Stories on the intersection of humans, culture, and Crypto.
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Share Dialog
Stories on the intersection of humans, culture, and Crypto.
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Hi again!
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of research around blockchain gaming, following the burgeoning narrative of “fully on-chain games.” Today, I decided to put out a piece I've been working on. I bet you'll find it insightful! Don't forget to share!
Editor's note: In this piece, I'll use the terms “crypto-native games” and “on-chain games” interchangeably.
The flywheels of progress in the gaming industry are propelled by evolution in computing standards. Historically, we can draw parallels between new computing paradigms and the emergence of new frontiers in gaming. This pattern, however, is not unique to the gaming industry, it is also true across a wider set of applications. Here are some historical precedents in crypto gaming before we continue, lets take short trip down memory lane.
Over the past couple of years, we have seen multiple iterations of crypto-native games. From land-based virtual worlds (like Decentraland and The Sandbox), to play-to-earn games. It all began with CryptoKitties in late-2017, which set the pace for how crypto permeated gaming. Then the launch of Axie Infinity in early 2021, which led to the exponential growth of the P2E model. Driven by the financial incentives involved, many players, especially in emerging markets such as Africa and Southeast Asia, treated the game as a job (coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic). By the end of 2021, AXS, the game’s governance token was worth over $40B (fully diluted).
The domino effect of Axie Infinity’s success was enormous. It became all the rage and speculation exploded, leading to the proliferation of dozens of play-to-earn games. Everyone, including institutions, guilds, and retail investors, wanted to get their own share of the pie, chasing the next big hit. Of course, it wasn’t all negative, it escalated developer interest, though it wasn’t economically sustainable. Unsurprisingly, the euphoria did not last forever, and the play-to-earn bubble has largely burst.
While the economic fallout of the Play-to-Earn (P2E) era has cast a social taboo over crypto-native games, the events of 2022, when the industry was plagued with major hacks, frauds, and speculation-driven bubbles, didn't help either. However, as with emergent technologies, chaos, Ponzi schemes, hype cycles and speculative bubbles is a way of life. Past technological revolutions have seen similar patterns. As such, it would be unfair to write-off crypto-native games.
Many skeptics might argue that crypto-native games are back to square one. Google search trends, and user counts are good indicators to see how attention and capital flow through games. From the search trends, interest has gone back to 2018, bear market levels. It appears nobody cares about the sector anymore. Not really. Far from the deafening noise of X (formerly Twitter) and the plummeting price signals of gaming-related tokens, progress is being made quietly behind the scenes. From the ashes of the play-to-earn era, a resurgence of some sort, is happening.
Here’s what I’ve noticed.
There's been innovations around blockchain infrastructure that can now handle the UX and throughput.
The appetite for investment in crypto-native games is alive and kicking.
The number of well-funded blockchain games that are opening their doors to the public with playable builds is swelling.
The first generation of crypto-native games all belong to existing gaming genres and have integrated blockchain elements to varying degrees. Presently, the most prevalent forms of crypto-native games are scattered on a spectrum with different levels of blockchain involvement. Prominent games like Axie Infinity, Illuvium, and Gods Unchained, belong to this category. However, recent evolution in blockchain infrastructure and scalability has unlocked a new set of possibilities; allowing new gaming genres to be built fully on-chain.
Fully on-chain games refer to the core end of the crypto-native spectrum: games whose state and logic live entirely on open smart contract platforms. These games maximally embrace the architectural patterns of blockchains to fundamentally invent net-new experiences. In essence, on-chain games bring the entire experience onto the blockchain.
Fully on-chain games are not entirely new. If you are a keen industry observer, you may have come across Dark Forest, the first on-chain game created with zero-knowledge in conjunction with on-chain game logic. Although the niche is still somewhat obscure and in its nascent stages of development, fully on-chain games have been quietly gathering momentum, which I believe will soon culminate into an increase in developers and investor interest.
The question is, why put games on a blockchain? And why should we pay attention to fully on-chain games?
I'll start with a quote from Gubsheep's post, “The strongest Crypto Gaming Thesis;”
If we accept that games are a leading indicator of new technologies, and that the most interesting applications of new technologies will lean into truly new affordances rather than incremental improvements, then it follows that the bleeding edge of crypto application design in the next few years will be found in crypto-native games.
While the first generation of crypto-native games were focused on verifiable “ownership” of digital assets. Fully on-chain games, or as it's being increasingly referred to as “autonomous worlds,” are at the absolute end of the crypto-native spectrum, where every change to the game state is recorded to the blockchain.
It is worthy to note that different game-specific infrastructure to streamline the development of fully on-chain games are beginning to emerge. The MUD engine from the Lattice team, the Starknet gaming ecosystem, and the Dojo suite, to name a few. It is also vital to point out that potential that decentralization, open-sourcing, and self-custody can have on gaming is enormous. This could prove to be a game-changer for crypto-native games.
While fully on-chain games are not without their own challenges, the common knowledge is that the technical infrastructure isn’t ready yet. To set the records straight, I’m not claiming that fully on-chain games are going to meaningfully impact the industry on a short or even medium-term time frame. However, the possibilities are immense and exciting for the industry.
