Cryptocurrency is everywhere at the moment, it is on the news and in the headlines and currently shows no sign of going anywhere.

There has been a general distrust of crypto in the past, from investors and cynics alike, but 2021 has seen a seismic shift in how people view crypto. Since Elon Musk’s Tesla company invested in $15bn worth, it has become far more mainstream. The rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has further strengthened the crypto market and as famous people and brands release their own NFTs, the industry becomes more solid and reliable.

You can now use crypto across a variety of industries and platforms, one of which is online gaming. Whether playing in an online casino or watching an eSport, you can benefit from using cryptocurrency in many different ways. So, if you are new to cryptocurrency and are wondering how to get started using it in your online gaming, here is how.

Choose Your Cryptocurrency

As with real money, there are different types of crypto you can invest in. Bitcoin is the most obvious and perhaps widely known, although Ethereum is currently stealing its spotlight. As an online gamer, you are not looking for the best investment, but the most widely used. We recommend sticking with Bitcoin, although if you are looking to invest as well, it might be worth diversifying.

Choose a Platform

To be able to purchase cryptocurrency, you need to buy from a platform, similar to buying or selling currency when performing forex. There are plenty out there, with Coinbase being one of the most popular crypto platforms, but Etoro, BlockFi and Robinhood are all widely used also.

Store Your Cryptocurrency

Typically, you store your cryptocurrency in a wallet, a digital wallet, which is software that stores the private and public keys that link you to the blockchain where your cryptocurrency exists. It sounds complicated, but it really is not. You see, cryptocurrency is not a physical product, it is stored on a blockchain, and a wallet is where you keep the keys to that transaction. There are several types of wallets: desktop, mobile, and hardware being the three most popular.

Identify a Game

The process for obtaining cryptocurrency might be drawn out, but once you have some, the only barrier is finding a site that allows you to pay with your new investment. Cryptocurrency is becoming a common way to fund online gaming sites, especially outside of the US states with legalized online poker. Those states don’t allow money games, but crypto is a way of getting around that law with developers that offer poker games, casino games and even online slots. These sites tend to be regulated quite tightly, so using crypto is another layer of protection for you, and may even lead to a relaxing of regulations around the United States.

If your gaming is not casino orientated but leans towards first-person shooters, then you are in luck. CS: GO is a popular eSport and it recently awarded the players with ‘sats’, or satoshi, which is a microunit of Bitcoin (much like cents on the dollar). In many games, cryptocurrency can be used to buy skins, weapons and other NFTs too. The Dapper Labs 2017 release CryptoKitties allowed players to use Ethereum to buy cats, which could be bred and then traded. One such cat is now valued at $170,000.

Another game you might choose to play is Horizon’s Skyweaver, a card-based trading game in the vein of Hearthstone. The difference is the cards are all NFTs, owned exclusively by the player, which cannot even be accessed by the developer once a gamer owns them. Those cards can then be traded to other players too, making the game a pioneer in the cryptocurrency/blockchain industry.

It isn’t just crypto making elements of our lives easier; most mobile technology professes to do so. If you want to find out how checking out this article about how apps are improving your life might be beneficial.