By Marc Seal, CEO and co-founder of CryptoGene
Gaming and game development move at breakneck speed. Just 15 years ago, we were still gaming on bulky PS2s and awkward-looking Wiis, Minecraft hadn’t even launched, World of Warcraft was just starting to gain traction and the idea of mass market virtual and augmented reality wasn’t even a thing yet, let alone the notion of an interconnected metaverse. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies didn’t exist and mobile gaming was in its infancy.
Fast forward to today and we’re living in a hyperconnected world where the web of information, often referred to as ‘web2’, is fast being surpassed by web3, a decentralized web of value where gamers are in prime position to have much greater agency over their gaming experience as well as the role that gaming plays in their lives. The phrase ‘this time it really is different’ might actually be true now for web 3.
Transformational improvements in technology and faster connection speeds enabling the lowest possible ‘ping’, means gamers now have the potential to go beyond simply enjoying single player experiences. This technological leap has led to the growth of hugely popular massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), the rise of eSports, and increasingly the ability to earn a living by turning in-game rewards into real world cash through a multitude of platforms.
Gaming has flipped from giving people an outlet to escape the ‘daily grind’, to letting dedicated gamers go from passive entertainment into a viable career option that can often dwarf the financial opportunities of other more traditional professions.
With the rise of web3, all it takes to become a ‘play-to-earn’ gamer is a cryptocurrency wallet, an internet connection and some basic research skills. Gamers around the world can now profit by playing, empowered by the decentralized in-game economies that make it possible.
This way of monetizing playing time has exploded in popularity, most profoundly in developing countries, where players can now earn living wages or even buy houses through selling in-game rewards earned from titles like Axie Infinity. In the Philippines, where a person’s take-home pay is a fraction of that earned in western countries, people can now earn their annual salary in a matter of weeks. While in Venezuela’s struggling economy, people can use in-game rewards to put bread on the table in an inflation-ridden environment.
This cultural shift in gaming is now evolving once again, rolling into the metaverse: an interconnected and virtual world where players can celebrate their individuality with truly unique non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Players benefit from the privacy of their character in the metaverse, can prove ownership over assets that hold value, and exchange those assets in secondary marketplaces to earn money along the way. In practice, this means that gaming can now be both escapism from the daily grind and the daily grind itself.
The world metaverse is your oyster. Players have access to a galaxy of games, consoles and devices on which to play them. Now, CryptoGene is taking things even further by allowing players to use cutting-edge gene-editing technology and AI to create a truly personalized gaming experience that financially rewards players for their participation, while bringing their virtual companions to life as “Living NFTs”.
Correct, ‘Living NFTs’ While NFTs already offer an unprecedented technological innovation in enabling true digital scarcity and solidifying digital ownership, the advent of AI and DNA sequencing, as well as editing, introduce possibilities the world’s very first gamers could only dream about.
A new wave of pioneers and innovators in gaming are already tinkering with the very fabric of life, fusing together AI, CRISPR gene-editing and blockchain to make NFTs alive, thus paving the way towards the creation of a state-of-the-art gaming genre that is truly metaverse-ready.
You see, NFTs in the metaverse are currently quite static and the realization of an interactive metaverse blossoming with life necessitates the inception of concepts that have never been done before. Living NFTs, despite sounding relatively utopian right now, will become the status quo and change gaming as we know it.
There hasn’t been a more exciting time to be a gamer and the meaning of the word is bound to change in the upcoming years. Perhaps not literally, but rather intrinsically - gamers will move away from being consumers and become professionals, scientists and experimenters at the forefront of metaverse development.
Marc Seal is CEO of Sortium and founder of CryptoGene. He is a successful entrepreneur and seasoned technologist focused on applying blockchain & NFT technologies to the Digital Sports & Entertainment spaces. He has led innovative teams to build world class products with partners such as Disney, Marvel, Fox, Lucasfilm, Toho, MLB, & more. CryptoGene is Sortium’s marquee product and the next play-to-earn web3 gaming giant, it is currently planned to launch early 2022, with a staking-compatible token offering coming shortly after. Its whitelist was filled in just 60 minutes. It has been featured in NFT.NYC, DCentral Miami, and Metaverso Puerto Rico.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.