The arrival of cryptocurrencies has caused our opinions and habits to change in many areas, with decentralized finance platforms and digital asset reserves among the most noticeable ways that they’ve made an impact. However, by looking at other aspects, we can see how cryptos are also present in more unexpected ways.
Crypto Dice Games Are Now Available
Dice games are among the oldest ways of gambling and playing, with the earliest dice to be found dating back to Mesopotamia in 3000 BCE. They’ve been popular since then, with Yahtzee and craps among the most famous ways of playing. They’ve now been joined by cryptocurrency dice games like Scratch Dice and Rocket Dice, as well as the token-themed Bitty’s Dice.
These games work in a similar way to the original games, but allow players to add funds using cryptos such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE). Players send tokens directly from their wallet to the casino wallet, with withdrawals going in the opposite direction. The gameplay is based on those classic dice games of the past, although we can also see modern tweaks like the random multipliers that flash onto the screen in Lightning Dice. Card games and other table games like roulette have also made the move to a digital setting.
This crypto quiz gives users the chance to see whether they are degens, builders or watchers by answering a few short questions. By discovering your crypto personality type, you can see what type of Web3 activity is most likely to suit you.
Alt text: A singer uses the blockchain to earn crypto for her songs
We Can Take Back Control of Our Digital Identities
The ability to control and manage our own digital identity promises to be one of the most beneficial aspects of cryptocurrencies. Around the world, centralised authorities now largely control our data, with massive databases where all of our personal details are stored. Yet, the way that the blockchain offers the opportunity for us to manage a decentralized digital identity on the blockchain has opened up new options.
This could lead to benefits including greater privacy and security, with less risk of sensitive data being leaked or used improperly. The Worldcoin project is based on iris scans for users, which are used to verify their identity and confirm that they are human rather than artificial intelligence (AI). The overall idea is that users can confirm their identity and prove that they are humans without any fuss once AI starts to make it difficult for us to tell the difference between humans and bots.
Safer Control of Intellectual Property and Digital Rights
Cryptocurrency tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are being increasingly used to verify the ownership of digital assets. This covers music, art, and any other type of intellectual property where the ownership needs to be clearly shown. Since the blockchain is immutable and timestamped, it provides an appropriate way to verify who holds the rights over any type of registered assets.
This can also be a way of ensuring that royalties are paid transparently to the right people, with tokenization used to maintain control. Audius is an example of a decentralized music streaming platform where artists receive payments generated by fan activity. As another platform to take this approach, Opulous operates on various blockchains, with the OPUL token offering a simple way for musicians to earn royalties from their tracks.
Sending Money Peer-to-Peer Is Still a Key Benefit
With all of these ground-breaking ways of using cryptocurrencies, it’s worth noting that the final use we’re looking at is from the original use case that was projected for the Bitcoin currency. The Bitcoin white paper, released in 2009, is titled A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, and it simply envisages a network where people can send tokens to one another without any intermediaries. It was a revolutionary idea at the time and remains a clever use of blockchain technology to solve real-world problems.
With all of the other crypto projects that have emerged since then, it’s only fair that we recognize that the original purpose of BTC remains valid. However, with this original token being more widely used as a reserve asset, the focus has moved to other tokens, such as Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, to fill this role. Stablecoins that have their value pegged to real-world assets have exploded in the last few years, with the supply growing from $12 billion in 2020 to an expected $400 billion by the end of this year. Their lack of volatility means that they appeal to anyone who simply wants to send money without any risk of the value changing along the way.
These are just some of the ways that cryptos have started to change our lives, with a lot more new projects and tokens expected to arrive. It’s still early on the cryptocurrency adoption curve, meaning that we can expect plenty of change in the near future.
