Blockchain and gaming: A new era of opportunity
As the blockchain and cryptocurrency technology is becoming more spread among populations, organizations and even governments, the general perception about this technology is still limited to storing value and exchanging properties. But truth is that this technology is disrupting more fields than one like healthcare, energy consumption or especially the multibillion-dollar industry that we are going to analyze: gaming.
The growth of the gaming industry
As video games and esports are taking the world by storm, new forms of gaming are emerging and we are living in a whole new era where old unreachable dreams became a gamer reality. But how far are we really?
As we see here in this forecast made by Newzoo, the total market has grown by 8,2% between 2016 and 2020. It generated 104,8 Billion US-Dollars in 2016 in comparison to 143,5 Billion in 2020.
The biggest drive behind this growth is the rise in internet penetration. With the increasing number of people that have access to the internet and gaming around the world, new industries are appearing and booming like esports and streaming. One astonishing number about streaming is that almost a quarter of all internet users, more than 1 billion people watch other persons playing video games.
Here below you will also find this study made by Newzoo as well about the expected growth of revenue in the esports industry.
Now that we have an overview of the promising future of gaming and its related industries, let´s study how is the blockchain disrupting the gaming scene.
Blockchain and Gaming
As soon as Bitcoin was introduced to the market many blockchain fans and communities started to search for ways to merge this technology with the gaming industry. At first, the market was flooded with casino or gambling games, but soon enough this fusion became more mature and we are witnessing a whole new era of blockchain-based games across all different game genres.
Nowadays some gaming giants are already actively exploring this trend like Ubisoft or Tencent to name a few under the Blockchain Game Alliance Umbrella. This collaboration aims to explore the advantages and potential of blockchain gaming
At this point, you may fairly ask yourself: but how is blockchain changing the gaming world so much?
To answer this question we are going to pass in review some key concepts.
First of all, blockchain provides solutions to the woes of the global gaming industry. Game currencies, items, avatars, gameplay inputs, and even entire games can be propagated on and secured by the blockchain. Proper execution of blockchain into online games suggests players can interact with one another and the games they play in a manner that has never before been possible. It also suggests that developers can formulate new genres of games by emphasizing gameplay elements unique to blockchain gaming.
Game Theory:
Game theory is a theoretical framework to conceive social situations among competing players and produce optimal decision-making of independent and competing actors in a strategic setting.
Using game theory, real-world scenarios for such situations as pricing competition and product releases (and many more) can be laid out and their outcomes predicted.
Tokenomics:
Token economics (or tokenomics) is the study of a new type of economy that can be defined as the design of a particular ecosystem in a blockchain environment. There are as many ecosystems as startups and projects in the blockchain industry, where tokenization is a popular process. Some of these ecosystems are ingenious and disruptive, others are pretty dangerous and unstable.
Decentralization:
A decentralized system is one which requires multiple parties to make their own independent decisions.
NFTs AND FTs:
A non-fungible token (NFT) is defined as a kind of token that is uniquely identifiable and distinguishable during interaction and circulation.
In the blockchain area, digital assets can be divided into two categories: coins and tokens. The former, such as Bitcoin, Qtum, etc., have a blockchain, using transactions to maintain its ledger; the latter such as BOT, INK, etc., runs on an existing blockchain, using smart contracts to record data. These tokens can further fall two types: fungible and non-fungible.
FT (Fungible Token), usually based on the standard of ERC20 or QRC20, is a token that can be split into pieces and replaced by each other. NFT, on the contrary, is a kind of token that is unique and can not be split, such as kitties and so on.
Now that we got across the main concepts around blockchain, let’s see how this technology is benefiting both gamers and developers.
Benefits of blockchain gaming:
Benefit for gamers:
- True ownership of digital assets
- Fair Gameplay
- Play to earn gaming
- Cross Game operability
Benefit for developers:
- Emerging market with first mover advantages
- Early revenue streams possible with pre-sales
- New development genres
- Value creation for gamers
- Enhanced player base
Examples of blockchain gaming
1 - Cryptokitties:
Probably the most successful success story within the blockchain gaming industry, Cryptokitties took the internet by storm by presenting a creature that will always be successful over the internet: Cats. The concept is simple: you buy and breed cats in order to get new ones that you can trade in the marketplace or keep in your wallet. The game managed in November 2017 to provoke congestion of the Etherium network. Some cats even were sold for more than 140k U.S. dollars.
2 - Stryking.io:
Do you love sports and are up for challenges? Stryking.io is a fan experience platform that mixes the thrill and mechanics of a collectible and trading card game with fantasy sports gameplay. Get your favorite player and special cards, choose the formation you want and compete in daily challenges with other sports experts. You decide who you want to go on a scoring hunt. Rarely has your expertise been put to such a test.
The player cards are blockchain-based digital collectibles and trading cards. Those will take the form of NFT´s for sports collectible
The platform has already managed to secure big partners like FC Bayern Munich.
3 - F1 Delta Time:
F1® Delta Time is a blockchain-based game that utilizes the ERC-721 and ERC-20 standards and runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
The game centers around the collection and trading of unique Cars, Drivers and Components — all of which exist as non-fungible tokens (NFT’s) based on the ERC-721 token standard.
Fungible Tokens (FT’s) based on the ERC-20 token standard function as a currency in the game, and can be used in transactions such as paying entry fees and purchasing certain items.
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