume that the average Joe knows what Bitcoin is or at least has heard about it. But despite that knowledge, the adoption of cryptocurrencies into regular financial practices is by no means massive.

A few people use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies here or there to pay a freelancer or buy from a small collection of vendors that accept BTC. A larger group of people buy BTC and altcoins as an investment. The fast rise of Bitcoin from an internet oddity to a currency costing thousands of dollars apiece prompts plenty of people to look for investment opportunities in the crypto market.

But even today, few vendors accept crypto. We’re certainly moving in the right direction as some companies, notably those dealing with programming and web services, start accepting BTC. The biggest breakthrough, though, is in the casino industry.

Online gambling is an industry where plenty of players prefer to stay anonymous, so both gamblers and casinos started adopting cryptocurrencies. This is happening despite the majority of gamblers being over 35 and not big on tech in general. If you read a Bitstarz review or any other bitcoin casino, you’ll find that not only BTC is accepted, but a range of altcoins are offered. Here’s a list of the top five of them.

ETH

If you enter any online casino that makes accepting cryptocurrencies one of its marketing points, you’re guaranteed to see bitcoin there. Some casinos even go as far as to brand themselves as Bitcoin casinos. The next biggest cryptocurrency in the casino community is Ethereum.

This one is a no-brainer as Ethereum was specifically created to be a better version of Bitcoin, one that would address all the major problems with BTC. Notably, the Ethereum network features smart contracts, a security feature that would be more than welcome in Bitcoin.

This feature lets users conduct transactions safely. A smart contract is a piece of code that ensures the funds are only sent when some conditions are met. This makes fraud a lot less likely and, naturally, attracts users.

On top of that, the cost of the transaction and the time it takes for the blockchain to process it are lower than those of Bitcoin. This is why there are dozens of online casinos that accept Ethereum.

BCH

While BCH or Bitcoin Cash isn’t as developed or as valuable as Ethereurm at this moment, it often is featured at online casinos as a supplementary payment method even if ETH isn’t. Why does this happen? The answer is simple, they both are connected in terms of how they work and what wallets you can use to send these currencies. Effectively, they’re a part of one ecosystem and it makes sense to accept both.

At half the price of Ethereum (BCH is $313 and ETH is $647 at the time of writing), Bitcoin Cash didn’t see major fluctuations in price since 2019 and keeps growing in price. On top of that, the transaction cost is much lower than what you’d pay with Bitcoin. These two factors make BCH a decent choice for conducting payments. The name certainly doesn’t hurt either.

The only problem is that transaction time seems not to be dissimilar from what you’d experience with Bitcoin. It’s around 10 minutes. Despite this, BCH can be found in dozens of online casinos around the world.

LTC

Litecoin (LTC) is also a Bitcoin hard fork, one that is cheaper to purchase than BCH and also less known. One significant improvement over both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash is that the Litecoin network can process blocks with an average speed of 2.5 minutes. This is a significant improvement over BCH and the reason why Litecoin is becoming more and more accepted at online casinos and other vendors.

At the time of the writing, LTC costs $102 per coin and the transaction cost is around $0.00057. That’s virtually negligible in comparison with using a credit card, let alone Bitcoin.

Alas, name recognition prevents Litecoin from becoming as widespread as BTC in the industry or much else. However, you can find it in a couple of dozen casinos.

DASH

Dash is also a Bitcoin hard fork, and while it doesn’t introduce quite as much innovation as Ethereum, it does have some defining features that make it stand apart from the other altcoins. For starters, Dash is just as cheap to use as Litecoin.

The transaction costs are well under one US cent which makes them practically non-existent. The waiting time for an average transaction is also similar to that of Litecoin, around two and a half minutes. Even the prices of the two Bitcoin forks are similar, Dash is only a couple of dollars cheaper than LTC, measuring at around $97 at the time of writing.

Well, what’s the catch with Dash, you might ask? Unlike Litecoin, Dash has two ways of sending funds. You can send Dash via InstantSend that is significantly faster and cheaper, but your transaction details will be publicly available for everyone to see on the blockchain explorer. You can also opt-in for PublicSend. This way, the transaction will take a bit longer and cost a bit more, but the details will not be available on the blockchain explorer.

This additional layer of privacy is what made Dash an appealing option for many vendors including several VPN providers and plenty of online casinos.

XMR

Monero is a cryptocurrency that can’t boast a positive name. It has been tied to some international scandals and is currently banned in several countries across the world. But all this is the case because of Monero’s greatest benefit, privacy.

Unlike Bitcoin where anyone can trace any transaction on a publicly available blockchain browser, Monero is a private digital currency. That means all transactions are untraceable, even in its own blockchain.

It’s a no-brainer then that XMR would be widely accepted by the online casino industry. The only thing that stifles its growth is being banned in some countries. The legal requirements prevent registered businesses from listing Monero as a valid payment method.

A small step for an online casino, a giant leap for the crypto community

When it comes to online casinos, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and others are just another option among many. When it comes to cryptocurrency, this acceptance that is becoming wider and wider by the minute is a sign that a whole industry can be overtaken by crypto.

While altcoins are not by any stretch of the imagination the main payment method at online casinos, the fact that it would soon become standard for gambling sites to accept them can’t but warm a cryptocurrency enthusiast’s heart.