Thanks to the inception of smart contracts, we can now enjoy decentralized gambling in a provably fair way. I've used a few gambling dApps in the past, and the experience was great. Except now that dApps charge high gas fees (on ETH) due to increased network congestion. But with L2 scaling solutions and alternative chains, this should no longer be a problem.
Do you think decentralized gambling dApps will eventually replace their centralized counterparts? If not, why? Which do you prefer? Centralized or decentralized gambling? Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
It is a question of friction and for as long as the decentralized gambling apps charge high fees and have no check and quick on- and off-ramp solutions, I think centralized versions will keep dominating.
Think about the need for L2 scaling solutions and how far we have come until now. It is not impressive what has been done so far. Barely anyone is using L2 solutions because they are still too cumbersome to set up. L2 solutions benefit from network effects the same way that BTC itself benefits from network effects. If not many people are using it, the growth of available L2 network solutions will be slowed down tremendously or fully stagnating.
In general, decentralized gambling is amazing although it is important to have a closer look at the oracle solutions that settles the bets. If you are talking about casino games where the RNG can be looked into and verified, then it is less of a problem. But when it comes to sports betting or any kind of betting where data needs to be fed into the smart contract in order to correctly settle the bet, oracles are needed.
Alternative chains could be a solution but that again means friction. If someone mostly uses BTC, but has to switch over to ETH or TRX, there is again friction involved.