The Blockchain Technology is About to Merge Virtual Worlds and Real Economies DMarket Follow Aug 1, 2017 · 3 min read

The recent report shows that there are more than 2 billion of gamers across the globe. Approximately every third person in the world spends a significant part of their lives in virtual realms, striving to achieve virtual goals and get virtual goods. While time is still arguably one of the most valuable things for humanity, these people can’t convert hours and days spent in-game into something of real value.

The idea of virtual items trading isn’t new. In-game asset sale and purchase is already a billion-dollar industry. Yet even some of the best in-game marketplaces like those by Blizzard and Valve are limited. Most gamers think that the limitations are like a sandboxed game. However, developers are hesitant to make their in-game markets cross-platform, not to mention cross-developer friendly. As of now users couldn’t trade a mount from one game for a helmet from another one ‒ there was no technology to connect the diversity of the game universes.

The rise of blockchain tech opened a set of new opportunities here. Therefore, DMarket announced a crowdsale for the marketplace for cross-game trading. The solution will be based on blockchain technology and smart contracts, making possible to sell any item from any game for real money. The developers are going to provide fully decentralized market that any game developer can give their players access to by implementing a special API.

What does this mean for gamers?

Gamers for one will probably have more fun because they will break free of the sandbox by being able to trade, sell, and buy everything from skins to weapons with anyone. Plus, gamers can sell hard earned in-game items for money which can then be used to either buy items for other games or simply cash it out. DMarket’s developers have said that the currency used in the market will be like Bitcoin i.e. a cryptocurrency which can then be converted into real money.

How will smart contracts work?

The Blockchain works like a ledger of sorts with the difference being that it’s encrypted and distributed across a vast network of computers hence the term ‘decentralized.’ The Blockchain cannot be hacked like a regular server because it’s a part of a chain. Even if one copy of the chain is compromised the others make up for it.

DMarket uses the Blockchain technology to incorporate smart contracts to set terms of trade, sale or purchase, which once met, will be executed automatically. The smart contract will act as an escrow service which will execute the transaction if the asset is available and the seller is willing to trade. This means that in-game buying, selling, and trading will take place with the click of a button.

DMarket will allow game developers to use the proprietary trade APIs for their benefit by safeguarding cross-game transactions. This will permit game developers to reach out to broader audiences and thus creating much more user friendly products.

However, some of the game developers are already advising on the DMarket API. The DMarket crowdsale starts on 17th of August 2017.