How blockchain technology is helping to improve digital gaming?

What is blockchain technology? What is digital and online gaming? How digital gaming is helping the mainstreaming of blockchain technology.

The global revenue from the gaming industry was $ 143 billion in 2020. Many experts claim that digital gaming will be the first real world adoption of blockchain, although, these days, whenever people think of blockchain technologies, they think of cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain technology can make digital games more immersive than ever. Gamers can use blockchain platforms to create virtual goods, tokens and currencies within the games to accumulate their assets, and also use them commercially.

The main highlights of digital gaming using blockchain technology

• The backend exists in a distributed environment.

• The game belongs to everyone using the blockchain instead of a company.

• Decentralized selling and buying of in-gaming assets and items.

• All aspects of gaming control by distributed ledgers.

A small primer on blockchain technology – what is it?

Rather than a “technology”, it would be appropriate to call blockchain a paradigm. It is a way of storing and validating information. The information in a blockchain is stored in such a manner that thousands of people with their computers need to collaborate to make that piece of information immutable. Therefore, it is also called an “immutable ledger”.

All the people storing that piece of information on their respective computers belong to that chain.

This information residing on individual computers is called a “block”. This block is uniquely identifiable with its own, exclusive hash value. The hash value is associated with all the information encapsulated within the block and even if as much as a comma is changed, the hash value is regenerated and the changing needs to be accepted by all the members of the chain.

The key elements of a blockchain include

• Distributed a technology

• Immutable records

• Smart contracts

Why is blockchain often referred to as a decentralized technology?

It is because no centralized authority, at least among public blockchain ecosystems, controls the transactions that happen between the peers. All the transactions and validations happen through the mutual trust of people who have agreed to be a part of the blockchain.

What are blockchain powered games or crypto games?

One of the first blockchain powered games or crypto games that was released was in 2017 called CryptoKitties. The game was developed on the Ethereum blockchain. The game instantly became so popular that the server on which the game was being hosted slowed down.

Blockchain technology is less about programming and development and more about how information and data that are stored on individual blocks.

The entire game data can be stored permanently across multiple computers. This is like having unlimited storage space. Every stage of the game can be stored and retrieved as and when the game requires. Every asset like a token or a coin or gaming points can be validated and stored permanently throughout the blockchain.

Another lucrative aspect of blockchain and crypto games is that gamers can create environments and then invite the others to join them for a fee. Since no traditional financial institutions are involved, the fee, paid in the form of tokens or cryptocurrencies, can be exchanged between the gamers simply by transferring or carrying out a smart contract.

Transparent blockchain game development

There are many blockchain games that are truly transparent in the sense that even the backend is available to the gamers. Since every part of the game exists on the blockchain and since the blockchain is owned by all the people who are supporting the blockchain, within that particular ecosystem, everything about the game belongs to every other participant.

Monetary benefits for seasoned gamers

As a seasoned gamer in the blockchain gaming ecosystem, you can make some real-world money through cryptocurrency and game tokens.

A big problem with the conventional money exchange is that you cannot physically exchange money without getting a financial institution involved.

Even if you want to pay for a certain access level in a game, or you want to purchase coins or tokens to access certain features of the game, currently you need to use your credit card, debit card, or any other form of payment gateway that is controlled by a bank or a fintech company.

With decentralized blockchain technology, once you have cryptocurrency or tokens, you can use them to buy and sell your gaming assets.

Suppose, within a game you have developed a gun that is highly sophisticated and can give an edge to the gamers against their opponents. Many people would like to buy access to that gun from you, but in conventional gaming, you will need to set up a payment gateway, or accept the payment outside of the game.

But in blockchain powered digital games no such restriction exists. The payments can be made immediately, and you can sell your digital assets within seconds.

This encourages creativity and ingenuity in the blockchain games field.

The adoption of blockchain technology can easily revolutionize digital gaming

The digital gaming mindset is already amenable to blockchain technology. Most of the gamers are already used to exchanging digital tokens and in-game coins to access various game levels. Virtual currencies abound in gaming circles.

According to a survey conducted by Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX), 62% of gamers are more likely to invest in digital assets if it is easier to transfer them between games, facilitated by a decentralized blockchain technology. 84% gamers and developers are open to creating in-game digital items so that they can easily sell them, again, using the decentralized blockchain technology.

This is one of the biggest reasons why the blockchain technology is set to revolutionize the digital gaming industry in near future