New Blockchain-Based Online Casinos — Weekly Round-up for July 07, 2017
By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Jul 7, 2017
Blockchain-Based Online Casino ICO Raises $9 Million In 30 Minutes
Founders of Singapore-based DAO Casino raise target sales of tokens to $25 million
Singapore-based DAO Casino, a blockchain-Ethereum based platform, is enjoying a quite extraordinary run in its crowdfunding ICO (Initial Coin Offering), claiming in a press release Friday that following launch on June 29, the ICO had raised $9 million in 30 minutes. Current information from that company indicates that funds raised are now over $12 million with plenty of time still to go in the 28-day offering.
So successful has the ICO been that the DAO founders have raised their target amount to $25 million. Funds will be used in the further development of the decentralised protocol for the gambling industry, with the founders predicting that the concept will create major disruption with its improvements in fairness, transparency and mutual profitability through its use of blockchain technology.
The DAO press release assures investors that the company has measures in place to ensure rapid development and implementation of the project. In order to bring accountability among the founders, stakeholders, and others involved in the project, their tokens will be vested for two years accompanied by a six-month cliff.
Due to this measure, the BET tokens will mature by 25 percent in value every six months. As a preparation for the token sale, the contract is currently being audited to guarantee complete security and safety.
Of the BET tokens created in the ICO, 70 percent will be issued to the participants, 10 percent to early adopters and founders, 10 percent for bounties and another 10 percent for the creation of legal entity and other expenses. The revenues generated from the crowdsale will be deployed for Research and Development (60 percent), Operations (20 percent), Marketing (15 percent) and Legal (5 percent) expenses.
DAO claims that its protocol will enable independent game developers to be automatically rewarded for their work when online casinos list their games, while rectifying the current status quo where some developers do not retain the rights to their games.
The concept is an open ecosystem for betting titles that does not require third party involvement. It is a decentralised governance system built on Ethereum that automatically rewards all developers, auditors and community members for their contributions. Punters can play games by accessing front end platforms with a familiar and straightforward user interface.
Initial Coin Offerings are a convenient form of cyber currency crowdfunding outside of the traditional financial system.
PKR Poker Founder To Launch Blockchain-Based Online Casino
Jez San has a new venture featuring new technology
Jez San, the British entrepreneur who has started many innovative companies, including the recently shuttered PKR Poker, has announced that he has raised $200,000 for a new online gambling venture based on blockchain technology.
Although his Funfair venture has a website https://funfair.io/token-presale-news/ there do not currently appear to be any signed up clients for the product.
Blockchain is a financial transaction solution which has developed a number of variations, including the one San has opted for – Ethereum. San points out that player trust is critical in online gambling and the transparency of blockchain is reassuring for them.
He claims he has incorporated this transparency in Funfair by using “smart contracts”, which are contained within the blockchain. Among other things, these can be set up to ensure players’ money paid in during a game is held separately from stakes won by the house, in an effort to gain the trust of gamblers.
San says his model offers advantages to operators, enabling them to offer a fairer game in which the possibility of cheating is minimised, and making lower operational costs possible.
Funfair Technologies Raises $25M To Fund Blockchain-Based Gaming Tech Platform (Update)
Development of Ethereum casino platform designed to deliver “unrivaled transparency for consumers and efficiency for casino operators”
As reported earlier by InfoPowa, FunFair Technologies, a start-up by tech entrepreneur Jez San, raised $10 Million in under four hours from the presale of FUN tokens that will ultimately power its new venture, a blockchain-based gaming technology platform.
In addition, FunFair also received over $15 million in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from individual contributors as well as institutional funds, including BlockTower Capital, Kryptonite1 and Pantera Capital in the Phase 1 funding round.
FUN Token, a cryptocurrency, will power every aspect of FunFair’s Ethereum-based casino platform and protocol. Players will bet using FUN, developers and affiliates will be rewarded for their participation in FUN, and operators and licencees will pay players out using FUN. FUN will also power the smart contracts that run the platform, including FunFair’s unique new Random Number Generator and Fate Channel services.
“I’m thrilled that the blockchain community and institutional investors have so emphatically backed the team, our vision and the progress we’ve already made,” Jez San, founder and chief executive officer of FunFair said.
“Now it gets even more exciting as we work towards a live platform and the creation of a truly fair, transparent and player-focused gaming world.”
“My intuition is that Funfair is going to be huge,” Dan Morehead, founder and chief executive officer of Pantera Capital commented.
“Funfair, the team and the technology, were very impressive. Gaming is a major vertical set for disruption by smart contract technology and Funfair are by far the furthest ahead in terms of functionality and playability,” said George McDonough, CEO of Kryptonite1.
Founders Jez San, Jeremy Longley and Oliver Hopton unveiled their plans in early June (see previous InfoPowa reports), with the publication of commercial and technical white papers, notification of the Token Presale and an early platform prototype with casino games playable on an Ethereum test network, using FunFair’s unique Fate Channels.
A larger Phase 2 funding event is expected later in the year, prior to which FunFair will focus on more advanced iterations of its proprietary Fate Channel technology, a larger suite of games including Roulette and Blackjack, and an Alpha release of the platform before year end, a press statement reads.