The collision of blockchain technology and gaming holds great promise for the growth of both industries. Innovations in the budding field of blockchain gaming have pushed the limits of non-fungible assets and are poised to keep supplying novel developments in other areas like scalability.



See also: What is Blockchain Platform



The Booming eSports Market


The eSports market is turning heads as it is continuously growing at a pace that exceeds expectations. Dominated by major gaming players like Valve Corporation, Riot Games, and Activision Blizzard, eSports is currently on the trajectory to a total worth of more than $138 billion with a rapidly growing global audience of more than 380 million users.



See also: Blockchain application




Some early iterations of the integration of blockchain and eSports are already underway with projects like Unikoin Gold. Further implementations will potentially see a paradigm shift in the structure of the eSports corporate landscape. Corporations like Valve, Riot Games, and Activision Blizzard — in the context of comparing to other sports — effectively function as both the sport, the governing league, and the distributor of the content. For instance, Valve Corporation is the creator of the massively popular DOTA series (currently on DOTA 2), so in effect, Valve not only owns the game, but also creates the tournaments, and distributes the content. This is akin to an entity owning the sport of basketball, the NBA, and the media distribution rights.



See also: Blockchain programing



Games like DOTA and Counter-Strike will undoubtedly remain extremely popular among gaming fans, but blockchain and cryptocurrency networks will create the opportunity for a new wave of choices that may eventually take market share from these eSports giants. Decentralized eSports team management and recruiting platforms like DreamTeam are an early example of this trend.



Benefits of Blockchain Gaming


Blockchains provide a useful tool for gamers for various reasons including decentralized asset exchanges, verifiable scarcity of virtual objects and collectibles, fast and secure payment networks, and an ability for developers to properly monetize their creations. On the other hand, the search for solutions to providing sustainable and fun blockchain-based games has led to some exciting innovations in blockchain scalability and asset creation.

The most popular implementation of blockchain technology for gaming is with non-fungible assets. In gaming, these assets can be anything from game skins to virtual cards part of a specific game that are verifiably scarce. The authenticity of individual virtual items is guaranteed using smart contract standards such as the ERC-721 non-fungible token standard and the newer ERC-1155 reference implementation.

Facilitating the exchange of virtual in-game items and crypto collectibles has been the goal of some notable platforms including Wax, OpenSea, and Rare Bits. Functioning as decentralized exchanges for non-fungible assets, these marketplaces give users the freedom to interact in a P2P manner that offers a reprieve from current centralized models. Decentralized asset exchanges have the potential to eventually develop into bustling marketplaces in various industries from financial assets to physical assets tied to a blockchain.

One of the most apparent benefits of cryptocurrencies for gaming is their utility as fast and secure payment networks. The payment benefits of cryptocurrencies are especially useful for eSports, creating native in-game tokens, and driving seamless transactions on decentralized exchanges. Platforms like OpenSea allows users to pay for virtual collectibles using Ether, while other decentralized exchanges such as Wax enables users to pay in the native WAX token. Platforms like Enjin further allow developers to build fungible in-game virtual currencies and assets as part of their unique ecosystem. Finally, Unikoin Gold is an eSports betting platform that allows users to participate in decentralized gambling using the native UKG token of the platform.

Monetizing game creations properly has been an irritating problem for many game developers. Through providing direct creator-to-consumer opportunity, blockchains enable game developers to build and distribute their products without the need for expensive intermediaries. This also affords them complete control over the digital rights management process. Developers can further monetize games through unique in-game tokens or assets as part of the game’s design and receive automated payments in cryptocurrencies by leveraging smart contracts.

The flip side of integrating blockchain and gaming is the innovation that advances in blockchain gaming solutions have produced for the broader blockchain industry. As mentioned earlier, the ERC-1155 reference implementation as a new standard for non-fungible assets is an important step in their development and was created by Enjin. Enjin also has produced a platform that provides SDKs for various legacy game engines including Unity, Unreal, and Godot that incorporate smart contracts. Advances in scalability stemming from the search for scalable gaming solutions has come in the form of side channels with The Loom Network and their recently released SDK. As a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, developers can use DPoS sidechains as part of the Loom offering for building scalable and sustainable dapps.