Six Things Blockchain Can Do For Gaming
TechnologyBit News Today2 min read
The table maps six things blockchain offers gamers onto projects that put them to the test between 2017 and 2019, with sale prices, funding rounds and adoption figures. Provable ownership and scarcity attracted the most money, from six-figure CryptoKitties sales to Gods Unchained card packs, while the 2017 cat craze also showed how quickly a popular game can clog a public network.
| Capability | Project | What happened | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Real ownership of items | CryptoKitties | Each cat is an ERC-721 token whose owner is recorded by an Ethereum smart contract | Launched 28 Nov 2017 |
| 1. Real ownership of items | Gods Unchained | Cards issued as ERC-721 tokens players hold themselves; free to play on Windows and macOS | Public beta July 2019 |
| 2. Provable scarcity | CryptoKitties | Generation 0 cats released one every 15 minutes, 672 a week, for one year | 2017–2018 |
| 2. Provable scarcity | Gods Unchained | Only four Genesis Titan cards a year; Hyperion sold for over $62,000 in ether | Feb 2019 |
| 3. Higher in-game value | CryptoKitties | The cat Genesis fetched 246.9255 ETH, about $117,712 | Dec 2017 |
| 3. Higher in-game value | CryptoKitties | Another cat sold for $140,000 | 12 May 2018 |
| 4. Customisable items | CryptoKitties | Each cat carries a 256-bit genome and 12 traits passed on through breeding | 2017 |
| 4. Customisable items | CryptoKitties | One million cats bred across 3.2 million smart-contract transactions | Oct 2018 |
| 5. Open marketplaces | OpenSea, RareBits | Trading venues for game assets grew out of the CryptoKitties boom | 2018 |
| 5. Open marketplaces | Gods Unchained | Beta sales passed $4.5 million from almost 5 million cards | Sep 2019 |
| 6. Wallet-based payments | Samsung Blockchain Wallet | Game dApps The Hunters and MyCryptoHeroes added to Galaxy S10 phones | July 2019 |
| 6. Wallet-based payments | Trust Wallet | Mobile wallet giving access to dApps such as CryptoKitties; bought by Binance | 31 Jul 2018 |
| Limits | Ethereum network | CryptoKitties reached about 25% of network traffic; miners raised the gas limit | Dec 2017 |
| Limits | CryptoKitties artwork | Cat images are stored off-chain and owned by Axiom Zen | 2017 |
| Investment | Dapper Labs | $12 million led by Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, then $15 million led by Venrock | Mar and Nov 2018 |
| Investment | Immutable | $15 million Series A led by Naspers Ventures with Galaxy Digital | Sep 2019 |
| Industry | Blockchain Game Alliance | Formed by Ubisoft, ConsenSys, Enjin, Fig, Alto, Ultra, Gimli and EverdreamSoft to set common standards | Sep 2018 |
Sources: Wikipedia, SiliconANGLE, The Block, Fortune.
