Play-to-earn crypto games allow players to earn digital assets by playing them. Players can earn by being rewarded for completing levels, selling in-game assets, or selling the game’s underlying tokens. While their popularity has exploded in recent years, play-to-earn games have been around for a long time, mainly in arcades where players earn prizes by completing challenges. Play-to-earn games are powered by different blockchain technologies that we will look at below.
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Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology uses distributed ledgers to record and track all transactions on a network. Its distributed nature makes it perfect for secure, transparent, and tamper-proof transactions that are common with digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
It is used in the same way in play to earn games as it enables players to create and exchange digital assets within a game’s world. It also allows verification of a player’s assets before they are exchanged with other assets, coins or tokens. Because blockchain allows players to take ownership of their in-game assets, they can trade them freely.
Another benefit of using blockchain in play-to-earn games is that players can keep playing them even if the developer takes it offline. This is possible because the game lives on a decentralized platform that is impossible to take down as long as there is at least one user on it.
Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs)
Non-fungible tokens are digital assets generated or bought in play to earn games that cannot be replicated or copied. There is only ever one copy of an NFT verified by the blockchain, and copying it creates a new one that is a unique asset.
Because of their non-fungible nature, NFTs are a very common asset in play-to-earn games where they represent different items, including characters, weapons, and land.
Players can store their NFTs in the blockchains developed by the game developers or the developers of their blockchain. Playa3ull, for example, uses the 3bull blockchain, where players can store their NFTs and sell them through the same blockchain.
Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are self-executing contracts that are built on specific blockchains. The most common blockchain for smart contracts is the Ethereum blockchain, which lets developers create decentralized apps and many other pieces of software that leverage its smart contract features.
These smart contracts are used in play-to-earn games to automate the transfer of in-game assets. Smart contracts ensure transactions and, therefore, the transfer of assets happens very quickly and securely.
Decentralized finance (DeFi)
Another technology used in play to earn games is decentralized finance. This financial system is built on top of a blockchain network that does not require a central authority to facilitate transactions.
Players can access the decentralized finance system used in the play to earn games they play to borrow, lend and earn interest on their in-game assets. This option allows players to earn passive income from the assets acquired by playing the game.
Play-to-earn games are becoming very popular, and their market is also young and growing very fast. They have massive potential if game and software developers can leverage them and the technologies they are built on.
