The Blockchain Comes To Gaming, Boosting Monetary Rewards In eSports
We’re used to the relationship of gaming and crypto. After all, the biggest discrete video card maker in the world, Nvidia, makes the chips that mine all those coins.
But now the relationship between gaming and cryptocurrency has gotten closer than ever before. There are now a plethora of gaming-based cryptocurrencies out there, ready for keen puzzle-solvers to explore (and potentially make money). Although many of these projects are still in an early stage, it’s interesting to look at how the gaming landscape is evolving on the blockchain.
It should come as no surprise that blockchain, cryptocurrencies and gaming are merging. Developers have struggled for years with cheating and hacking ruining player experiences. New crypto technologies offer the tantalizing possibility of removing deception altogether from games – a boon for multiplayer experiences. You don’t need to know how bitcoin casinos work to enjoy these gaming platforms (though it could help). Let’s take a look at what’s out there.
Coin Distribution Platforms
FirstBlood isn’t a game in itself. Instead, it’s a platform based on blockchain technology. Other platforms, like Steam and Origin, though secure, are still at risk of fraud because they are not based on blockchain technology. Players, could, in theory, ascribe themselves rewards that they have not earned, boosting their own profiles above other players.
But on FirstBlood, that’s not possible. Players earn rewards through verified blockchain technologies. And any financial payments are made only when smart contracts are fulfilled. All members of the blockchain must agree that a player has met the requirements for any payments to be made.
Platforms like FirstBlood are likely to become much more popular in the future as eSports continue to grow globally. Firms need tools they can use to distribute reward money to keep the genre growing.
Purchase Virtual Land
It sounds like a bit of a gimmick, but Decentraland might be a prototype blockchain-based land registry for the real world. The platform allows people to buy regions of land in a virtual reality environment using blockchain technology. Players log in, use money to buy virtual property, and then set up businesses that other people can use in VR. The hope is to create a virtual economy, with people using cryptocurrencies to make purchases, enjoy games, casinos or anything else creators can think up.
Whether people will be willing to convert fiat money into cryptocurrency so that they can buy things in-game remains to be seen. However, there are already many examples from mobile games to MMORPGs of this happening, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.
E-Game Credits
Virtual currencies have been around for a long time in games. But until recently, none of them were based on blockchain technologies. It was possible, in theory, to duplicate new currency out of thin air. But now a technology called Mobile Go is changing all that. It uses both Waves and Ethereum in combination to ensure that there’s no fraud when distributing monetary rewards to players on the platform. The developers hope the technology will open up a whole new world of gamer and audience interactions.