When you think about it, gambling with cryptocurrency feels a lot like playing at a casino since both involve putting something valuable on the line for a chance to gain something else valuable. You could hit it big today and then lose it all tomorrow. But there are some pretty important differences between the two. Gambling is all about chance, while crypto relies more on math and cryptography.
In a casino, you're wagering against the house and the operators, but in crypto, you're up against other players who have similar amounts of money as you do. Plus, in traditional gambling, the house always has an advantage built into their games, while in the crypto world, it's more about having the right strategies and skills to come out on top.
You do not understand what trading is. That is why you are saying it is the same as gambling. Trading is not gambling but it is very risky just like gambling. Trading is trading. Gambling is gambling.
If it is about going to spot market to trade, that is trading. If you go to casino to gamble while playing some games, that is gambling.
The main characteristic of gambling is that you're expected to lose money in the long run, because of the casinos advantage (edge) that you mentioned. This is not true for cryptos, or at least not for Bitcoin, which, at least so far, tends to appreciate in value over the long term.
You could argue whether investing in Bitcoin is a zero-sum game (i.e., your profit is another man's loss). I'd say this is more true for short-term trading but not necessarily for long-term investing.
What OP is talking about is trading and not investing in bitcoin or other crypto coins. Investing in bitcoin is better if done at the right time but trading is very risky.
Also you only explained about bitcoin but there are other cryptocurrencies which have higher volatility and that resembles gambling.
Although you are right that gambling sites have house edge, unlike trading that people are the ones making the profit and the loss from each other.
If you think a little about the meaning of the two objects you are referring to, then you should find the definition of both. What is cryptocurrency and what is gambling.
If our minds put forward unscientific goals, it is possible that people with the same intentions will think that both are the same and you are right.
Casinos that support cryptocurrency for deposits, then cryptocurrency used as a means of betting can be called gambling. If people make cryptocurrency to exchange, then it is called trading. It depends on the type of trading that is done.
I will put it this simple trading actually has a variable loss where you can buy and sell anytime either at a loss, break even or at a profit but with gambling you have a fixed result either it is a win or loss. Trading actually gives you the edge to predict the market with analysis like either fundamentals or mostly used one which is technical analysis.
Although many can say that it is all about chance for both cases I think you can actually control the chance a bit with trading strategy and because you see the market trend and can make predict base on historical data and events on what next will happen but with gambling you dont have such opportunity.
This will be limited to not trading memecoins because to me the devs here have edge either to dump the token or rug it, so this is actually like gambling unlike trading utility coins
Do you mean trading with cryptocurrency or using cryptocurrency as a tool or means of exchange in a gambling scenario? If you mean trading with cryptocurrency then there is a big difference because gambling is solely based on luck, done during leisure and it's done as a form of entertainment while trading is based on technical and fundamental market analysis. Trading also involves buying and selling although both trading and gambling has uncertain outcomes but they are completely different in so many ways.
I think you are meshing gambling and trading together? They can be both done when it comes to crypto imo, you can gamble your money into trying out a cryptocurrency you found or something but even the smallest decision like investing in a random top 10 coin already takes it outside of the realm of gambling and puts it into the realm of trading. Why? Because you started thinking. You started making decisions about a certain asset you wanted to invest in and THAT can influence the result. That doesn't happen in gambling. No matter how much you start thinking about what game to play or what timing to roll the dice, the odds are and will always be the same.
If you were to pick something than trading to describe it but similar to gambling, then I'd call it a calculated gamble. It's a gamble, yes, but the calculated part makes the entire difference.
Gambling casino requires luck, especially when you are playing some casino games like plinko, crash or aviator, dice, etc, you chance of winning totally depends on luck, while trading or holding is more of skills than luck. If a trader trades blindly without analyzing the market before entering a trade, that's when it can be seen as gambling for luck alone. Although some people buys a coin without doing a proper research about the coin but they expect to make profit, which can only be possible if the token was a good one.
You are right but if a trader trades blindly without analyzing the market before entering a trade, that is not only when trading can be seen as gambling. Another one is when you hold a coin which can either give your much profit or turn your money to a complete loss. There are many shit coins in the market. Also some traders can be trading and be losing after analysis the market. What j meant is that not all traders that analysis the market that are good. Some people will continue to lose.
Altcoins are more than this. There are some with proper research that later become disappointing and led to loss. Nobody know that Luna can go from $119 to $0.000005.
I think two things were involved here, its either you are not getting it right or you are not being able to convey yourself to the extent that one can understand the exact point your bringing out, gambling is not crypto trading, in gambling, we can make use of either fiat or cryptocurrency to play our bets, this does not have to be whether the kind of casino being used determined your differences, all you do is to chose the platform to use for gambling, either online or by physical, also know that the physical casinos accept fiat mostly unlike the online platforms which accepts for the use of cryptos.
So I'm taking it that the OP is lumping Bitcoin in with $hitcoins when referring to
"Cryptocurrency". I like to separate them.
I see trading in $hitcoins as a gamble, I see trading in Bitcoin with a degree of knowledge
as a skill, being able to read charts by the minute, hour, day and week and
to make a call based on what it happening in the markets.
