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Since its inception in early 2009, cryptocurrency has slowly but surely been growing its user base. In the early years, the technology benefited from the hype that surfaced around it, as well as a curiosity about the technology and promise of digital money.
According to statistics by Triple A, the crypto industry currently has about 420 million users. Of this total, 42 million users are gamers who utilize crypto for in-game purchases and other game-related uses.
Aside from offering more use cases for the technology, blockchain gaming has also been a fundamental driver of increased adoption for the industry. The technology has been more accessible for gamers to adopt as there is often crossover in using virtual tokens and assets in games.
With over three billion active video gamers, blockchain gaming could be the avenue that leads to the broader adoption of crypto.
Here are six ways the blockchain gaming industry can drive mass adoption in the crypto industry.
6 Ways Blockchain Gaming is Driving Crypto Adoption
1. Community
The gaming industry boasts of one of the largest and strongest communities in the world. This is enhanced by multiplayer games, which enable gamers to interact and play simultaneously with other gamers around the globe.
The bond between gamers extends beyond the gaming platforms and into forums, social media platforms, and streaming platforms. This drives more interactions and conversations, including discussing what is new and exciting.
By existing in such a collaborative environment, if the industry manages to crack the inflection point between useful blockchain and enhanced gaming experiences, it can be expected that gamers will come along for the ride.
2. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)
Blockchain gaming has empowered gaming communities and given them a voice in matters concerning their favorite games. DAOs have democratized games, enabling gamers to participate in the development and management of their games.
By joining DAOs, gamers can vote on proposals and contribute to governance and decisions concerning the game’s future. They also reap benefits from being in the DAO, such as first access to competitions and new features and rewards for participation.
This ability to actively participate in managing the games they play gives them a sense of belonging in the game’s ecosystem. As a result, gamers find a higher sense of satisfaction and loyalty to the games they play, creating stronger community bonds.
Joining a DAO requires the gamer to hold the community’s native token. This serves as a gateway that initiates them into the world of crypto. After that, gamers are inclined to be more active and participate in more crypto projects, solidifying them as crypto users.
3. Play-to-Earn
A crucial incentive to onboarding new blockchain gamers is the play-to-earn (P2E) concept. In traditional gaming, players only earn rewards when they achieve certain milestones or when they complete given tasks.
However, blockchain gaming enables players to earn just for dedicating time to play the game. For a costly activity, earning as one plays has opened a new world of opportunities for gamers.
First, the earnings reduce the cost involved with playing the games, which serves as a further incentive to keep playing. In some cases where gamers have optimized their playing, the earning surpasses the cost, generating an income for the gamer.
For this reason, some players have created fully-fledged careers doing what they love most: gaming. This has attracted more players who seek to make an income from playing video games, resulting in more crypto users.
4. Ownership of In-game Assets
Before the emergence of blockchain gaming, gamers did not have actual ownership of any assets they owned within the virtual environment of their favorite games.
However, the blockchain’s distributed ledger and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are the building blocks of blockchain games, enable gamers to have actual ownership of in-game assets. Through NFTs, gamers can not only attach an actual value to their in-game assets, but they can also trade them for cryptocurrencies or other NFTs.
As such, gamers are encouraged to collect in-game assets, if not for the beauty of it and its use in the game, then for trading purposes due to the value they hold. This has created an economy within the blockchain gaming industry that also attracts investors in addition to new gamers.
5. Interoperability
Just as blockchain could encourage blurred lines between real and digital, it could also smudge boundaries between game worlds themselves. Blockchain technology has bred interoperability and cross-operability among blockchain games.
Through blockchain, gamers can transfer their assets between games, not only to trade them but also to use them in their gaming experience.
Interoperability among gaming worlds has created a gaming multiverse where the value of a gamer’s assets remains consistent and even increases. This has also broadened the scope of utility for gaming assets, which continually increases the worth of NFTs that impact the entire crypto industry at large.
6. Metaverse
The metaverse is an innovation that came about as a way to expand the gaming industry by creating an immersive virtual world in which gamers can exist as their characters of choice. The concept has, however, advanced beyond the initial purpose and has become a noteworthy doorway for corporate institutions into the crypto industry.
Led by Facebook, which later rebranded to Meta following its decision to focus on the metaverse, several other corporations have ventured into it, looking to establish themselves in the virtual world.
The metaverse also came with the idea of virtual real estate that can be bought, sold, and developed.
The idea has since taken off among both individual and institutional investors, increasing the demand for land and property in the virtual world.
The Future of Blockchain Gaming as a Driver of Mass Adoption
Undoubtedly, the integration of blockchain into gaming can lead to increased adoption of crypto. The continued growth of the blockchain gaming industry is positively impacting the rest of the crypto industry by reeling in more users.
Developers in the blockchain gaming industry have been making advancements to better the gaming experience for their users. However, these developments have also attracted investors who see an opportunity to capitalize on them and either make more profit or better secure their assets.
One such development is the ERC-6551 token standard, which allows NFTs to also function as wallets that can hold other assets. Implementing this standard in the blockchain gaming industry enables in-game purchases to hold assets, making them more customizable.
By driving increased attention on NFTs, the transaction volumes increase, which can benefit the miners who validate the transactions and exchanges that facilitate them.
Therefore, as the blockchain gaming industry is projected to grow in the coming years, the crypto industry can also enjoy a knock-on effect.
The Bottom Line
Blockchain gaming is a relatively new concept that continues to grow at an astronomical rate, with more than 42 million users. The sector goes beyond video games as it cuts across NFTs, the metaverse, and the DeFi space.
As blockchain gaming projects achieve mainstream adoption, they minimize the barriers to entry, especially in Web3. Blockchain gaming, at the very least, incentivizes crypto adoption.
