The rise of blockchain technology and its most famous application, cryptocurrency, is poised to shift another massive industry. Gaming has been around for ages and become a much larger and more sophisticated market in that time. Both the crypto and gaming industries’ growth has led to an inevitable junction where they’ve now begun to coalesce.
The resultant hybrid industry is known as crypto gaming, and it appears set to make colossal strides in 2024. It works by offering gamers the opportunity to play games while earning cryptocurrency rewards such as NFTs or tokens and to earn or trade what they make from playing. A novel concept with an obvious hook, here’s what 2024 is slated to bring to the world of crypto gaming.
A Wider Variety
Online gambling has itself undergone tremendous growth and now accounts for a multi-billion dollar global industry. The allure comes from being able to play virtually any gambling game such as card games, table games, and even slot machines, online and from the comfort of one’s own home.
While the crypto gaming industry is rapidly growing, one of its core limitations at the moment relates to its limited adoption by mainstream gamers, essentially limiting its potential to simple games that lack any real depth for hardcore gamers to truly enjoy. One of the expected trends in 2024 is for the variety of games to increase and become more immersive and sophisticated.
Let’s take a look at some of the games that expect to see big growth in the coming year and beyond.
Crash Gambling
A type of crypto gaming known as crash gambling is becoming more popular all around the globe. Crash gambling taps into a third industry—namely iGaming—and is expected to continue its upward trajectory into 2024 and beyond. Crash gambling is essentially a gambling game where players bet on a multiplier line that gradually begins to grow. Players often utilize cryptocurrency to place their bets on how far the line will grow before crashing.
If a player cashes out before the crash, they win the value that the line was on when they did so. On the other hand, if the line crashes, anyone who hasn’t cashed out a bet will lose it. While crash gambling and other forms of crypto gambling games are becoming more popular, they aren’t the only types of crypto gaming out there.
NFT Games and Play-to-Earn
Other types such as NFT-based games allow players to create a non-fungible token that they own, and which can be traded for cryptocurrency, or even fiat money for that matter. One of the most popular types of crypto gaming is play-to-earn games that reward players in cryptocurrency that can be traded on by the player. The rewards can be earned for in-game activities like leveling up.
dApps
There are also dApps which are computer applications that skirt the need for a centralized server and operate on a secure network that utilizes a blockchain to authenticate and protect them. This amazing innovation has led to the creation of an entirely new financial ecosystem called DeFi. A potentially huge disruptor of the financial industry, it’s likely to enable greater access to financial services.
Growing and Maintaining Stability
Since one of the most natural goals of crypto gaming is to create a wider variety of games and to break into mainstream gaming, the creation of a more immersive gaming experience is expected to be prioritized by the industry in 2024. The incentive here is clear. By providing a better gaming experience, more users will be attracted to the platform and help drive organic growth through their participation in it.
Aside from better games and better gameplay, other aspects of the experience as a whole are likely to improve. These include building better interfaces and reducing entry barriers to diversifying the larger crypto-gaming community as a whole. Once these goals are met, the focus can then be moved to ensuring stable gaming economies built around crypto gaming are maintained.
Increased Regulation
Since cryptocurrencies on their own are being regulated more each year, it follows that other industries that are heavily reliant on them are also likely to face more regulation, too. The more complex and successful the industry grows, the more likely that new challenges, risks, and legislative loopholes are going to be discovered and catered for with new and updated regulations.
For example, major countries like China are mulling over an outright ban on virtual game tokens being converted into fiat money. While these kinds of concepts represent perks for gamers, such exchanges can also be exploited for more nefarious purposes. Were such bans to be implemented in major markets like China, they could pose a massive barrier to the expected growth of crypto gaming.
Growth is Still Expected
Despite the possible legal challenges regulations may bring, the industry is still expected to continue its massive growth. In fact, many insiders still expect 2024 to be the year that crypto gaming goes fully mainstream and becomes a full-fledged player in the greater gaming and iGaming industries.
All signs still point to a huge upward shift in interest, growth, and demand. Third-party partnerships with tech giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS) also provide a good indication of not just how seriously the industry is taking its goals, but also of how seriously it’s being taken by the tech world itself.
Risks
Like everything with a heavy online presence, crypto gaming is susceptible to internet threats like hackers and scammers. The fact that it involves an element of money makes it appealing to such undesirables and opens the industry up to them. Despite this, there are many simple things users will be able to do to protect themselves.
Since the point of the whole enterprise is to use, earn, own, or build up crypto assets for oneself through gameplay, it’s also worth noting that this means your earning is never really guaranteed. Just as holding onto crypto assets can increase their value, the reverse is also true with its value always fluctuating.
Conclusion
The crypto gaming industry and market seem poised for some changes during 2024. Among them, the industry is slated to go mainstream this year. To do so, a few core areas such as making the experience more immersive for players and investing in its growth have been prioritized. Despite this, legal regulation may prove to be a thorn in the side and represent the largest risk to the industry.
However, with such a novel concept, it’s not too hard to see why it will also likely come with the added risks of hackers and other online threats. Nevertheless, the growth of the industry has led to major partnerships being formed to cater to any side economies that may come about to complement this one.
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