According to market researcher SuperData Research, digital games generated a US$91 billion in revenues in 2016. Gamers are one of the earliest adopters to embrace tokenization or digitalization of assets. However, the current gaming experiences are controlled by a centralized entity which poses several issues:
Control over Rules — Developers, gamers, and tournament host are limited to the guidelines and payout set by the platform owner.
Control over Payments — Users experience delay in payments or decline in payment transfer along with potential fraud and cyber-attacks.
Control over Results — Users is unable to dispute or challenge why they experience unexpected ban from the game or unfair outcomes. The owner controls the server with the game software, game command and outcome logs which are not available for inspection by the public.
Blockchain-powered network for gaming can remove these limits, letting the community take more control over their experience. For example, at MindSports IO, players use the network to host their own tournaments and set their own guidelines and payouts to participants. They can also challenge others within the network to win MIND tokens using smart contracts. What if you don’t feel like playing and just watch to games and be part of the community? No problem! Users can partake in the voting governance community to settle game disputes through in-game voting and get rewarded with MIND token. Network reputation ratings reflect player’s honesty and ability as an arbiter to handle disputes. The rating formula is transparent and visible to everyone on the blockchain. This is especially important for online-rated games where users have spent countless hours and effort to establish their reputation.
Similar to any other technological advancement, time is needed for blockchain in gaming to mature. But once we enter the mass adoption stage, the impacts will be massive, shifting ownership, control, and user experience. MindSports IO’s network is secure, serverless and trustless. Every six months, token holders propose and vote for their favorite intellectual sports to be built and deployed next on the network. Proposed games vary but are not limited to Chess, Draughts (Checkers), Xiangqi (Chinese Chess), Bridge, Shogi and Go.
Being a decentralized network, the possibility of introducing games outside of the current intellectual sports category in the future is within reach.
