Users, innovators, and established participants in the field will benefit significantly from the convergence of blockchain and crypto with gaming and esports.
Since PayPal announced its entry into the cryptocurrency market, money has been pouring into the sector. The price of Bitcoin, in particular, has risen sharply, prompting much speculation about cryptocurrency becoming mainstream.
This has, however, happened previously. Bitcoin’s last all-time high sparked a brief burst of excitement before cooling off during the 2018 “crypto winter.” If cryptocurrencies, and the blockchain technology that supports them, are ever to achieve widespread adoption, real-world utility mixed with a compelling user experience will be the key. Esports betting sites and gaming appear to be one of the hottest tickets right now, based on recent news trends and macro events in 2020.
The worldwide esports business decreased marginally this year due to a lack of attendance at in-person events, but it’s expected to increase by more than 50% in the next three years, reaching £1.6 billion. Analysts in the crypto industry already believe there’s a lot of money to be made in this area, with Messari, a digital research organization, anticipating widespread use of blockchain technology. This situation is well-suited to the market population, primarily male, aged 18 to 34, captilising on free bets no deposit and based in economically developed countries.
Esports provides a lucrative opportunity for cryptocurrency entrepreneurs.
According to recent news reports, blockchain and esports businesses are looking to exploit the market convergence possibility. Susie Kim, an esports star, has announced the introduction of SUSIE, her own bespoke fan cryptocurrency. Her fans can use it to purchase access to private Discord talks and shoutouts on her social media accounts.
She joins a group of 30 gamers, creators, and influencers who have already launched their cryptocurrency on the Rally platform, which is supported by Andreessen Horowitz and other venture capital firms. Kim is credited with helping Twitch, a gaming broadcasting platform, establish a presence in South Korea.
Since 2016, FirstBlood Technologies has been running an online competitive gaming platform based on the Dawn Protocol, which is a blockchain-based protocol. It has its own currency but recently announced a partnership with MakerDAO to include the crypto-backed DAI stablecoin in its games.
Competitors in esports on the platform will be able to enter competitions using DAI and win the stablecoin in a series of events over the coming months. This is a fascinating development since it connects esports and decentralized finance, which has previously existed as a niche in the crypto world.
Wunderkind of the cryptocurrency world When it comes to the latest market opportunities in crypto, Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, never misses a trick. In late October, bitTorrent, which Tron bought in 2019, announced that it was acquiring DLive.tv, a blockchain-based esports streaming business.
NFTs are the next step in the gaming industry.
Beyond esports, blockchain and the broader game industry are giving businesses more opportunities to break into the mainstream. People have sought new ways to entertain themselves at home, and gaming is one of the few industries that has benefited from the 2020 epidemic.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which allow blockchain developers to issue one-of-a-kind digital assets with unique qualities, are one trend that’s making a comeback. It’s a feature that works particularly well in gaming since it allows users to gain valuable in-game items that are safely kept on a blockchain.
PewDiePie, aka Felix Kjellberg, is an online gamer who has acquired an incredible 107 million YouTube subscribers. As a result, the online gaming community pays attention when he speaks. He’s long been a proponent of blockchain in gaming, but he’s most recently backed the blockchain-based 3D virtual reality game Wallem. This game uses NFTs for skins and other things and Ethereum-based tokens to reward players. PewDiePie has released his own NFT, which depicts one of his skins available for purchase and use in the Wallem virtual world.
A spate of NFT-based gaming announcements were also made in early November. Animoca Brands, a blockchain-based gaming company, has announced a licencing arrangement with Formula E to develop a game based on NFTs. Formula E features 16 races across five continents every season, attracting 411 million viewers.
Enjin, another blockchain gaming initiative, announced on Twitter that it was teaming with Skymarch Entertainment, a Canadian firm, to produce three more NFT-based games. Crystals of Fate is a collectible card game, while Zeal is a role-playing game.
Long-time crypto enthusiasts may recall that NFTs initially gained popularity in 2017, when the Cryptokitties frenzy began congesting the Ethereum blockchain. Axie Infinity has become one of the most widely used decentralized applications in the Ethereum ecosystem, indicating an enduring interest in digital pets. Users can breed and battle their own digital animals in Axie Infinity. The project recently announced a partnership with blockchain behemoth Chainlink to develop a decentralized oracle service to price items sold on its native marketplace more properly.
Users, innovators, and established participants in the industry will benefit greatly from the convergence of blockchain and crypto with gaming and esports, especially at this rapid pace of development. Even if the current Bitcoin bull market isn’t sustainable, blockchain and gaming are two sectors to keep an eye on in the months and years ahead.
