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For the past decade, spectators in the finance and tech markets have looked at crypto and blockchain, asking if and when it is going to enter the mainstream. It’s looking increasingly certain that the future is now. With every passing week, new use cases for blockchain are reported in the crypto and business media, with their applications ranging from poker to pharma. That should come as no surprise, given that three years ago, 87 percent of businesses in the US and Europe were evaluating blockchain use, and today, that figure is almost certainly even higher.
Much is currently being made of the use of blockchain in industries like finance, banking and supply chain management. But that is only the tip of the iceberg. Forbes recently reported that 90 percent of US and European companies in the entertainment space are “assessing their blockchain options.” So just what are those options? Here are some that are already being leveraged by some early movers.
Streamlining TV and media production
In some ways, TV and media companies have struggled to keep up with the rapid technological progress in their sector. Digitalization has blurred processes and online distribution can make it harder to control, and just importantly to monetize.
Blockchain can solve these emerging challenges and can also ease issues that have presented complications for decades. For example, during the production process, it can be highly challenging to deal with cast and crew members scattered in different locations around the world. As Tony Fountain mentioned in a recent Rolling Stone article, Blockchain effectively “eliminate the red tape that hampers many large projects.”
It is also telling to note that investors like Parkpine Capital are investing heavily in entertainment-based crypto startups. Founder Ahmed Shabana recently remarked that thanks to crypto, “the movie and entertainment industry is poised to reinvent its business functions.”
Doubling down on crypto poker
The casino sector was one of the earliest Bitcoin adopters, and in the US, in particular, it is fair to say that crypto has already become a mainstream payment method. The very specific reasons that it is such a good fit for this sector have been covered extensively elsewhere, and we will not dig into them again here.
However, the growth potential comes from the fact that casino games only represent one aspect of iGaming. There are 120 million online poker players around the world, and about half of them live in the US. All the advantages of crypto to which we alluded also hold true when iGamers look for sites to play online poker for real money. In fact, playing real money blockchain poker online is starting to follow casino gaming in terms of popularity. Online poker players are, by nature, astute about risk and return. Blockchain offers optimum security, anonymity and transaction speed. For players in the US there is the additional driver that banking restrictions in all but a handful of states make the other transaction methods more difficult.
Play to Earn will transform gaming
P2E, GameFi, call it what you will, it represents a new type of gaming and given the immensity of this sector, it is something we cannot afford to ignore. As gaming has evolved over the past decade or so, online platforms where millions can compete have appeared. But they have brought challenges of their own, ranging from security to effective monetization.
Blockchain can deliver an effective gaming solution that brings enhanced security, clear ownership of in-game assets, more accurate and meaningful valuation of such assets, better payment methods, improved collaboration potential and lots more.
The problem with the established “freemium” model is one that was evident as long ago as 2009, when nobody beyond half a dozen computer nerds had even heard of Bitcoin and the Farmville craze was at its peak. The in-app purchases and microtransactions that could improve your cows’ yields or make carrots grow faster led to the emergence of a “pay to win” environment.
P2E effectively puts a stop to that my creating an ecosystem where in-game engagement is rewarded and those rewards have a clear value that can be used within the game or outside it in other games or in other ways within the ecosystem. Assets can be traded or exchanged, fostering increased engagement and building communities within and around the games.
P2E is in its infancy. Both the games and the best practices are still being developed. However, it seems clear that blockchain adoption is set to be a major part of the global gaming industry, one that PwC estimates will be worth more than $320 billion by 2026. If that doesn’t represent mainstream adoption, then it is hard to say what does.
