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The price of cryptocurrencies may fall steadily, but true believers are still clinging to the blockchain's dream. Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, is still all-in. After buying BitTorrent for $ 150 million this summer, he now says he is investing $ 100 million to build video games on the blockchain.
Like most blockchain-based technologies, Tron has a complicated view of how the network that verifies its currency transactions can be used for other applications. The company's motto is "Decentralize the Web" and hopes to eliminate internet intermediaries by encouraging users to manage a node through earning tokens and create a platform that can connect users directly with creators. VentureBeat spoke with Roy Liu, the head of corporate development at the company and Sun for his next big thing: blockchain games. From the report:
Our mission is to bring the blockchain to the mass market, "said Liu." Games have paved the way for smartphones and virtual reality to be more accessible. Now it's happening with blockchain […]
Liu said that mobile platforms are a good comparison. Since 2007, when the first iPhone was released, the mobile gaming market has been continuously expanding up to $ 70 billion. Liu said that you can predict the day when blockchain technology – which offers a transparent and secure decentralized registry – will disrupt the global economic system, including games.
The Blockchain games are very primitive these days with the most famous of the CryptoKitties. That game barely qualifies as a game and is more a collection of collectible cards automatically generated. It was built on the Ethereum network and has become so popular so quickly that it has slowed down transactions on the entire network until last year. The "players" buy cartoon cats with the Ether cryptocurrency and that's all. Rare cats are worth more and game creator, Mack Flavelle, has admitted to the New York Times that the popularity of CryptoKitties was largely due to the fact that "There's nothing to do with [Ether]So, for a couple of dollars, you can now take a cat. "This summer it seemed that the CryptoKitty fashion was over and the company was dying but at the beginning of the month Bloomberg reported receiving a new round of investments, and overall raised $ 27.85 million. for almost all things related to the blockchain, nobody knows what will happen.
One thing is clear, most blockchain games are quite weak, they focus on collectibles, and many of them are just modifications made on CryptoKitties. The blockchain dream is practically all over the internet, but on blockchain and members of the network hold power. If you want to build on CryptoKitties and make it better, Flavelle can not stop you.
For supporters of the blockchain game, the killer feature of technology is what is called non-fungible tokens. This opens up the possibility for players to purchase loot and game items that are totally unique and owned by one person. You could get a virtual painting for your virtual home and in theory it could go up in value just like a Picasso, or this is the theory. Sun told VentureBeat that this concept has major implications. "You can earn stuff, or a token, while you're playing," said Sun. "It makes the world of Ready Player One real. "And yes, if you're thinking about it Ready Player One it was supposed to be a dystopia, you're right.
Tron has experienced some of the same ups and downs of his value in the last year as the entire cryptocurrency market. In January, its market capitalization peaked at around $ 16 billion and is now closer to $ 1 billion. But Sun seems willing to invest that money in investments. Its $ 140 million bet on BitTorrent is based on the belief that it can integrate billions of file sharing technology users with the Tron network through what it calls Project Atlas.
Again, how all this will really work is as if no one believed it, and I ended up making prophecies about the blockchain. If you have a chance to work, people will have to invest in it and projects will have to fail along the way. The barrier to entry for the average user is still too high. But hey, if Sun pulls out the blockchain response to Super Mario Bros. maybe people will start cheating.
[VentureBeat]