For players, it isn't an issue of anonymity being a problem for fiat currency but not for bitcoin. Complete anonymity can be problematic for a number of reason - collusion, multi-accounting, botting, etc.

I knew you were aiming at this. I guess it would be the job of the operator to combat that and I don't think that verifying accounts with traditional KYC and AML procedures really reduces the risk or eliminate it. On most sites you don't need to fully verify an account unless you start cashing out. Thus, if the sites have P2P transfer it's easy to fund such an account or you just dump chips to it. I think there is other ways to combat collusion and/or multi-accounting than relying on account verification.

There is also no complete anonymity with bitcoins unless you know what you're doing and people who still keep their bitcoins with 3rd party providers such Coinbase or an online wallet are not taking full advantage of the actual financial freedom bitcoin has to offer.

Personally I believe that BTC poker has so far failed to gain serious traction simply for the reason that people don't understand this "digital currency thing" and therefore have this so called "first touch fear". It seems to complicated, it's bashed by mainstream media while banks worldwide are jumping on blockchain tech at the same time because at least they have finally realized how revolutionary the protocol actually is.

when dealing with bitcoin (or other crytpocurrencies) and in fact the entire industry one needs to think a little outside the box, more decentralized and "free". Dealing in BTC can be very anonymous (to some extend) but it can be also very transparent, depends on who you're dealing with and the concepts they follow. A lot of crypto-companies are what we would call "rouge" companies but many of them have success in the landscape because they use the blockchain to provide their customers with absolute transparency.

So yeah, there is a lot of pro and cons with bitcoin but for me personally the pros outweigh the cons and I've been involved in BTC now for a good 4 years and BTC has basically become my primary currency.

Agreed, as it is on all sites. And of course bitcoin sites aren't unique in that the players have to rely on the site to catch cheaters with no way to verify that they are - that's also the case at anonymous sites like Bodog.

Well, I'd agree that thee would be no difference in the site's ability to catch botters and many other cheaters. For colluders and multi-accounters, they lose a helpful tool in being able to find some links between accounts, but a smart cheater should be able to avoid said links even on a site with more knowledge about account holders - especially, as you say, considering a lot of verification doesn't happen until after the fact. Still, it makes things a lot easier when you don't have to worry about deposit methods linking accounts together.

But the big issue is consequences. All a cheater has to worry about on a truly anonymous site is losing the funds he has in his account at any given time. And when he can cash out his money very quickly and easily, and create new accounts very simply, there is very little downside to cheating. That's the big problem I see with allowing complete anonymity.

The problem is, it's the professional cheaters that will learn how to be completely anonymous, if it's possible.

Agreed.

Yes, there are. I get some of the appeal, but am so far not convinced that it's the amazing alternative that some claim it to be. That said, I'm glad to see sites offering the option.

Just took a look @cyberdeck.

The first game I see is a 72+8 chip MTT with following text in the side bar
"This tournament has a buy on of 80 chips including 5% rake. 95% of the buy-in go towards the prize-pool."

While I love how they actual state that you have to pay a fee for playing a tournament (compare to 888 where you have a hard time even finding the rake you pay), it is kind of a totally blatant rip-off to rake more than 10% - especially on a btc site - and advertising it as 5%

Or perhaps it was a mistake by the network when they put up the schedule and they are currently addressing the issue? I would ask questions first before making accusations. In addition the GTD schedule runs Thursday through Sunday during the soft-launch.

Check out their social media first and get informed or perhaps read the FAQ? https://cyberdeckpoker.freshdesk.com...om-the-tables-

As for the amount of rake collected. I was always surprised how people expect BTC rooms to compete with real money rooms by collecting less rake? Less rake doesn't help building a balanced selection of games or even a good GTDs schedule.

Ooops Bobo didn't even notice your reply

In generally I agree to everything you've said about colluders and co. Though one advantage in BTC poker (as silly as it might sounds) is still the smaller player pools. I mean you can't even get 6-7 NL cash games at SwC at the same time unless you're lucky. So I guess it's a lot easier to pick out "odd behaviour" at the tables or collusion. However, I've been multi-accounted at a final table myself on the same site. How I know? Both players disconnected at the same time and both came back at the same time and the guy got confused when he came back and I called him out

Hello.. quick question please... I continue to be very very unimpressed with Blockchain... Every time I try to log on to my account it takes 20-40 minutes to get the verification email thats needed.. many times I "time out" first. Also many time it takes an hour after I send funds to a poker site for it to get there. Can someone please suggest a different wallet thats good for poker sites? Thank you for your time JMG_118

Time it takes has little to do with blockchain.


And blockchain is the best. So...

Get rid of verification email and use your phone.

Agree, I've had no problems.

I've been checking out Cyberdeck Poker as well. Not much traffic yet, but I think they have a nice tourney schedule. I made a small withdrawal and it hit my wallet within 5 minutes. Software is decent as well... worth checking out IMO

Nitrogensports offers bitcoin poker as well and I have hadn't had any issues depositing or cashing out - not lots of traffic but there is enough that games and tournys go off on the reg.

