Blockchain & Gaming Series
A Dream Diamond Dynasty Blockchain
Major League Baseball needs to grow its sport with the digital generation. Diamond Dynasty is one way it can.
The NFT world is exploding with popularity. MLB The Show Diamond Dynasty is positioned perfectly to take its digital marketplace global. By moving its marketplace to the blockchain, Sony San Diego Studio can open up its trading desk to the world to trade Diamond Dynasty cards for real coin.
Buying and selling Diamond Dynasty cards already exists in MLB The Show, but with a couple of caveats. First, the marketplace is designed and maintained by Sony San Diego Studio. Therefore, it is only accessible in MLB The Show on consoles. Second, the products on the marketplace are created arbitrarily — Sony SDS issues cards in its marketplace and manages the player ratings with proprietary algorithms hidden from public view. Lastly, real money is occasionally used to purchase card packs, but Stubbs, Sony’s in-game currency, is the only currency of choice in MLB The Show’s marketplace. Stubbs are essentially an in-game fiat, and the exchange rate is unilaterally set by Sony.
Sony and MLB are calling the shots in their digital economy, and this is understandable. However, I argue that by moving the Diamond Dynasty marketplace to a blockchain, we can create boundless opportunities for global baseball fans to trade their favorite digital baseball cards. This will open the sport up to the world and do away with territory console restrictions.
Beyond Consoles
Instead of being restricted to trading on consoles, traders from all over the world would, in theory, be able to access the blockchain with real money. Anyone with internet access and capital can trade. The growth prospects are exponential. Consoles would not be necessary to buy and own Diamond Dynasty cards. Instead, console owners would have the added benefit of playing The Show with cards that could earn them money.
In this hypothetical scenario, the digital baseball cards can be treated akin to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be traded on the blockchain, increasing or decreasing in value based on supply and demand principles and real-time playing performances. Thus, NFTs would function similar to Draft Kings where player performance impacts the price to add them to your squad.
Another comparable model is NBA Top Shot. With Diamond Dynasty, Sony and MLB already have a successful digital trading desk and following where gamers like you and I spend real money to buy digital assets. Moving the marketplace beyond consoles will generate interest in MLB The Show, benefitting MLB and Sony. Additionally, moving DD beyond consoles would keep Sony SDS on top of its design game when minting new player cards (more on this below) to generate as much interest in the market as possible.
Autonomous Player Ratings
Secondly, blockchains are decentralized. This would mean that player ratings for Live Series cards could, in theory, be based on an unbiased formula. Such a formula would live on the blockchain and rely on real-world, real-time player stats to update Live Series player ratings.
This brings us to the next key feature: blockchains can be designed to be autonomous. In private blockchains, a consortium (or board members) often has significant voting rights and power over the blockchain’s direction and code. In our proposed online marketplace, the founding consortium would likely be made up of Sony SDS, MLB, MiLB, among others. These consortium members would develop the algorithm to calculate player ratings in real-time.
Once a blockchain is launched, the blockchain’s members typically can vote on changes to the blockchain’s code. However, for closed, private blockchains, this is not always the case. That is why for our hypothetical Diamond Dynasty trading desk, I am prescribing for a transparent, autonomous player rating grading system.
With transparency, the community will better understand the logic driving player ratings. Being autonomous and transparent means that the grading system will be consistent and permissionless, applying ratings updates independently, without user input. The blockchain’s architecture would be built to run autonomously. The player ratings, in theory, would be less arbitrary in the frequency of application (player ratings updates) if tied to real-time data.
Stubbs Currency
Next, let us address the topic of Stubbs. Stubbs are not different from digital currency such as BitCoin. By moving to a blockchain, real money could be deployed to purchase your favorite cards directly on the trading desk without the need to acquire Stubbs, a currency for which Sony SDS creates its own exchange rates. Sony SDS takes our money, as do other publishing houses via microtransactions. Moving to the blockchain allows gamers to benefit financially from the digital assets we love to use and play within our games. Of course, Sony may still charge its tax, and the MLB would take a strong interest in doing so, too. Still, our re-imagined Diamond Dynasty marketplace is an improvement. We are ending the system of spending real money for Stubbs to purchase digital assets (your favorite player card) with no long-term financial prospective gain. Instead of a sunk cost, our favorite player cards become investments on the blockchain.
The Scout Scoops Effect
All of us who love fantasy sports are scouts at heart. By introducing MiLB prospects into the NFT world, many of us who love to scout via the internet could financially gain. Fantasy managers that play Draft Kings or gamers who love buying and trading in Diamond Dynasty, the stakes become a bit more real with a blockchain marketplace.
Sites like FanGraphs and others provide immense detail on player metrics used to scout and select fantasy teams. With the NFT marketplace, there are fewer barriers to entry for everyday fans to pursue passions and scout the best talent before making an investment on a MiLB NFT card.
MiLB prospects would benefit on the come-up. This added benefit promotes knowledge of prospects, benefits buyers who scout the minor leagues heavily, and the royalties, in theory, would reach MiLB players who often face financial hardships. With NFTs, MiLB players can bet on themselves and create marketplace action.
Minting New Cards
Lastly, a Diamond Dynasty NFT marketplace would not be complete without artists minting their own card designs. Allowing artists to mint cards would keep the marketplace relevant. A quick study of the top 150 cards listed in the Diamond Dynasty Marketplace as of March 26, 2021, shows 41 Live Series cards, 20 Topps Now cards, and the third highest in this group are Prospects cards at 19. The shared trait amongst these card sets is that they are the most current, relevant cards to date. Minting fresh cards would be critical to keeping our dreamed-up marketplace relevant.
Conclusion
We are theorizing, and it is fun to do so. The models do exist to move the Diamond Dynasty marketplace to a blockchain. I understand there are many details to iron out and issues that could arise. For example, I would argue that the cards traded on the blockchain would not be playable in competitive spaces eliminating pay-to-play concerns. That is just one example, but I am optimistic that solutions exist.
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