Gambling on sport or casino games is chance and luck based but there are
lots of unforseen factors which could make or break a bet in terms of sports
and in terms of casino games it depends on the computer programming.
Even shitcoin "gambling" can be very different from casinos. The biggest difference for me is that the gamblers can contribute to influence the result, albeit it will not always work (but it can).
Imagine you're gambling at a casino playing roulette, and you bet on the color black. Now you and other players could influence the result depending on how many people shout "We're opting for Black"
So even gambling with the most useless and most volatile shitcoins (memecoins, BRC-20, Runes), is actually very different in the sense that the result is not completely random but insteads depends on the way the gamblers behave.
In the case of Bitcoin I would say there is almost no gambling at all involved, as normally 80-90% of the price depends on some event or statistic, be it fundamental or technical. For very short term trading it can be perhaps compared to betting on real-life events like football or elections. And also in the case of Bitcoin, the "gamblers" can try to influence the result, for example posting permabullish predictions ("1 million in 5 years") or FUD ("Bitcoin will be cracked by quantum computers in months!") e.g. here in the forum, on Bitcoin blogs or social media.
At least for the longer terms and in some cases, users who really use Bitcoin (e.g. for transactions, as merchants or service providers) will add value to the ecosystem, so it's not a zero sum game. Bitcoin's (and other "serious" crypto projects') value proposition works a bit similar to a social network. So long term "investing" is even less similar to casino gambling than the short/midterm strategies mentioned above.
You are right, profiting from trading is about having a strong emotions and combining good strategy. The reason why I mentioned the emotion is because, the reason why some persons lose a lot in trading is because they have a weak emotion, they can not face the reality of seeing their position having a -50% lose. It's just like what happened to me just between this week and last week, I was shorting Bitcoin last week with entry price of $68k+ but disappointedly the price spiked to $70k to $73k and my liquidation price was $65k. If I had panicked, I would have closed the trade earlier but I held the position even when I was have -125% lose. I am still holding the position with only -25% lose now.
Altcoins are more than this. There are some with proper research that later become disappointing and led to loss. Nobody know that Luna can go from $119 to $0.000005.
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Pitifully, no body would have agreed if they were told such will happen.
There's always that fine line in between talking about Bitcoin and with some altcoins neither solid coins or shitcoins in the market on which there are those investors or individuals who do have that kind of approach on things like having those kind of impressions that they are really loving or wanting on dealing up on something that could give out that huge profits or returns. Gambling is really just that meant for the sake of fun and leisure and its really just that a bad thing that you will really be trying out it out to compare it on trading or investment on crypto space, not unless if you are dealing with meme coins or dealing up with futures then you can really say that you are somewhat in part of gambling on this sense, but eventually making out some engagement will really be just that totally depending into someones risks taking. Doesnt matter on what you are really that dealing into as long you are that making your crypto is at stake then it will really be just that meaning up on the same thing whether you do lost it or earn more basing up on how lucky you will be.
You are right. But I think as both can show some similarities, they are basically and very different. I can buy bitcoin and the price can start to decrease, making me to have unrealized loss. I can decide to be patient and continue holding my coin on a noncustodial wallet. There is high probability that bitcoin will not disappoint me as the price will later rise and rise further and I will make money from my unrealized profit. That means a loss may not be a loss if it is bitcoin holding but a loss is a loss while betting or gambling.
What is this thread doing on bitcoin speculation board, I think this is a wrong board for this discussion, since you are comparing cryptocurrency gambling and physical or online gambling, please move this thread to the gambling discussion board,.https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=228.0
But to your question, gambling both with cryptocurrency a d online casino are almost the same and nothing different except that both have a different way of making deposits and withdrawals.
I'm sure the OP didn't mean "gambling with cryptocurrencies in an online casino" but "speculation / trading with cryptocurrencies". Perhaps they can clarify. So the thread is correct in this subforum I think
Yes, it always depends on the timeframe and the urgency you have, e.g. if you need the money at a specific date and you bought the BTC specifically to sell them later for fiat. In this case we can also have the situation you described as "a loss is a loss".
This is basically similar with all financial investments with variable return (stocks, gold, Bitcoin ...) and indeed very different from gambling. In the case of memecoins or low-cap altcoins, where you normally only have a short timeframe to make profits because the coin will eventually be dumped into oblivion, the similarity is closer.
There is still a huge difference between both matters. As Pawell explained, gambling at a casino means losing in the long run. Investing, trading or he said gambling with cryptocurrency for the long term can give you better results. And about deposits and withdrawals, they don't have much difference because exchanges/wallets and casinos support various currencies/cryptocurrencies except for the wallets that are bitcoin-only like Electrum. One difference as mentioned by the few here is that we can logically compare these two is that you invest, and trade(gamble) against the market/everyone, and with the casinos, you gamble against the house.
There are cryptocurrencies that are very similar to buying a lottery ticket...
... now, in the very idea of your concern, yeah! since I do not see it as a logical approach from someone with a theoretical foundation in both subjects, but rather as the classic idea of dysfunctional thinking in reference to subjects that he does not master... therefore I think that you have taken an old idea in the discussion that sometimes occurs of thinking that trading is gambling.
In any case, the answer to your question is No.