The ongoing cryptocurrency wave has seen crypto tokens become a part of mainstream finance and the wider world like never before. More and more people are showing interest in this sector, while big businesses, companies, and banks are all finally getting on the bandwagon as well. In fact, we are even seeing research being done by central banks all over the world in terms of the feasibility of launching central bank digital coins. Thus, while the merits and demerits of individual cryptocurrencies will remain, it cannot be denied that the cryptocurrency industry, as a whole, is finally at a place where it will influence our lives for the foreseeable future. In this vein, there are also quite a few tokens being launched with specific uses and applications in specific industries, and one of the most interesting ones is the Wink token.
The Wink coin, or WIN token, is designed to support casino-style games on decentralized apps. All sorts of casino games are supported, from traditional gambling games such as poker or roulette to more innovative concepts that incorporate cryptocurrencies. One such example is that of ‘Moon’, a game where users have to try and time their exit from a soaring crypto market before it crashes. This is quite an encouraging project, as the online gambling market is worth more than $54 billion, and a token that can cut out casino middlemen could be transformative.
Wink is based on the TRON network, where it finds the information to settle smart contracts. This makes it an ‘oracle’ – these ‘oracles’ seek out the data and information needed to trigger smart contracts, and are therefore vital to the functioning of these contracts. This makes it perfect for use in gambling, as it can be used to retrieve information around a particular bet, determine who won, and therefore trigger the payout to the winning party. Thus, a service that would normally need a fee paid to have a third-party authenticator is being done for free here, also removing subjectivity and doubts around the trustworthiness of online casinos at the same time. That should also make the potential of this sector quite obvious, as having a token or a blockchain authenticate and verify bets will be a game-changer for the industry.
Wink is also trying to build a user base by encouraging users to build their own gaming apps on the blockchain, or dApps. The idea is that the more games there are for users to play using Wink, the more developers will get interested which will then again bring more users into the system. Of course, Wink is not the only token attempting to change online gambling – FunFair is even bigger crypto with a market cap of $485 million that is built on the Ethereum network and is aiming to do largely the same thing as Wink. There are other new tokens such as Wagerr that are also looking to build similar systems around sports and esports gambling, among others, and so this is definitely a space with a lot of growing interest. At the moment, Wink can only be bought through a small South Korean exchange known as Bithumb Global, but it is likely that it will be brought to bigger and more popular exchanges as time passes and the token becomes more popular.
Some crypto analysts and advisors expect the price of Wink to increase by anywhere between 287% to 779% in the next five years. At the moment, there are a little over 310 billion coins in circulation.
Overall, the prospects for this token are quite promising, even though there have been some issues recently with regard to a potential cyber attack on its website which caused it to shut down for over two weeks. This did dampen some of the enthusiasm around the token, but in the medium term, as we have seen, there are quite a few analysts who are quite bullish on this token due to its ability to transform the online gambling market. Wink is definitely a token to watch out for in the next few weeks and months, and making it more easily accessible in the US and elsewhere should be a priority for its creators, as this will immediately lead to an increase in demand and price.