Photo by Pixabay.com

Lottery is an all-too-common game of luck. It’s been around since time immemorial. I bet you too have played lottery before – or at least have heard about it. The dream of becoming a millionaire in an instant lures players to it. But like any other forms of gambling, lotteries are riddled with problems.

Reports of massive fraud scandals and rigged winnings have made many skeptics and doubters. Although there are a lot of avid lottery bettors, a great majority is still uncertain about the integrity of national lotteries, especially since demonstrating its fairness remains questionable.

But with blockchain technology, lotteries can be made more transparent, safer, and fairer. This revolutionizing technology will open the entire process of lottery – from setting up the game to drawing the winning numbers to payouts – to scrutiny. And it doesn’t stop there; blockchain-based lottery platforms even allow you to set up your own lotteries. That’s basically putting the whole game into the hands of players – what could be more transparent than that?

Setting up and running a blockchain based lottery sounds exciting but before you do so, you might want to know a little more about it.

  • The blockchain offers a fast, secured and guaranteed way of doing financial transactions without the need for a bank or other third party operator.

  • It uses smart contracts for all transactions thereby ensuring fairness. Once agreed, nobody can modify or alter the terms of the contract and these contracts automatically execute the terms and conditions.

  • Blockchain-based lotteries are very transparent, thus developing trust of players. It allows you to prove the chances of winning and the method of payment before the game starts.

  • In fact, many online gambling companies are looking towards blockchain as their future platform due to its transparency.

  • In traditional lotteries, the house has a 66% chance of winning. With blockchain-enabled lotteries, the platform hopes to cut it down to 5-30% which means more chances for players to hit the jackpot.

  • Blockchain lotteries remove the middlemen (ticket buying services) from the process. Anyone with an internet connection can participate.

  • Prizes in blockchain lottery are based on the cryptocurrency. Pay-outs are made instantly without any deductions from third-party interveners.

  • All processes in a blockchain lottery are easily accessible and auditable; hence, players can easily verify the integrity of any process in the game.

  • Blockchain lotteries are decentralized and international (although some blockchain-enabled lotteries have shaky legal grounds).

  • A major challenge to blockchain-based lotteries is the lack of financial safeguards of cryptocurrencies. There is always the risk of fraud and phishing scams.

  • There are currently three major blockchain lottery projects: FireLotto, Kibo, and Smart Billions. The mechanics and rules of these platforms are pretty much similar. They differ mainly in the games played, amount of prizes, and payout method or token.

Blockchain technology is heaven-sent for the online betting and gambling industry. It offers solutions to the pervading technical glitches and questions on its integrity that have long hounded the lottery industry. Blockchain solves these problems which ultimately benefits all stakeholders. Hopefully, these solutions will make the game more reliable and fair.