Traditional games and the crux of ownership
You know the feeling: you have invested hundreds of hours in a game, put your heart and soul into it, lost a lot of sweat and dozens of pizza boxes on your table are evidence of nights played. You have accumulated a lot of gold, trophies and treasures. But now it’s time to move on. They would like to sell these achievements.
The problem is that although this is often done, you actually have no property rights to the things. You don’t really own the things you’re selling or the buyer is buying. They belong solely to the game developers.
Short trip: The technology behind cryptocurrencies
In order to understand how the new generation of games works, we will give you a very brief excursion into the blockchain technology behind the cryptos and into NFTs.
NFTs (Non-Fungible Token)
This is a digital asset that is protected digitally using the blockchain. A virtual one-off, of which there is actually only one and which is practically forgery-proof thanks to the blockchain. In this way you can actually own objects in games, pictures, music files etc. and consequently sell them.
Blockchain
Without getting too technical, this is a cryptographically secured chain of information blocks that can be stored on many computers and observed by many people. Such a chain cannot be changed later, so that all processes can be traced exactly. In this way, all cryptocurrencies are produced and now also transaction chains to prove ownership.
How NFTs and Bitcoin will change the world of gaming
There are already the first games in which you can actually become the owner of assets you have earned or bought. And if you really own them, you can legally sell them. Since everything takes place in the ether, Bitcoin, Dodgecoins and Co. are also suitable for payment.
Two values created by the very secure blockchain meet here, which makes the purchase and ownership of NFTs particularly secure. All kinds of trophies, treasures, weapons, buildings and much more are imaginable. You can even breed, raise and feed virtual rabbits and then sell them to the highest bidder.
Some major gaming providers have already jumped on the bandwagon
Of course, since all this technology was not only developed to allow a gamer to own virtual goods, but also to give the gaming corporations new sources of income, giants of the industry such as Ubisoft or EA have already jumped on the bandwagon and are currently developing new games.
First new game makers have reached the $1 billion mark in value and are sure to play a significant role in the future. Investors are in the starting blocks to give the new trend further impetus.
It remains to be seen whether the technology will prevail, as there are still many challenges to be overcome, such as the enormous energy requirements for mining cryptocurrencies or the connection to dirty machinations (money laundering).
