It’s now been over fifteen years since the world was introduced to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, and the technology and payment method have come a long way since then.
In the early years, there was some initial experimentation with cryptocurrencies in games, but at the time, the technology was not yet up to the task – confirmation times were often slow, transaction fees could be high, and there was a serious lack of mainstream support.
Soon, however, we saw the introduction of blockchain-based games, which created decentralized ecosystems within games. One of the first games to leverage the technology was Huntercoin, released in 2014. Huntercoin used blockchain to create player-driven economics and mineable in-game currency. While the early crypto games were somewhat rough, they did the important job of showing developers and players what was possible with crypto.
Up until this point, there’s mainly been talk about Bitcoin. With the emergence of Ethereum’s smart contracts, more complex in-game economies and models became possible.
In 2017, CryptoKitties, a game that remains popular to this day, launched. CryptoKitties helped popularize non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the entire game based on NFT-based digital pets that players could buy, breed, and sell – each pet totally unique.
By now, it was pretty common for games to accept cryptocurrencies as payment. Many of the top crypto casinos had already started using the most popular cryptocurrencies for both deposits and withdrawals, providing players with an anonymous, safe, and quick way to make payments to these sites.
Games like Decentraland, soon to be one of the most popular crypto games, began development. Soon after, play-to-earn games started popping up, including Axie Infinity, letting players earn in-game currency that could be exchanged for one with real monetary value. Blockchain games became more common,
By 2020, crypto and NFT technology were gaining mainstream attention. In 2021, NFTs exploded. Games like Axie Infinity soon attracted millions of players who enjoyed the in-game economy, some even earning significant income. Although this boom raised awareness and increased the popularity of crypto games, the sudden growth was associated with scalability issues.
In 2022, the big crypto market crash occurred, exposing risks and creating doubt in the community. The focus then shifted towards sustainability – crypto games were taken less seriously, meaning that developers focused more on making fun crypto games with an awareness of imperfection. The crash ultimately led to market maturation, and, according to many, was considered a good thing. In the following months and years, new solutions were implemented, faster blockchains were developed – the problems of transaction costs and scalability were, finally, largely addressed.
These days, we have several blockchain-based games that also focus on delivering a high-quality gaming experience. These games include Illuvium and Star Atlas, and many more are on the way. The gaming industry has stabilized, and crypto has a permanent place in it.
There are still problems left to solve, though. These include environmental concerns, regulatory uncertainty, and more. While some believe that blockchain soon will be part of every aspect of life where data storage, authenticity, and tracing are important, not everyone agrees.
However, what no one can deny is that, in the relatively short time since its conception, the blockchain has, so far, been making its way into the way we pay and trade, the way we verify and communicate, and, of course, into the way we play.
