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There seems to be a lot of confusion what this means. There are two main uses for blockchain tech in games at the moment. One is as cryptocurrency for in game t
by simonh 5y ago
There seems to be a lot of confusion what this means. There are two main uses for blockchain tech in games at the moment. One is as cryptocurrency for in game transactions, the other is for NFTs.
The issues with cryptocurrency are volatility and that the decentralised structure means nobody is liable if things go wrong. With VBucks for example, the VBuck literally stops with Epic. Crypto is too often seen as a way to monetise without assuming liability.
NFTs are another can of worms. All an NFT does is associate an account with an asset ID on the blockchain. For internet traded artwork this means a string associated with a URL of an artwork belongs to this person and can be traded to someone else. In a game that ID might be associated with a magic sword in an online game. For that to matter, other games would have to recognise that association and honour it so if that customer gets an account with their game, that NFT corresponds with a sword in their game too. It's all still base on trust though. There's no guarantee that a particular NFT would be recognised by any other game, or even a new version of the same game, or be recognised as representing a similar asset.
Basically Steam doesn't want to touch this stuff, because they don't want to be on the hook, either financially or reputation-ally, for any actual or implied guarantees in this area made by games on their platform. Guarantees that nobody, not even the games publishers themselves are in a position to make, due to the inherently decentralised nature of this sort of blockchain tech.
- willio58 5y agoSteam doesn’t want to touch the stuff because they don’t know how they can profit from it. Once they figure that out just wait a few weeks and boom, steam suddenly has their own nft marketplace
- simonh 5y agoThere are already profits. They will only do it if they think the business is worth the attendant costs and risks. My guess is they will not touch this because it's never going to be worth it, but I have to say it is possible the money might lure them in. We'll see.