The Block published research of the top 8 crypto investors, and 5 out of 8 have money invested in blockchain-based games. Galaxy Digital, specifically has about 15% of their holdings in games while firms like Polychain and Coinbase Ventures hold a bit less.
Still waiting to see blockchain games reach the masses
Games take a while to make, but it seems like the only topics that hit mainstream crypto news are investments in blockchain games or blockchain inclusion in mainstream games. It is rare to hear news about the performance of a primarily blockchain based video game.
The principle makes sense, in games like World of Warcraft, you spend hours grinding to receive items that only hold virtual value. Games like this have policies that ban players if they sell accounts or items for cash, which means that the virtual value can never be translated into physical value even though there is demand.
Some blockchain-based games are regular games that implement a physical economy and some have a steeper learning curve, requiring some sort of crypto deposit to play. The thing is, not many games have made it easy to siphon value out of the game even though it is encouraged. Games with blockchain implementation often require players to use an external market place to exchange, very few have one implemented.
Another detriment to blockchain based games is that inherently, they are focused on implementing a specific tech to a game rather than making a good game that implements new tech. It’s similar to the developing virtual reality market, we tend to hear way more about the capabilities of VR headsets than than any popular game you can play with them. With that being said, investing in blockchain gaming is understandable and a respectable decision by gaming enthusiasts, but it there isn’t much momentum yet.
Where is other blockchain money invested?
In the research, they found that most investors have money locked in crypto exchanges. This makes a bit more sense because most popular exchanges have high leverage, high risk, which means more profit for owners. Exchanges in crypto often feel like casinos guised as a place to trade. There is an extent to where leverage is useful, but the line is crossed when sites like Binance offer 125x buying power. Crypto has a reputation of being volatile and making people rich. High leverage capitalizes on that and in the end, the house wins as usual.
There are promising games being worked on, like those on Hackernoon’s list, but all of them are still in progress. Let us know in the comments if there are any games that prove our opinions invalid, we’d love to hear about them.