There is no question that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been a hugely disruptive force in a number of spheres. From the financial markets to the world of online entertainment, there are few areas in which their influence has not been felt in the past few years.
The case of web-powered entertainment solutions being shaped by cryptocurrency is especially interesting, since it impacts both the consumers of online experiences as well as the companies that provide them.
So what are the most obvious results of the rise of cryptocurrency in this ecosystem and where will this path lead in the future?
Payment Revolution
While the investment potential of cryptocurrencies has helped boost the profile of the biggest players in the market, at heart they are still designed to provide consumers and businesses with a means of making and receiving payments for goods and services.
Many online entertainment platforms have cottoned on to the advantages that they offer, chiefly in the form of completely secure and truly anonymous transactions, so that customers can add and withdraw funds without fear of having their cash purloined by cybercriminals in the process.
Cryptocurrencies are widely accepted on many web-based gambling sites, for example. Operators may offer integration for this type of payment method either directly, or via platforms like Skrill which have their own cryptocurrency functionality baked in. However, it’s worth pointing out that many established brands like Casumo do not offer cryptocurrency payment integration.
The one issue with this change is that cryptocurrencies can be very volatile. This is perhaps why online entertainment platforms have not shifted away from traditional payment methods altogether, but instead offer a mixture of options for customers so that they can cover all their bases and not be impacted too significantly by major fluctuations in values over time.
Security Improvements
Financial transactions are always fraught with a little risk, and there are positive and negative aspects to all sorts of different payment platforms that exist at the moment.
Since awareness of the security issues that average web users face when heading online is growing, there is a similar uptick in demand for services to be as secure as possible when it comes to dealing with deposits and withdrawals.
For online entertainment, this is particularly pertinent since transactions can be carried out so frequently. Over 200 billion apps are downloaded annually, for example, which means hundreds of millions of people worldwide will want to know that their purchase is protected as comprehensively as possible.
The same is true from a privacy perspective; modern consumers are worried about how their private data is being used, especially as breaches are so common.
Cryptocurrencies do away with a lot of these fears, providing an incredibly robust approach to security which also puts users in charge of their own data, without letting providers know everything about them from a single transaction.
Future Blockchain Benefits
The blockchain tech which underpins cryptocurrencies is not just applicable in a financial sense, but is being adopted and adapted to fit a number of other areas. This will invariably influence the online entertainment market in the long term, although there are a few issues to iron out before the true revolution arrives.
The inner workings of blockchain are understandably complex, but it all ties into the aforementioned security advantages of cryptocurrencies. By encrypting transactions and digital interactions of all kinds, it could make it easier and more secure for people to sign up to websites, manage access to entertainment, retain rights to content across different platforms and even give content creators more control of how and where there output is used.
The full extent of the impact that cryptocurrency will have on online entertainment could take decades to be assessed, but early signals suggest that it should be a game-changer.