Blockchain technology has been around since the 1980s, but it has only recently gained widespread attention as a result of the rise in the popularity of cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin and others. The latest use of blockchain technology is in video game development, what is referred to as blockchain gaming. We sees this as a disruptor for game development and monetization design trends worldwide. As often is the case, the first notable instances of this trend emerged in Asia.
What is Blockchain gaming?
A blockchain is a system that stores blocks of data that are linked together in sequence using cryptography. Every data unit on the blockchain is unique and immutable as the modification in one block can affect the whole chain. What distinguishes blockchain games from traditional games is the fact that each digital asset in blockchain games is one of a kind. Each of these digital assets is called a non-fungible token (NFT), which is a unique data unit stored on the blockchain. The segment is referred to as blockchain gaming. One aspect of blockchain gaming is “play to earn” whereby a gamer earns their unique NFT(s) or cryptocurrency from merit-based advances in the game, and can convert it to real money. There is also “play to trade” whereby a gamer earns a token and then can trade it or sell it for real money.
Because each NFT is unique, blockchain technology has embodied the principle of ownership of a digital asset. Historically, a piece of digital art, let’s say an image, could be easily copied and used by thousands of people without credit to the original owner. But if the art is part of the blockchain as an NFT, the owner can claim his rights to keep or sell the art to anyone he wants. We would note this works a lot better for games than art. Blockchain gaming provides gamers with complete control over the digital assets they earn or acquire in the games. In traditional games, even though players pay real money for their digital assets, they will lose access to their own assets if the server is ever switched off, and both the money as well as the game assets remain the property of the publisher or developer. Meanwhile, blockchain games assure that players retain complete ownership of their digital assets, which means that they can freely trade their assets with other players, sell them for real money, and potentially use them across multiple game universes.
Blockchain games’ play-to-earn model makes them an attractive source of income and investment. The model allows players to earn money by playing, receiving rewards, and trading digital assets for cryptocurrencies, which they can then trade for fiat money and spend in real life. This opens up a new monetization model and it is one that must get integrated with the game design and development. Free to play games use several monetization models, this one will potentially be a big disruption to the traditional models.
Blockchain gamers are concerned about the threat of losing their virtual assets as a result of technical misunderstandings or becoming victims of blockchain gaming scams. Gaming operators are typically not required to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations, which raises the risk of fraud.
Blockchain games are not as simple to play as traditional games, yet it hasn’t stopped blockchain games from exploding in popularity. Blockchain-powered game titles, such as Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, Decentraland, and, most recently, the wildly popular called
Fairy Planet, have proven to be popular.
Website:
https://fairyplanet.io/Twitter:
https://twitter.com/FairyPlanetDAOTelegram:
https://t.me/VIP79vietnamDiscord:
https://discord.gg/kCWVNtw6Dr
