Video games: you either love ‘em or hate ‘em. There seems to be little fence-sitting for this one. The very thing that’s a gamer’s joy – spending hours on end in front of a screen, immersed in a virtual world – happens to be a major criticism from naysayers. “It’s a monumental waste of time”, they often say.
Now, thanks to blockchain technology, gamers have the potential of being rewarded for the time spent exercising their finger muscles, whether through cryptocurrency in the case of CryCash and GameMachine, or through the ability to link virtual assets between different gameworlds, made possible by companies like DMarket and EnjinCoin.
CryCash
CryCash is named in tribute to their first major partner, gaming giant Crytek. CryCash leverages on the massive user base loyal to Crytek’s best-seller games, including Far Cry, Crysis, Ryse, War Face, and soon-to-be-released Hunt.
Starting with War Face, the CryCash token will eventually tie into most, if not all, of Crytek’s games. This will allow gamers the opportunity to get paid for time spent in-game, made possible by tasks and challenges set by game developers. As the CryCash coin will be listed on exchanges, this will afford gamers the chance to earn actual money for time spent gaming. Every gamer’s dream! Gamers will also be able to buy in-game assets and services using this token.
In future, CryCash hopes to partner with other major gaming platforms, as well as offer indie game developers the possibility to minimise expensive user acquisition costs by tapping into the CryCash user base.
Such partnerships will be similarly structured: play a game, complete a challenge, acquire tokens. In order to provide this service support, CryCash will offer game developers the use of an advertising platform to reach more users.
Through their social app Plink – now in Alpha and available to early investors – gamers are able to communicate with their friends, find new teammates for different games, and track each other’s scoreboards.
Their whitepaper provides more details. Their ICO is currently live and will end on January 31, 2018.
DMarket
DMarket takes blockchain and smart contracts to the gaming galaxy, thanks to its business model of linking game trades between different gaming universes.The ecosystem aims to be game and platform-agnostic, allowing gamers to change ownership of assets and transfer payments trustlessly and with all the ease that smart contracts can offer.
DMarket’s decentralized technology, in the form of their API, allows for seamless synchronization of thousands of game databases, ensuring that game worlds are connected without third-party involvement.
The DMarket coin will be used to buy and sell in-game items, as well as for purchasing BigData analytics, delivering sales commissions to digital property owners, and buying premium accounts for individual and wholesale sellers.
They already have a number of partners, the likes of 4A Games and GSC Game World.
Their whitepaper has more information. They’ve concluded their ICO, and a testnet is currently available.
EnjinCoin
EnjinCoin, which first launched in 2009, boasts of being “the largest social gaming website platform in the world” and the company is intent on being the gaming world’s #1 one-stop shop.
As a game-focused CMS and ecommerce platform, they’ve already managed to attract 18.7 million gamers, reaching 60 million views per month. Over 250,000 gaming communities are hosted on their ecosystem, and they generate millions in revenue selling virtual goods on a monthly basis.
Through the platform, game developers are able to create and distribute virtual goods that gamers are able to trade. The beauty of the EnjinCoin ecosystem lies in the fact that gamers can easily trade assets between games and communities through the use of their open-source digital wallet (with a multi-language support functionality), ultimately aimed at making Enjincoin the biggest name in virtual game trades.
You can read their whitepaper for more information. EnjinCoin is already trading at exchanges like HitBTC, Livecoin, Tidex, Coss, EtherDelta, Cryptopia & Binance.
Game Machine
Game Machine is a multifaceted gaming ecosystem. It has a threefold target audience: gamers, game developers, and investors. The ecosystem runs on the ‘parent’ GMiT token.
Under the guise of GMiT, Game Machine offers game developers the opportunity to create their own tokens within the ecosystem, and launch ICOs on the platform. This enables them to leverage the ecosystem’s 20,000+ gamers when promoting their ICO.
Gamers, meanwhile, are able to mine game-specific currencies to receive tokens for completed tasks and purchase in-game items. On the other hand, investors are afforded detailed gamer analytics to make informed decisions about which gaming tokens to invest in.
Take a look at their whitepaper to learn more. Their ICO is currently live until January 31, 2018.
What are some of your favorite gaming startups in the blockchain space? Let us know in the comments!