I keep hearing blockchain wallet is the best and it is what I use as well, but yeah it has been slow for me at times for confirmations (up to 2 hours once). I usually use local bitcoins to switch my btc to fiat.

I wouldn't recommend relying on an online wallet when it comes to bitcoin. Blockchain.info is certainly solid when it comes to security and usability but using a 3rd party provider to (technically) hold your coins for you defeats one of the most basic principles of using bitcoin.

Which is "being your own bank" and not having to trust a 3rd party. Check out the Electrum wallet for your laptop or tower and I recommend using Mycelium or Jaxx as mobile wallet.

Whatever you do, never use a wallet of which you don't control the private keys!

Any reviews of cyberdeck poker? Seems like they have about as much traffic as SwC - any reason to switch over? How did you hear about this site?

General feedback on BitcoinTalk is positive.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1438144

Traffic kinda depends on the hours. Was 3-tabling across NL10 and NL20 for a few hours last night.

Why are the two major off shore (to the USA) sites (ACR & Bovada according to Pokerscout) accepting BTC deposits, but not allowing BTC cashouts ?

A little disconcerting IMHO.

BTC has been proving itself to be a very fast & reliable currency for electronic transactions.

If you can accept a BTC deposit, why on earth, would you not provide a BTC cashout option ?

The answer I fear, is not one I want to hear.

What's going on with ACR and Bovada, the two major sites that accept BTC, but don't offer a BTC cashout option ?

Of general interest:

Craig Wright revealed as Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

BBC

Bitcoin is the greatest thing that ever happened to Online Poker

Not really, no.

Well can now officially add Bovada to the list since they offer BTC deposits and withdrawals.

Very interesting reading this thread from beginning to end and somewhat seeing the evolution of bitcoin for poker ITT.

I'm an American professional player and I only play poker-sites that either gamble directly in bitcoin or cashout in bitcoin. Once you try it you wont go back.

With bitcoin poker, rake will diminish greatly especially for high stakes games. High stakes players will naturally be able to hold a lot of bitcoin from cashing out of the poker economy. And then they will be able to play high stakes games battling each-other on secured sites using bitcoin.

Its going to be the greatest thing to happen to online poker.


* Been playing online poker 3 years. Using bitcoin the last 9 months. Changes the game entirely.

** The value of bitcoin has gone up the last 16 months. But in theory the price of bitcoin should always go up because of fixed supply and growing demand.

Since players are having wallets closed on both Circle and Coinbase is it time to start using a second intermediary? Will it help? I am talking about:

gambling site>blockchain.info>circle>coinbase>bank

Yes, you (and everyone) should 100% always use an intermediary wallet. I would recommend downloading something like Electrum rather than blockchain.info though.

Problems with blockchain.info: they have had serious security mistakes in the past, they frequently have down times, they generally calculate the miner's fee pretty bad, etc. But at least with blockchain.info you also still hold the private key's yourself (HammerMan72 was wrong in earlier post about that), so it's better than most "online wallets". Still something like Electrum seems much better to me.

Also if anyone holds serious amounts of bitcoin, a hardware wallet is really mandatory. I would recommend the Trezor - it works both easy and very secure. A cheaper alternative is Ledger (but Trezor is much more secure.)

On the topic of security: always use 2FA too. I guess I am starting to get off-topic here, but security is very important when using bitcoin. Personally I believe more and more viruses/hackers are targeting bitcoin users. Bitcoin is great because it allows you to be in fully control of your own money, but it comes with a responsibility to keep it safe too.

circle pay is by far the best, was able to deposit with my cc and got bitcoin right away

Sorry if I wasn't clear I was asking about using TWO intermediaries, I already use one. Both Circle and Coinbase customers have had accounts closed using an intermediary.

I would never use an offline wallet, they are super complicated and I don't feel safer where I could easily screw something up..and I am a computer nerd. I feel good about blockchain.info with beefed up security: IP whilelist, second password for sending funds, text notifications, 2FA etc.

Ah okay... well:

gambling site>blockchain.info>circle>coinbase>bank

Is still only 1 intermediary? Since Circle sees it as 1 intermediary address?

But it's not 100% about that. I know that Coinbase is already searching LinkedIn profiles of customers to see where the funds come from and what job they have. So it's also just the KYC policies outside of tracing the blockchain. So probably using them not too much (and not too big amounts, better split the amount among different exchanges), potentially have other alternatives, etc. seems good.

But in the end 2 intermediary addresses is slightly better indeed, just needs to be 2 normal wallets (like 2 different blockchain.info accounts or addresses.) It makes it slightly more likely that you received some coins from someone else who happened to be gambling... so that is better.

Or the "Shared coin" functionality of blockchain.info. Not perfect in any way (better use JoinMarket), but still better than nothing if you want to hide the blockchain traces.




Ps, Electrum is really really easy, but if blockchain.info works good for you.. that's fine too