Digital Money (Block Chains)
Within two weeks of GDC, blockchain editing went from an obscure programmers’ tool to the new currency of exchange. Game programs which require rapid and seamless methods for effecting costs and payments — a recognition of a games’ “cost of work performed” for exchanges in progress — use block chain editing to accrue and record charges.
An example of the services performed would include the monetization of online activities. Consider a payment system for “IronMan 2,” a shooter game which can be downloaded for free off the Internet. While the program is free, each bullet fired might cost the player a penny. A tabulation method is applied for counting bullets and accounting for their use.
Thus, monetization models are moving from gaming arcades to Internet connected gaming consoles. Tokens (like the increasingly popular BitCoin) can represent the currency exchanged for each transaction. The Block Chain transaction notes how the gamer’s account is charged while the shooting (or other cost-bearing exchange) is in progress — and what kinds of currency will be accepted. The problems addressed by multiplayer gaming consoles is How do we keep the accounting process fast and secure, yet isolated from the flow of game objects? The Games Developers Conference presented platforms for putting crypto-currencies — Jewelz, Bit Crystals, Ethereum — to use.
While BitCoin provides tokens for exchanging software service, the value of a single coin has become prohibitive for even multiplayer use (where gamers could share in principle share costs). The need for an accessible medium of exchange has encouraged the invention and use of Crypto-currencies replace “real money” — in some cases using fractions of an actual BitCoin.
Jewelz for example, a resolvable Bit Coin token, is one blockchain implementation. Where the value of BitCoin is calculated on the number of supercomputer machine cycles required to generate a unique 15-bit identifier, Jewelz provides hardly any noticeable latency. Games dependent on the collection of “digital assets” — or the purchase game-playing implements (like weapons on a battlefield game) — demanded currency that could be exchanged for implements (and vice versa). The wide-spread adoption of crypto-currency, however, will depend of it being fast, fun and seamless. http://jewelz.webflow.io/blog-post-7-fun-and-games-with-cryptocurrency
Jewelz is served by a crypto mining algorithm called “serial proof of work”… can group users into different game-play categories, each with their own ad service policies, says Allson Huynh, Jewelz’ CEO. Some 100,000 Jewelz will be in circulation to start, with new Jewelz added every year at a, predetermined rate (in order to prevent excessive inflation, and currency devaluation. Jewelz can be exchanged for products or services between 2 or more parties using smart contracts called “zContracts.”
Initially, Jewelz won’t be traded on cryptocurrency exchanges, so early adopters have an opportunity to own Jewelz before the ICO process After the ICO, Jewelz will be traded on major cryptocurrency exchanges direct deal possibilities and transparent analytics, according to the company http://jewelz.webflow.io/faq
Early adopters of the crypto-currency include Appodeal, an online ad mediation service. In operation, crypto can serve as the financial transaction server. For developers, Appodeal, which provides an ad server, equips software development kit (SDK) which mediates exchanges — it offers 100% “unbiased” network access, insists Diana Bogdanova, Appodeal’s head of marketing. Serving game publishers. (www.Appodeal.com)
Swiss game developer, PXL Vision AG, uses crypto for rapid customer identification as well as gaming. The crypto-currency are bit crystals. BitCrystals (mobile) is a blockchain ecosystem for gamers, collectors, and game creators. It can be mined by “reversing” bitcoin to extract the currency. Only a fraction of bit coin is used for payment. And transactions do not require specialized computing power. https://bitcrystals.com/
The platform connects the crypto-currency, a digital wallet, and partner games to a wide network of players and collectors The current cost of a bitcrystal (BCY) is roughly 25-cents on today’s coin market. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcrystals/
The PXL toolset includes AirConsole, an online platform that transforms a web browser browser into a video game console and smartphones into a gamepad. https://www.airconsole.com/
“Beam OnBoard,” making online customer identification and authentication easy and reliable. This supports retail transactions, e-commerce, banking, aviation as well as game development. New or returning customer data can be pulled from ID documents (or from facial recognition algorithms) with a smartphone. PXL’s technology also supports on-device contract signing.
Another crypto-currency comes from Ethereum. This is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference.
Ethereum apps run on a custom-built blockchain, a globally shared infrastructure that can move value around while upholding the ownership of property. This enables developers to create markets, store registries of debts or promises, and move funds in accordance with recognized instructions.
The project was launched in August 2014 with funds from multiple sources including the Ethereum Foundation, a Swiss non-profit. Ethereum’s (ETH) current value is about $589 on the world coin market. https://www.ethereum.org/