Signing Out,
If you are building or interested in on-chain games please reach out to me on Twitter! Would love to chat.
Hi again!
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of research around blockchain gaming, following the burgeoning narrative of “fully on-chain games.” Today, I decided to put out a piece I've been working on. I bet you'll find it insightful! Don't forget to share!
Editor's note: In this piece, I'll use the terms “crypto-native games” and “on-chain games” interchangeably.
The flywheels of progress in the gaming industry are propelled by evolution in computing standards. Historically, we can draw parallels between new computing paradigms and the emergence of new frontiers in gaming. This pattern, however, is not unique to the gaming industry, it is also true across a wider set of applications. Here are some historical precedents in crypto gaming before we continue, lets take short trip down memory lane.
Over the past couple of years, we have seen multiple iterations of crypto-native games. From land-based virtual worlds (like Decentraland and The Sandbox), to play-to-earn games. It all began with CryptoKitties in late-2017, which set the pace for how crypto permeated gaming. Then the launch of Axie Infinity in early 2021, which led to the exponential growth of the P2E model. Driven by the financial incentives involved, many players, especially in emerging markets such as Africa and Southeast Asia, treated the game as a job (coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic). By the end of 2021, AXS, the game’s governance token was worth over $40B (fully diluted).
The domino effect of Axie Infinity’s success was enormous. It became all the rage and speculation exploded, leading to the proliferation of dozens of play-to-earn games. Everyone, including institutions, guilds, and retail investors, wanted to get their own share of the pie, chasing the next big hit. Of course, it wasn’t all negative, it escalated developer interest, though it wasn’t economically sustainable. Unsurprisingly, the euphoria did not last forever, and the play-to-earn bubble has largely burst.
While the economic fallout of the Play-to-Earn (P2E) era has cast a social taboo over crypto-native games, the events of 2022, when the industry was plagued with major hacks, frauds, and speculation-driven bubbles, didn't help either. However, as with emergent technologies, chaos, Ponzi schemes, hype cycles and speculative bubbles is a way of life. Past technological revolutions have seen similar patterns. As such, it would be unfair to write-off crypto-native games.
Many skeptics might argue that crypto-native games are back to square one. Google search trends, and user counts are good indicators to see how attention and capital flow through games. From the search trends, interest has gone back to 2018, bear market levels. It appears nobody cares about the sector anymore. Not really. Far from the deafening noise of X (formerly Twitter) and the plummeting price signals of gaming-related tokens, progress is being made quietly behind the scenes. From the ashes of the play-to-earn era, a resurgence of some sort, is happening.
Here’s what I’ve noticed.
There's been innovations around blockchain infrastructure that can now handle the UX and throughput.
The appetite for investment in crypto-native games is alive and kicking.
The number of well-funded blockchain games that are opening their doors to the public with playable builds is swelling.
The first generation of crypto-native games all belong to existing gaming genres and have integrated blockchain elements to varying degrees. Presently, the most prevalent forms of crypto-native games are scattered on a spectrum with different levels of blockchain involvement. Prominent games like Axie Infinity, Illuvium, and Gods Unchained, belong to this category. However, recent evolution in blockchain infrastructure and scalability has unlocked a new set of possibilities; allowing new gaming genres to be built fully on-chain.
Fully on-chain games refer to the core end of the crypto-native spectrum: games whose state and logic live entirely on open smart contract platforms. These games maximally embrace the architectural patterns of blockchains to fundamentally invent net-new experiences. In essence, on-chain games bring the entire experience onto the blockchain.
Fully on-chain games are not entirely new. If you are a keen industry observer, you may have come across Dark Forest, the first on-chain game created with zero-knowledge in conjunction with on-chain game logic. Although the niche is still somewhat obscure and in its nascent stages of development, fully on-chain games have been quietly gathering momentum, which I believe will soon culminate into an increase in developers and investor interest.
The question is, why put games on a blockchain? And why should we pay attention to fully on-chain games?
I'll start with a quote from Gubsheep's post, “The strongest Crypto Gaming Thesis;”
If we accept that games are a leading indicator of new technologies, and that the most interesting applications of new technologies will lean into truly new affordances rather than incremental improvements, then it follows that the bleeding edge of crypto application design in the next few years will be found in crypto-native games.
While the first generation of crypto-native games were focused on verifiable “ownership” of digital assets. Fully on-chain games, or as it's being increasingly referred to as “autonomous worlds,” are at the absolute end of the crypto-native spectrum, where every change to the game state is recorded to the blockchain.
It is worthy to note that different game-specific infrastructure to streamline the development of fully on-chain games are beginning to emerge. The MUD engine from the Lattice team, the Starknet gaming ecosystem, and the Dojo suite, to name a few. It is also vital to point out that potential that decentralization, open-sourcing, and self-custody can have on gaming is enormous. This could prove to be a game-changer for crypto-native games.
While fully on-chain games are not without their own challenges, the common knowledge is that the technical infrastructure isn’t ready yet. To set the records straight, I’m not claiming that fully on-chain games are going to meaningfully impact the industry on a short or even medium-term time frame. However, the possibilities are immense and exciting for the industry.
Signing Out,
If you are building or interested in on-chain games please reach out to me on Twitter! Would love to chat.
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