If anyone was crazy enough to day trade crypto over the last eight month, your life has likely become a nightmare world. Every major crypto-currency is well off its December highs and it doesn’t look like a turn-around is coming very soon.
As many of you know, I am bullish on cryptocurrencies in the long run, but I’m not planning on selling any of my own holdings until 2023 at the earliest. I don’t expect cryptocurrencies to be stable for some time, these are still the prehistorically early days IMO, which is why I’d never day trade. With so much media attention focused on the decline of cryptocurrency prices, I think a lot of people overlook other ways that Blockchain technologies are being used, and one of the use cases I think could be a sleeping giant.
I’m talking about gaming, a market that has a ton of different ways to leverage Blockchain, and major investors like Andreessen and Union Square Ventures backing companies in the space.
“Back in March, Andreessen and Union Square Ventures led a $12 million Series A round into Cryptokitties. A portion of that money went into Cryptokitties’ ambitions to expand into Asia. In fact, Cryptokitties’ largest user markets have been, and still are, the U.S. and China, followed by Russia.
For those unfamiliar with Cryptokitties, it’s often been alluded to as a digital version of Beanie Babies. Cryptokitties are virtual collectibles in the form of cute cats that can be bought, sold, collected and traded with cryptocurrency, with all the transactions listed on the blockchain. Owners who purchase these kitties can then breed them with other kitties to produce new baby kitties.” (Source – TechCrunch)
Look into the future of gaming and social, and you’ll find virtual reality pioneers like Philip Rosedale, the creator of Second Life leveraging the Blockchain to change the way we manage our identities online.
“Whether logging into a virtual world, giving payment and shipping information, or posting to social media, the way to do it safely and with full control over your own privacy is to use a public blockchain to store your verified identity and other information. Cryptographically secure, decentralized public databases built on top of blockchains will likely become a gold standard for safety and security against which private companies and institutions are measured.” (Philip Rosedale, Medium.com)
Philip’s next company, High Fidelity is the first company to go really deep into allowing people to build and deploy virtual reality environments. Blockchain will enable you to have complete control of your digital identity in any VR environment on High Fidelity and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more online communities add this functionality.
Just about every hit game on the market now has a huge number of micro-transactions, from iPhone hits like Clash Royale to eSports success stories like DOTA2, make payments, in-game, is about to get a major update thanks to Blockchain.
“The union of blockchain with gaming allows developers to create unique ways to monetize. Companies will also be able to save millions on payment processing, as payment fees become negligible through the use of digital currencies. This allows publishers to explore new monetization models using micro-transactions.” (Source – Forbes)
So yes, 2018 has been a shitty year for cryptocurrencies. If you bought in December, you’re probably thinking you just flushed your money down the drain, and maybe you did, only time will tell. Just don’t forget that Blockchain is used for more than just cryptocurrency, and yes – every single cryptocurrency could fail, and Blockchain could still be a huge success. If it is, I think gaming will be one of the markets that helps it get there.
What do you think? I want to hear from you, comment and let your voice be heard!
