When it comes to the wide adaptation of new technologies and procedures there’s probably no better target audience than the gamers, technically knowledgeable and innovative group of people. The blockchain hype experienced a massive boom last year when the total market cap of cryptocurrencies hit almost 900bln US dollars. A survey made by Worldwide Asset eXchange from February 2018 shows that 55% of millennial gamers own cryptocurrency, compared to only 5% of all millennials. This study also shows that 80% of surveyed are interested in using cryptocurrency to make transactions within a video game. The key to take blockchain mainstream might be hidden right here, in one of the fastest growing markets ever. Online gaming and e-sports.

Gamers are a great market for blockchain and cryptocurrencies as they’re used to make online payments and understand the value of items in a digital ecosystem. Many of the existing games are already using their very own specific payment options such as credits, tokens, golds and many others in-game currency variants that you’re required to purchase with obsolete, and expensive payment methods that often require a middlemen. This makes in-game currencies very similar to cryptocurrencies.

Gamers are the ideal target for early adoption of blockchain applications and cryptocurrencies and many companies realize it. Projects like EtherSportz (ESZ) or Bountie are focused on gamers and reward the community with their tokens or coins for the time they spend playing games, winning or betting on online games. Then they can use the coins they received to buy new games, pay entry fees for tournaments or to sell them for fiat currencies and cash them out into their bank accounts.

While there are many projects developed on top of blockchain that are focusing on gamer market, none of them actually provides what gamers want the most: an actual game developed on blockchain technology. Gaming on blockchain is the future of the whole e-sports industry. At KittyCash we’re working extremely hard on becoming the proof of concept for blockchain gaming and to establish a cornerstone for the future of gaming. Using Skycoin Fiber platform players will be able to create their blockchain player profile that will be a showcase of their gaming achievements and statistics transferable from one game to another. This will be extremely helpful for players who are interested in joining a new e-sports team, participate in gaming tournament or players who are looking for a career in the gaming industry. One verified profile for all the games, compatible with every blockchain game that will be developed. A profile that is fully encrypted and secure, resistant to hackers.

What is so innovative about blockchain gaming?

Blockchain can benefit gaming in many areas, but the main points are ownership of virtual goods, payment platforms, anti-cheating, and e-sports.

The gaming market is rife with fraud and scams, and you will have a hard time finding a player that has never been scammed when trading virtual goods. Current trading platforms don’t store in-game items of their users, they just help you to “close the deal” via their marketplace listing. You place an offer which is listed on the trading platform. When a buyer is found trading platform redirects you to the buyer, and from there you’re on your own. You proceed a trade and soon find out that the buyer doesn’t have the funds or if you’re a buyer the seller doesn’t have the items they’ve proposed. On the blockchain ownership of the item is provable as everything is visible on the ledger. The buyer knows the seller has the item, and the seller knows that the buyer has the funds. Once the deal is over and you swap the goods, you’re the only true owner of your virtual goods and no one can take them away from you, not even the developer of the game who usually prevents items from being marketable or charge large fees for trading. Steam is a good example of this, a centralized system in which payment processors, developers and the platform itself each take a cut every time a trade is made. This means that between 10% and 15% of the value of trades in lost in fees.

When it comes to converting fiat to in-game currencies we’re stuck with the same obsolete, slow and expensive methods of payment such as bank transfer, or expensive credit card payment. Blockchain and cryptocurrency platforms offer instantaneous transfers, with some of them offering fee-less transactions. This would result in an “instant” purchase of in-game currency. At the same time blockchain allows the option of using one in-game currency for all games developed on the same type of ledger. This would avoid complicated converting of fiat to the in-game currency of specific game and middlemen taking profits.

Some of the most popular games in the world are PUBG and CS:GO. Games played by millions of players every day with ever-growing revenues, however, even with all the money, they make they’re unable to stop cheaters from disrupting the enjoyable experience of players. Cheaters pay large sums of money to gain access to software that allows them to gain the advantage against other players, and companies producing this software are always on the hunt for new loopholes and ways to bypass expensive and complicated anti-cheat systems. On blockchain, cheating is impossible as every important code of the game is stored on the ledger, and no 3rd party can change or in any other way meddle with the source code of the game.

The possibilities are infinite, and blockchain can benefit and will benefit the gaming industry in many ways that we can’t even imagine.