Imagup General Magazine 2024
No matter how you feel about blockchain and everything connected with it, games using this technology are a reality that contributes to the global gambling industry. In this article, we will take a look at how cryptocurrencies are used in the gaming industry.
How Cryptocurrencies Are Used in Games
The use of blockchain technology in games is based on maintaining the in-game payment system operation. Virtual currencies based on the blockchain protocol (for example, Bitcoin or Ethereum) are used to pay for in-game items, various properties, equipment, etc. From a practical point of view, all this is similar to using a regular bank card. Today, the games themselves are beginning to be built on blockchain protocols. In particular, bitcoin gambling features by QYTO demonstrate the effectiveness of using cryptocurrencies to play safely and transparently in online casinos.
The reason for using blockchain technology in games is its convenience for creating, recording, verifying, and monitoring transactions. In-game inventory is a token, witSh its hash inside the blockchain. The nature of the technology makes all inventory scarce and unique, and therefore adds excitement and engagement for players.
Cryptocurrencies in Online Games
For example, cryptocurrency is used as a means of payment when trading in such games:
- A1 Fighters. Users become participants in the royal battle and get the opportunity to earn ERC20, ERC721, TRC20, TRC721 tokens created on the Ethereum and Tron blockchain.
- ORB. The game allows players to exchange in-game currencies for cryptocurrencies, and then exchange them for cash.
- Spell of Genesis. Players use special Counterparty tokens stored in a single wallet for in-game transactions.
- Lordmancer II. It allows players to earn cryptocurrency by mining in-game resources and items and trading them on the gaming market.
- Neon District. Users can sell or exchange In-game items and equipment on the Ethereum network.
Compared to the traditional gaming sector, the crypto gaming niche seems to be very small. Hundreds of projects are already working on it.
Why Crypto Games Are the Future
The traditional gaming industry cannot resolve several contradictions:
- An ordinary developer pays advertising sites up to 80% of a player’s lifetime value to attract them to a project. This leads to a sharp rise in the cost of launching a project and in risks for investors. The developer works for advertising platforms instead of creating content and bringing more joy to players.
- When players make payments for the game, they sincerely believe that everything they have paid for is their property. At the same time, the developer honestly warns that players pay for the service and do not acquire digital values. From an everyday point of view, this is a contradiction.
- The paying player turns out to be tied to the game project to which he/she pays. And the more they pay, the more they are attached. Spent values cannot be returned or transferred to another game project.
All these problems can be solved using blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies. And since these problems can be solved, we see the birth of a new market segment in which there is low competition, and small game studios can feel confident.
Why Will More Players Choose Crypto Games in 2024?
Blockchain and cryptocurrency games can enhance user experience:
- A player gains freedom and ceases to be tied to one project due to the possibility of transferring values from project to project.
- They gain confidence that no one will be able to pick up their paid items.
- A player can sell one’s values to another player at any time, returning part of the costs or even earning on the skills and spent time.
- A player ceases to be hostage to the financial situation in the studio that released the project. If the studio went bankrupt, its project still works, and the digital values remain with the players.
At first glance, everything described above contradicts the business itself, but some solutions bring additional benefits to the developer from providing these opportunities, and many teams around the world enter the market. Of course, not all of them are viable, but the game landscape will begin to change pretty soon and we will see a lot of interesting things in this segment.
How Can a Player Make Money in Crypto Games?
Game values are in the form of tokens and data structures containing information about game progress. These tokens are in the blockchain network and can be changed only according to predetermined rules understandable to players.
This means that the design of the game can be built in such a way that players who come in the early stages of the launch of the game will share the success of the game with its developer because the value of their tokens will increase with the growing popularity of the game. Thus, the player becomes financially interested in the growth of the project’s popularity and will work as a viral agent that draws players into the game. This reduces the advertising budget, and the game developer has additional resources to saturate the game with content.
This funnel was demonstrated by the game CryptoKitties. There will always be players who have a lot of time but no money and players who have money but little time. Therefore, they will exchange these values among themselves.
Blockchain technology is applicable in many areas, including gaming. It helps to maximize the security of data and create an attractive environment for gamers. Thanks to the modern possibilities of decentralized solutions, players can receive more rewards for the efforts spent in virtual worlds. And as players become more satisfied, the same happens to the rest of the industry, this process nurtures the industry as a whole. Blockchain technologies can provide opportunities for interaction between players, game developers, and other parties on mutually beneficial terms.
Gaming will definitely be one of the first industries to see massive blockchain adoption. We see all the necessary prerequisites for this in 2024.
