Author: Marco González

Editor: Randall Roland

Appreciation for GameFi on EOS comes with an understanding of why decentralized finance is needed in the gaming industry. According to Fortune Business Insights, the gaming market eclipsed $200 billion in 2020. It’s expected to exceed a half trillion dollars by 2028. Both Fortune Business Insights and Technavio estimate the industry’s CAGR to exceed 10% over 5 to 8 years.

Analysts recognize GameFi among the fastest-growing industries. Several factors contribute to sustained growth. Innovation, the global pandemic, and cryptocurrencies are among them. COVID-19 advanced internet technologies as a whole. Blockchain technology illuminated the potential of decentralized finance for gamers. Advancements in graphics cards also boost gaming potential. In fact, the crypto industry (particularly mining) drove graphic card adoption.

Gamers are creative, technologically savvy and they value digital assets. The average internet user doesn’t necessarily share these interests, let alone exhibit all three as gamers do. Crypto adoption is aided by users who are technologically adept. Valuing gaming assets invariably means valuing crypto and NFT assets. NFTs attract artists and creative minds like gamers.

Gamers are technical by nature. The need to adapt to various hardware and software platforms, coupled with rapidly innovating technology, is significant for crypto adoption. Both the gaming and cryptocurrencies industry benefit from a tech-savvy user base.

Cloud server companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Alibaba have too much control over the information they don’t own. Congressional hearings attest to their impropriety. Blockchain was invented to help support online privacy. Distributed ledgers offer part of the solution because ensuring privacy is needed to solve the digital ownership and money problem.

Unfortunately, internet users aren’t ready to adopt blockchain on a mass scale. Average internet users don’t have the technical skills or foresight to recognize the importance of owning digital assets. However, many gamers do. Advances in GameFi benefit distributed technologies (e.g. blockchain). It’s potentially a reciprocal relationship, much in the same way that crypto helps drive innovations in graphics cards.

Another market that closely monitors blockchain innovation is artists. For years, creators like musicians and graphic designers have looked for a better way to protect their ownership rights. Online creators were among early crypto adopters. Their numbers continue to grow today.

The EOS Network Foundation (ENF) leads the development of Antelope software. It formed out of a core group of main net developers. ENF founder Yves La Rose presented several fundamental changes for Antelope - the state-of-the-art, open-source framework behind some of the most widely adopted, fast, secure, and user-friendly blockchains in the world.

Antelope won’t just deliver better performance. It also solves several problems, some of which have been on the mainnet community’s mind for years. ENF-led development goes beyond the mainnet. One endeavor expected to be explosive is the EOS Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). A direct bridge between EOS and Ethereum will expand the mainnet community from Q1 2023. Game developers will be able to easily develop on both chains.

Antelope (Leap 3.1), and, what Yves described as GameFi being the next mega-trend fueling crypto adoption, came together this September when the third generation of EOS went live. Antelope-based blockchains already lead in the GameFi market share. Imagine what the nextgen mainnet will offer!

Below are a few links to Yves comments about GameFi on EOS. The discussion gained momentum in mainstream news outlets:

Some might argue that gamers drive innovation of digital assets more than any other market segment. Average internet users don’t have the same passion for virtual assets. Players must often obtain new assets when entering a new game or leveling up. They use virtual assets in their daily lives.

Most games also exist as chat forums. Combine the social aspects of gaming with the competitive drive and independence of crypto, and the stage is set for a value-driven economy. All that crypto might be missing to “moon” is a vibrant use case operating at the speed of traditional internet applications. Gaming demands this kind of environment. EOS developers believe they’re ready to deliver.