The Game Gallery of Blockchain; What game formats are available for you to engage in
Opinions expressed by contractor contributors are their own.
You are reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Blockchain games refer to video games that use blockchain technology as their underlying technology, along with cryptocurrencies and non-fungible assets.
After gaining momentum over the past year, blockchain games allow players to own their game assets (game objects or tokens) and exchange them with players outside the game. This is one of the fastest growing use cases for this technology.
So how are they different from traditional video games? Blockchain games offer their players a more meaningful economy with ownership control and a “play-to-earn” model.
The primary difference between the two lies in the exchange of tokens and assets. Blockchain players are offered a unique offer where they can sell their playing funds or tokens in exchange for fiat currency, which is not allowed in traditional games. Blockchain technology is an incredibly safe and secure technology where the information available is consistent due to the fact that the data is stored in a decentralized database.
With traditional games categorized into several sub-genres and styles, here are the different blockchain games available for you to try:
- Virtual Property Games: The most notable form of blockchain games, a player can build and own virtual properties in such video games. The property value, like in the real world, can increase and the player can sell, buy or rent their property. The Sandbox, Decentraland and Somnium Space are the player’s favourites.
- Gambling games: Such games allow players to bet their cryptocurrencies based on various outcomes in a game. Unlike traditional casinos, which are controlled manually by an operator, the algorithms here are stored in the blockchain for everyone’s free access. In addition, blockchain gambling offers a high level of anonymity as transactions do not require personal information. Popular games in this segment include Edgeless, FunFair and BitCasino.
- Decentralized applications (dApps): dApps are digital applications that run on a blockchain network that operate via smart contracts and are not controlled by a single authority. Some notable platforms are CryptoSpaceX, EOS Knights and Etheremon.
- Games based on NFTs: An amalgamation of blockchain technology and games, the play-to-earn business model has been on the rise. Here, a non-fungible token can be developed by players in a game and they will have all the ownership benefits.
- Blockchain-based gaming platforms: Such platforms offer secure transaction and data management facilities to their players. Each player earns bitcoin (or respective cryptocurrency) when they develop a game and publish it on the blockchain. Some of the famous ones are Mythical Games, Enjin and WAX.
