NFTs are creating real-money gaming economies
Australian game company Immutable is aiming to make NFT collectibles commonplace in the gaming world.
The company sold more than $2.6 million worth of virtual items for their new game, Guild of Guardians, in the first hour of sales.
Guild of Guardians is a fantasy-based roleplay game (RPG) where players team up to fight battles and uncover loot. However, there is a key difference with this mobile RPG. In-game items are NFTs and the game’s currency are tokens that can be bought and sold with the cryptocurrency Ethereum.
On the Guild of Guardians website, the homepage states:
Players spend $100 billion each year on in‑game items which they don’t truly own. This is wrong. Players deserve to be able to own and trade their assets for real money. This is why we are building a free to play mobile RPG where players can turn their passion into NFTs.
Guild of Guradians Website
Immutable’s Head of New Games, Derek Lau, commented on the purpose of building NFT trading into the game.
“As you play you’ll earn different things. So you might earn crafting materials that you can turn into a blockchain NFT, or you might earn summoning shards that you can use to summon a hero, that eventually becomes tradable and on the blockchain,” he said.
“Our vision is that (the game) is played by millions of players, and that they’re having fun. It’s an engaging and compelling game. We’re trying to build something for the long term, and we’re very clear that you’re not going to be turning $10 into $1000 overnight,” Mr Lau said.
Immutable garnered $4 million in its first sale of “founder NFTs” and plans to hold another two. The sales include access to legendary heroes and the right to run guilds. The game company will take a cut of all NFT trades once the game is up and running.
China announces blockchain roadmap
Despite its aversion to cryptocurrency, China is fully embracing the uses of blockchain and plans to become a world leader in the technology by 2025.
In an announcement released by the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the nation set out plans that encompass four main areas of blockchain adoption.
These include:
- Economy
- Finance
- Industrialisation
- Public services
According to the MIIT announcement, the main use cases for stimulating the economy revolve around traceability, data sharing and supply chain management.
In the finance sector, China has realised the benefits of integrating blockchain with other technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence and the internet and has called for greater intersection between the mediums.
With public utilities, the MIIT plans to utilise the immutability functions of blockchain to improve tasks that required evidence collection; this includes areas like judicial deposit, civil registries and administrative law enforcement activities.
The publication outlines its goals for blockchain development which include the establishment of at least three backbone enterprises and blockchain industrial clusters.
Caizchain: the Islamic compliant blockchain
The first-ever Islamic compliant blockchain will be going live with its cryptocurrency counterpart very soon.
Caizchain was founded in Germany a year ago. Home to Islamic cryptocurrency, Caizcoin, the duo will become the first certified Islamic blockchain and cryptocurrency in the world.
The blockchain received a Fatwa certificate, a document that is issued by a council of Islamic scholars, economists and finance experts that declares Caizchain features are Islam compliant.
Caizcoin will soon open its global crypto market where both Muslims and Non-Muslims are welcome to trade. Caizchain guarantees that all transactions on the blockchain will adhere to Islamic ethics and standards. Therefore sectors that clash with Islamic beliefs are not permissible, this includes businesses that revolve around tobacco, pork, arms, alcohol and the sex industry.
Caizcoin also promises to contribute to charitable causes, and are outspoken supporters of the Gaza Orphan Sponsorship drive by the Palestine Children Relief Fund.