Meet SmartBox, The First “Offline” Blockchain Gambling Machine

D.Vasic image
· 27 Dec 2017

So far, Bitcoin gambling sites have only used cryptocurrencies as deposit and withdrawal methods. Sure, some game software developers have created a couple of online casino games with Bitcoin in mind. However, none of them has attempted to create a gambling machine based on blockchain technology. Well, none until now.

A developer called SmartPlay.tech has created a slot machine, appropriately named SmartBox, entirely based on blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. The most amazing part is that this is an offline machine intended for brick-and-mortar casinos. In fact, they have already shipped test models to see how they fair in the real gambling environment. Before we start talking about these tests and their expectations, let’s see how this machine actually works.

Meet SmartBox, The First “Offline” Blockchain Gambling Machine

What’s under the hood?

As it turns out the technology is quite complicated. Shocking, right? Fortunately, anyone can understand the basics. A single SmartBox machine contains three essential hardware parts – a gaming table with a touch screen, a QR screener to read your cryptocurrency wallet, and a depositing terminal for conventional currencies. As for the gaming software, it currently runs a standard roulette game. However, in the future, they plan to add slots, poker, bingo, blackjack, and more. We can even expect to see some Bitcoin dice games.

What’s with the testing?

SmartPlay.tech is currently conducting tests in an offline casino to gather some data and see how their machines fairs in the real gambling environment. Their main goal is to measure how blockchain technology performs in the economy of an actual brick-and-mortar casino.

They plan to track stats about game time, spendings, turnover, number of players, as well as try to create a picture of an average consumer. During these tests, SmartBox won’t accept real payments. However, once the system goes live, they plan to support many different cryptocurrencies, as well as conventional ones.

As you can imagine, SmartPlay.tech has a lot invested in these tests. If the data comes out satisfactory, they plan a mass production of these machines. Even though it’s still early to talk about the future of this company, we hope that they succeed.

Bitcoin gambling is THE future, and the more similar efforts we see, the more mainstream it will become. So, let’s hope that SmartBox passes with top grades so that we too can get a chance to play on it.