Blockchain technology has been growing exponentially for the past couple of years. It is now present in almost every sector known to the global economy.
Right from healthcare and agriculture, to banking and finance, blockchain’s boat has reached every shore, creating an impact like nothing else. Especially with the emergence of established business corporations, that has further boosted the sector. Companies like IBM, JPMorgan, Microsoft, Facebook, and Intel have infused fresh life in the booming sector, by bringing the much-needed capital for research and investment, making it the most talked about technology of the modern times.
Every major company has established its own blockchain development divisions, to carry on research, and create newer possibilities for use. These moves saw Facebook and JPMorgan create their own cryptocurrencies, and IBM create the blockchain based global payments platform World Wire, which is now operational in 72 countries, working with over 47 fiat currencies.
However, there is one sector, which not even Satoshi Nakamoto would have thought to be influenced heavily by blockchain. And that’s video games! The evergreen amusement market is now being revolutionized by innovative technology, especially by eliminating the issues which have plagued the market for quite a long time. Two of the major problems are copyright infringement and hacking. These two have been hurting gaming companies for years.
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Blockchain has a perfect solution to these problems. The immutable ledger and unchangeable information make the games completely hack-proof. Moreover, the implementation of blockchain in e-sports games will allow the athletes to get their fair share in revenue for their virtual representation. Prior to this, only the player sponsors got the big chunk, while athletes themselves had to do with a much lesser amount.
Moreover, the use of blockchain in payments for value-added services will make them more secure, while boosting speed. Renowned names of the blockchain space are now betting high on virtual gaming. Click here to know about crypto sports betting. For instance, Enjin Coin will now be allowing users to integrate blockchain-based gaming assets. In fact, that company is reportedly collaborating with gaming industry giants like Unity and Samsung to develop blockchain-based solutions for the sector.
The smartphone boom in the past few years has led to the rise of mobile gaming to a great level. Big names like PUBG, FIFA, PES, and NFS are now offering smartphone versions of their games, with a bunch of value-added services. This makes blockchain extremely apt for the industry.
In fact, the stage is perfectly set for cryptocurrencies of lower values to hit the home run. These coins can be integrated with games that offer in-game purchases, to let customers use digital coins to spend on purchases. This would be even more successful if a common digital token could be used across various games.
Possibilities are endless, which make blockchain more of a necessity for the industry. The global video game industry was valued at almost $135 billion in 2018, growing at a healthy rate of 10.9%.
What’s more interesting is that revenues from smartphones and tablet gaming together accounted for 47%, is worth over $63.2 billion. These figures indicate that blockchain and cryptocurrencies have a great opportunity to capitalise on mobile gaming, through integrating cryptocurrencies, and underlying blockchain platforms in the games.
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For the gaming industry, blockchain will prevent hackers from using cheat codes, make payments more secure, and help companies prevent crack versions from the surfacing, which is nothing but piracy. However, all of this can be possible through systemized integration and needs efforts from both sectors.
The blockchain is booming big time, and even governments are trying to apply the tech in various public departments to improve efficiency, bring costs down while providing transparency. On the other hand, the crypto space needs serious innovations as the markets have been quite unstable in the recent past. Relying on pure speculations will not work, as it has been proved by the bears of 2018. Integration of digital tokens in industries like gaming will definitely provide the crypto space with a breath of fresh air.
