If you're new to online gambling, you might have noticed that more and more casinos online are showing that they are provably fair.
But, what does it even mean? Curious? So are we! Let's figure it out.
Our Internet runs on cryptography and it's used to secure our communications, protocols, authentication and more. It's the science of keeping information secret from outside observers.
Hey! How is it related to online gambling?!
Well, well.. online casinos which brag about being provably fair normally use a cryptographic hash function. A cryptographic hash function allows you to generate a signature for a message (information) that is almost perfectly unique and exclusive to that particular message.
One example could be, for example, the SHA-1 hash of the word hello is as follows: aaf4c61ddcc5e8a2dabede0f3b482cd9aea9434d
There's one significant property to note here. Hashes are only calculated one way, you can't use a hash to reduce it to its original message/information.
We can't obtain hello from that gibberish above.
Sounds cool, right?
Provably fair algorithms help users to verify the integrity of the casino and whether they are able to manipulate the outcome of the games in their favour or not. In simpler terms, it is used to verify a casino's fairness towards its players.
It's kind of like a mathematical equation. It has two or three variables that define the outcome of a game that you're playing.
And, the fun fact is that one of these variables depends upon you. When I say you, I actually mean your browser, but there are some casinos that let you define this parameter yourself.
So let's get right into it.
Server Seed: This variable is provided by the game operator. It is not revealed to the user until the game is over.
Client Seed: This variable comes from your browser (or you). The game provider doesn't know about this variable until you actually place the bet.
Nonce: Nonce refers to the game you're playing. For instance, if you are playing your 50th game, then its value would be 50 as well. Not every casino uses this variable, though. It's optional.
So as we can see, Server Seed and Client Seed are two fundamental parts of the provably fair algorithms out there.
The operator of the game shows you a hashed version of the server seed before. But, why do they show you a hashed version and how does it help you?
Once you see a hash version of the server seed, you can save and record it. This refers to the actual server seed that the casino is using to play your game.
Operators show you a hashed version because if they actually showed you the real server seed, then it will put them at a disadvantage as you would be able to calculate the outcome of every game without even playing it!
Now, your browser generates a server seed that also looks like gibberish just like the Server Seed. However, the point to note here is that comes from your browser and the casino is not aware of it.
When you press that submit button, your browser sends the gameplay instructions to the server which now has both the variables needed to calculate the game results.
Server Seed and Client Seed are concatenated (put) together.
For example, if my Server Seed is ABC and my Client Seed is DEF, then the resulting string would look like this: ABC:DEF
Although every casino concatenates differently, however, the essence is the same.
This resulting string is then converted to an outcome. For example, it may be hashed into a hexadecimal string and then the hexadecimal may be used to convert it to a decimal number (in the case, of a game such as Dice).
After the game round ends, the server seed reveals to you the actual Server Seed which you can use to verify the integrity of the game.
You would then be able to use an online hash calculator to replicate the Server Seed's hash that was shown to you before.
If it matches, then great job, the casino did not lie to you. However, that's not enough!
You now need to calculate the outcome of the game yourself which is generally not possible unless the algorithm is not open source. It's important that the casino you are using has a verification page that is open source (or provides details to the algorithm). You once again concatenate the server seed and your client seed (which you knew from the start) and then calculate the outcome using it. If it matches the one shown by the server, then the game operator is not lying to you.
This way, modern casinos allow you to verify the fairness of their games so easily!
If you are looking for a provably fair casino, don't forget to check out Pasino.com. All the games are fair and can be verified for their integrity using the open-source bet verifier.
