Traditional RNG is becoming increasingly old-fashioned for crypto gamblers and casinos alike as provably fair games become more popular, allowing players to participate in verification of the game’s outcome for themselves by using blockchain technology to record results.
However, there are increasing concerns as to whether or not casinos are using provably fair as little more than marketing claims while fundamentally remaining opaque in regards to their practices and methods.
What Does ProvablyFair Do?
ProvablyFair is setting out to test whether or not provably fair games offered on crypto casinos are actually what they market themselves as. They see the term being used too loosely by casinos, stating “The problem is that most implementations today only apply this concept to the narrowest part of the game: the RNG.”
In addition, they want to educate crypto players on what provably fair really is, how it works, and how to use it. They claim players are being taken advantage of by not knowing the technicalities, claiming
This knowledge gap is exactly what some operators rely on. They count on players seeing the words “provably fair” and assuming that means every part of the game is trustworthy. Sometimes, this even extends to making the verification process deliberately cumbersome and time consuming, in an effort to discourage those who do attempt it.
Just how traditional RNG games become certified by a third party testing lab, the site is looking to do the same thing, but for crypto gamblers and casino operators. The fault in RNG certification, they claim, is that traditional certifications are “primarily designed to satisfy licensing requirements, not to provide end-user verifiability.”
ProvablyFair looks to upend the RNG certification model and craft a new one, better suited to blockchain based games. According to the site, their audit methodology goes farther by including:
Standards & Auditing Methodology
In order to close this knowledge gap, ProvablyFair conducts comprehensive audits beyond RNG. According to their site, they evaluate a game’s provable fairness based on these questions:
RNG integrity: Is the random number generator open-source, transparent, and unmanipulated?
Game logic behavior: Does the code treat inputs fairly and predictably?
RTP simulation: Does long-term gameplay match the advertised payout rate?
Source code transparency: Can the logic be independently reviewed or recreated?
Commit-reveal architecture: Was the server seed locked in before the game started?
Per-round reproducibility: Can each result be mathematically recreated?
By asking these questions, the site looks for key standards for casinos and game providers, namely:
RNG verifiability using client-server commit-reveal
Transparent, reproducible game logic
Public disclosure of RTP and house edge
Round-by-round auditability
Player-side verification tools that actually work
The Fairness Framework
Provably fair is an inherently technical system, but they look to actually analyze and verify fairness claims based off 8 attributes:
RNG Algorithm Transparency
Seed architecture integrity
Server Seed Commit-Reveal
Game Logic Reproducibility
Round-by Round Verifiability
Client Seed Customization
Public Verifier Tool
RTP & Edge Declaration
This framework guides their auditing process on a deep technical level that most casinos’ provably fair systems won’t reveal. This makes their certification process unique from traditional RNG certification by essentially looking at the mechanics of all the tools that facilitate provably fair games on sites.
What ProvablyFair Reports Cover
With their methodology, ProvablyFair is assessing not only potential problems with provably fair marketing claims, but also how they can be addressed.
Their audits cover
System Architecture Overview
RNG and Oracle Control Analysis
Game Logic Verifiability
Jackpot Wallet Behavior and Statistical Improbability of Wins
Upgradeability and Admin Control
Payout System and Liquidity
Summary of Decentralization vs Trust Claims.
Conclusion
Recommendations
Evidence
The highly detailed reports they’ve published so far take each piece of evidence and account for it to determine to what extent the casino utilizes provable fairness, revealing that some use it more than others.
In other words, the reports don’t just cover whether a game is provably fair, they cover the end-to-end system to determine how true casinos’ claims are.
What Do Casinos & Players Think About ProvablyFair?
The site has generated some controversy when it comes to analyzing crypto casinos’ provably fair claims, usually after they release their audit report.
Notably, they’ve been in a bit of X/Twitter war with No-KYC casino Luck.io, which markets itself as a “A trust-free, accountless Solana casino” offering “non-custodial, instant on-chain withdrawals, provably fair slots”. All of this should sound pretty enticing to crypto gamblers, but their audit revealed some falsehoods in their claims.
ProvablyFair came to the conclusion that the casino’s site infrastructure “is a hybrid of on-chain and off-chain components”. Still, they were not completely dismissive, saying that there was more transparency than traditional casinos, but still “falls short of a fully trustless system”
ProvablyFair’s X Account claims that Luck.io affiliate accounts have been attacking them, while stating,
“We never accused anyone of wrongdoing. We presented evidence, analysis, and clear steps to align their tech with their claims. If they followed the recommendations, they could lead the space.”
Ivar Navarro, Legal Lead and Consultant for Betbolt.com, raised awareness about the report, encouraging users to read it. It’s always a positive sign when industry professionals bring to light these kinds of efforts.
What Crypto.Casino Thinks
There’s a lot of similar groups looking to help players, like we do, but go about it in misguided ways.
ProvablyFair.org stands out.
Their technical breakdown and approach demonstrates a clear understanding of the mechanics used to facilitate these games on a deep level, in turn helping users truly understand their gaming experience. This technical knowledge and information shows clear distinction between the varying levels of provably fair, and showing the need for an actual standard of provably fair, rather than just a broad term that can be co-opted for marketing claims.
By highlighting actual data, examining the various systems at play, and actually offering recommendations for casinos to implement illustrates the seriousness behind this project's intent.
Is there a chance crypto casinos will look for certification? There’s strong potential, seeing how the market is highly competitive and trustbuilding is how operators gain and maintain players. By differentiating themselves with “true” provable fairness, a certificate could go a long way in overcoming marketing noise.
The ProvablyFair Calculator
It would be remiss to not mention the provably fair calculator. Despite testing it across a few games from different sites (I compared it with the calculators on Stake and BetPanda), it seemed to be missing a lot of functionality despite promising features.
Namely that the commit did not match, meaning that the encryption profiles for each casino’s calculators were not implemented and likely can't be accounted for. Specifically, ProvablyFair.org likely (I’m making an educated guess here) treats Stake’s seed as hex bytes instead of a UTF-8 string that Stake uses. BetPanda may have a similar reason, but unfortunately as it stands it’s not intuitive on how to troubleshoot the calculator for any potential user errors.
Hopefully the project’s owners can publish more documentation on their methodology for calculations. I sincerely hope they update it sooner because the feature could really be beneficial for crypto players actually verifying outcomes for themselves and offsite, which would help prevent any potential manipulation from operators who claim provable fairness.