To be perfectly blunt, BUFF has no direct competition. The massive size of the gaming industry, its expansion into new territories and its rising trajectory have attracted many innovative blockchain-related ventures, but BUFF enjoys the benefit of a completely different model from these would-be contenders.

Let’s take a look at some of them to understand what makes BUFF different:

WAX

A decentralized marketplace aimed at allowing gamers to trade their digital assets on a peer-peer basis. The platform plans to enable traders to create their own virtual stores on a decentralized platform which will provide instant payments.

ENJIN

ENJIN is a website content management system for the gaming community. Its issued coin (ENJ) aims to give game developers, content creators and gaming communities the currency and tools for implementing and managing virtual goods. The ENJ coin will be at the core of ENJIN’s planned framework of open-source software development kits, wallets, game plugins, virtual item management apps and a payment gateway platform that will support their ecosystem.

FLIP

A decentralized ecosystem where digital goods from different gaming platforms — mobile, PC, console and VR/AR — can be sold as liquid assets using trustless smart contracts executed on blockchain technology. The digital goods transactions will be based on an issued crypto-token called FLIP.

Robot Cache

A decentralized video game distribution and resale platform based on blockchain technology that enables gamers to resell their used games in a digital fashion. In addition, gamers can assign their computing power and hardware to the core of the platform in order to mine its coin (called IRON) in a shared mining effort.

So, what actually separates BUFF from these projects? Well, they may all focus on harnessing blockchain technology in order to improve tradability of items between platforms and earn valuable coins like BUFF does, but none of them offer a method of earning cryptocurrency purely based on the gaming experience and in-game progress of gamers without losing any computing power or assigning hardware resources to external platforms.

It’s a global industry loyalty program that uses one standard coin to reward users just for playing as they normally would. It’s a seamless experience that gives gamers an effortless source of currency to spend on virtual goods that would otherwise require credit card payments.

BUFF’s partnership with Overwolf also sets this project apart, allowing access to millions of gamers upon launch. Meanwhile, game publishers get to enjoy a new revenue stream, a larger base of gamers who want to buy virtual goods and greater brand exposure.