When an online gaming site describes their games as provably fair, it's important to define the two words individually first.
Provably - This is how you describe something that has evidence to match its description.
Fair - This word is used to describe results that are achieved honestly or without hidden advantages for either side. It means nobody has cheated.
The reason it is crucial that a casino does not have the ability to change the result after a wager is placed is that if they can, there is always the potential for mistrust between players and the host for every loss. We all want to believe that people who operate the sites we frequent would not stoop to the level of intentionally creating losses for its players, and they probably don’t. However, the mere fact that a site could alter the outcomes and keep it concealed is a weak spot. Most places would never cheat their clients this way, however, without a way to prove that your results are "clean" and "unrigged" then there is always the question… If a casino CAN change the result, what if they do?
This is why every bet on Bitvest has complete transparency and a simple way to verify that the bet was probably fair and has not been tampered with so this eliminates this concern for players entirely.
Visualize that you are standing at a wooden table but facing away. Bob flips a coin, then puts it under a cup then steps away from the table. Bob tells you to turn around. You notice an upside-down cup on the wooden table. You proceed to bet $1 on the table wagering "heads." You lift the cup yourself, and you see the coin facing up as “heads” Bob couldn’t have possibly altered the coin’s side, and you could've chosen either. Resulting in a provable result for a win or loss of $1.
Now, you may say that the house still has control of the results. The house could notice players like picking heads and decide to put the coin tails-side up more often. There is another step that can be taken to give neither the house or the player full control over the results.
In this game, you make a bet on if we’ll get a reaction between vinegar and baking soda. First, you turn your back. The house puts either vinegar or baking soda into the "volcano." You then wager $1 on whether or not the volcano will erupt. You then choose to bring vinegar or baking soda to the volcano. You walk up to the volcano and look in to make sure the house has played fair and not put something like water or flour in, you then put in what you previously chose since you aren’t allowed to alter your choice. The volcano then erupts (or doesn’t) and the result is determined.
In the end, neither the house or you knew what each other would pick. The house couldn’t simply choose to make the volcano erupt since they are unable to predict whether you’d have selected vinegar or baking soda. Likewise, you were locked into your choice before you got to see what the house put in. This makes the game probably fair.
We will go over the technical details in-depth of exactly how provably fair results are determined at Bitvest in part two of this article. Part two will also contain a simplified version of our verification tool explaining step-by-step how it all works.
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