Playing to Earn
What if you could earn something valuable doing the most mundane thing that you’ve already been doing every day?
With blockchain, the possibilities are endless. Since blockchain is a disruptive way of transmitting money and information without the need for traditional banking networks, it could even out the playing field for more of the unbanked and with more difficult access to traditional means of wealth. as well as a means to store data in a transparent and unalterable way. Boogle’s Search Engine is a proof of concept of Search-to-Earn. What if we could Play to Earn too?
Blockchain Game
A blockchain game takes place directly on the blockchain and is also a crypto game as it incorporates crypto assets. Gameplay inputs or activity in a blockchain game look like transactions broadcast by players onto the network. In a “true” blockchain game, 100% of the game persists on-chain. The game world runs, serverless, on the network itself.
Free apps downloaded on Google Play and App Store currently monetize via advertising, in-app purchases, or going the freemium model. Users would be shown the ads to earn credits, or be required to purchase items in the app, or pay to unlock higher levels.
Huntercoin — a successful blockchain game
Recall the successful proof-of-concept for blockchain gaming– Huntercoin. It’s a custom blockchain whose network fosters the virtual Huntercoin world in which players command characters to fight, defend, and collect HUC tokens. Players interacted with the world by running a Huntercoin node. They used Huntercoin transactions to create and direct their characters in the pursuit of collecting HUC as they spawned into the map.
Huntercoin players have collectively earned over $1 million worth of HUC, traded back to Bitcoin, with high liquidity on Poloniex. The Huntercoin blockchain generated more million dollars profits for gamers through its own propagation and creation of HUC.
This is the basis for the “play-to-earn” directive, where blockchain game developers are attempting to create games that are situated so that their players earn real world profit for their activities.
With successful blockchain games like Huntercoin, gamers of all levels around the world could earn as they play, on top of existing ways for great and talented players to be sponsored. The worldwide video game industry generated US$134.9 billion in 20181, and with strong growth each year, that number is expected to rise. With more than 2.3 billion gamers worldwide2, a third of the world’s population is gaming.
What if they could earn cryptocurrency instead of credits when they are watching ads. They could use the same cryptocurrency to purchase the in-app items. If the blockchain system on which the game is built is also the basis of other applications in high use on a day-to-day basis, like a search engine, or a wallet, then the value of a single token would keep rising too.
I can envision how a new cryptocurrency can be earned through multiple applications- search engine, games, online browser, music and video streaming services. If we link these different services up, the cryptocurrency would provide more value to each user.
Let’s create ways for more people to assess wealth through the simple things we are already doing everyday online.
Sources:
1. Newzoo. 2019 Global Games Market Report. https://newzoo.com/globalgamesreport
2. Gamegavel. 2019 Mobile Game Statistics: https://gamegavel.com/mobile-gaming-statistics/
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Try out Boogle.com, the first decentralized search engine built on blockchain where you can earn as you search, and no single entity owns or acts on your data without your permission.
