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The gaming industry has continually been on the rise since the early 1980s when eight-bit graphics were popular. Game console products like SEGA and Nintendo DS heralded the compact-disc-plate gaming console before XBOX 360 and PlayStation took over the market. With interest in gaming rising and lots of related possibilities yet to be realised, gaming colliding with blockchain technology was inevitable.
The rigidity of the Bitcoin network meant project developers could not host decentralized applications on it. Gaming is demanding on hardware and software, and it requires speed and quick execution to flourish. Taking the smart contract’s deficiency out of the equation, transaction confirmation time on the Bitcoin network stood at 10 minutes. As alternative blockchains like Ethereum (with their acceptance of smart contract deployment) came to the fore, they signalled a new era for decentralized gaming. Today, the phenomenon is gradually moving to scalable blockchain networks, such as Algorand, with their low transaction fees, speedy confirmation time, and high levels of security.
Unboxing Decentralized Gaming
Decentralized gaming involves building games on decentralized systems, such as a blockchain, and giving gamers a much more rewarding experience than the traditional gaming industry is capable of. CryptoKitties was the earliest blockchain game built on Ethereum. Since then, gaming and game finance (GameFi) projects like Axie Infinity have taken the crypto arena by storm.
Key Components of Decentralized Gaming
● Blockchains: Blockchain networks are integral to decentralized gaming as they serve as the hosts by recording transactions, distributing rewards, and executing actions via smart contracts. Due to blockchain technology, gamers can access the public records of actions and transactions no matter how many have been carried out during a game.
● Cryptocurrency: In traditional games, players made in-game purchases with credit cards or regular payment methods. In decentralized gaming, purchases and transactions are made in cryptocurrency. Most blockchain games have their in-game token of value, which is the instrument used to buy assets, earn rewards, or enter the game properly. Decentralized gaming merges games and DeFi, creating GameFi.
● NFTs: Not all blockchain games integrate the non-fungible token standard, but this is quickly becoming popular in the GameFi world. NFTs are digital assets and blockchain games are structured so that the player's in-game purchases could be NFTs, which involve full ownership and control being handed to the players of these tokens. The Algorand blockchain supports the creation of NFTs.
Benefits of Decentralized Gaming
Traditional gaming stifled players and has so many issues that gaming studios are yet to address. For example, there are the problems associated with high data storage demands and data breaches/losses due to the activities of hackers or incidents like fire outbreaks. Also, gamers do not have full ownership of their in-game possessions, nor do they have full control of their accounts; even privacy is an issue. There is also the matter of the increasing number of techniques to cheat, which removes the fair playing field for many gamers.
Decentralized gaming is an improvement on centralized gaming in several ways:
● Security: Blockchain networks like Algorand support secure transactions that will ensure games are less prone to external hacks.
● Privacy: Gamers' information remains private, which is an advantage of the anonymity that blockchains offer. Neither the game's developers nor anyone else can monitor the progress of a player as everything is run by smart contracts.
● Ownership: Assets, achievements, and all forms of rewards in decentralized gaming are owned by the players who have complete control over their assets and cannot be frozen out of a game unfairly.
● Rewards: The advent of GameFi meant one thing: players would earn rewards in cryptocurrency or NFTs for their gaming duration, skills, and DeFi participation. Some blockchain games feature mining rewards for staking and even payouts for holding their in-game tokens.
Nevertheless, there are a few downsides to decentralized gaming. Transaction finality means that missteps cannot be reversed. Also, navigating through these games could be tedious for nontechnical people.
Decentralized Gaming on Algorand
Known and recognized as the world's leading carbon-negative blockchain (green blockchain), Algorand supports the onboarding of decentralized applications like games on its network. Algorand’s layer one (L1) smart contract and its virtual machine streamline the deployment process, while also promising high performance.
On Algorand, Smile Coin is attempting to offer DeFi services to non-native blockchain games. Moreover, the Algorand blockchain offers scalability, a cost-effective experience, and full decentralization, making it a viable option for these types of gaming applications to thrive. Algorand joined the Blockchain Gaming Alliance in 2020, showing its readiness to support truly decentralized gaming. Unquestionably[DP44] , this form of gaming has come to stay, and developers are beginning to build interesting GameFi projects in the Algorand ecosystem.
