What's Next For Crypto Gaming?
Legit question right? We've been witness to the early crypto gaming evolution, but what will bring us to the next level?
Evolution of Crypto Gaming
Counterparty Platform - 2014
In the beginning there was essentially only collectibles, crypto "gaming" in it's simplest form.
I'll start with the Counterparty Platform, a distributed, open source Internet protocol built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain.
Some could argue that coloured coins was the very first initiative that provided utility never seen before, that would ultimately lead to a protocol like Counterparty, and that would be correct.
But we're talking about a loose enough definition of "gaming" here, so I don't like to stretch to much beyond simple gamification of digital collectibles.
The first digital collectibles would arrive in 2015 through the use of the Counterparty protocol from a called Spells of Gensis.
Spells of Genesis was the first game to issue in-game assets onto a blockchain.
Soon to follow would be a few other who minted their games cards onto the bitcoin blockchain through counterparty.
Rare Pepes
The internet and blockchain would then be blessed by the Meme Era with the introduction of Rare Pepes.
Not a game per say but digital collecibles that harnessed the popularity of Memes. Rare pepes was my first introduction to digital collectibles.
Rare Pepes would go on to establish themselves on the Ethereum bockchain through the creation of Peperium and the PEPE token that could be used for meme creation and paying listing fees.
Digital Collection Were Now on Ethereum
Not long after discovering this little bit of internet magic I stumbled apon what is still one of my favourite OG digital collectibles..
Cryptopunks
My first digital collectible purchase was a couple of Cryptopunks. I oved the fact that they were all different, and I could understand the concept of provable scarcity and ownership.
This is when I knew digital collectibles on blockchain would be a thing at some point in the future.
Cryptopunks started with an Airdrop, allowing anyone with an Ethereum address to claim a punk. What would follow was a thriving secondary market.
I think this was an important moment in the evolution of crypto gaming and digital collectibles.
Not long after this, the Ethereum community would develop a purpose built set of token standards specifically for non-fungibles. Enter the ERC721 token.
The now infamous CryptoKitties would go on to use this token standard to bring the Ethereum blockchain grinding to a near halt.
I was actually very very close to going to the ETH Waterloo hackathon were CryptoKitties debuted but unfortunately wasn't able to attend.
I did have some friends that went who would let me know of the project, and I was able to grab some Kitties pretty early on and participate in a bit of blockchain gaming history.
Fast Forward to 2021
The future is bright for blockchain gaming! Since its inception we've seen decent innovation in the space, but where is it all going?
I believe blockchain games are going to more rapidly incorporate a number of features unique to blockchain in order to find product market fit. In a rapidly evolving genre, not an easy task.
Here's what I think we're currently looking at:
- Play to Earn Tokens and NFT's
- Staking rewards
- Yield and NFT Farming
- Selling on Secondary market places
- NFT's as a collectible
- Cross-chain compatibility
DeFi Meets Blockchain Gaming
I spoke a little about this in my post titled Did Blockchain Cuties Go To Far With DeFi Play?.
In my opinion one of the key benefits of incorporating DeFi into blockchain gaming is that it allows additional ways for people to participate in the game.
By incorporating DeFi elements such as staking rewards, yield and NFT farming, game participants can participate in new ways without even actually playing the game!
You can essentially invest to earn passively or you can performance a form a work within the game in order to earn a return.
For the record I don't consider this gaming on it's own.
Gaming requires playing an actual game using various elements of skill and techniques to compete against yourself or other players.
I do believe that the two worlds can and will exist side by side, in fact I think this is the future of gaming.
A player - with little to no crypto funds or crypto experience should be able to access a game, test skills, compete, and have fun with a chance to earn a tangible digital asset in either tokens or NFT's.
An investor - can participate and contribute financially to the game's economy by staking game assets or performing work (Mining) that adds value to the games economy.
I think games that can incorporate a variety of these elements into their product mix, while not over complicating things too much will give themselves the best chance to succeed.
As always, thoughts on the evolution of crypto gaming always welcome.
Ciao for now,
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