Note that blockchain technology can be applied to a vast number of industries, not only used in the economic sector for currency transactions. Comparing Blockchain games vs crypto games will hopefully give you a better insight.
Unfortunately, there is a HUGE lack of information and confusion about the difference between blockchain games and crypto games.
Blockchain Games vs Crypto Games: What is a Crypto Game?
The most frequent use for blockchain tech in games so far has been to store your items on the blockchain, tying them to your (Ethereum) wallet and making them permanently your own. Another term for this process is tokenization.
In contrast, in “classic” games, any items that you supposedly own in-game are in fact stored on the game publisher’s servers, as is your whole account. There are many ways for you to lose possession of your assets in this case – server malfunction (failure or attack), halted game development, banned account, etc.
The first generation of blockchain games are actually crypto games or tokenized games. They were solely based on this principle and they focused on collecting unique assets and trading them, for fun, profit, or both. CryptoKitties was the game that started this trend and they’re still quite popular.
The main difference between the two is that a blockchain game has every process in the game recorded on the blockchain as a transaction. No one can change, delete or influence the result of a game, whereas a crypto game has only a token used within the game.
Even more, crypto games don’t even use their own blockchain. Most, if not all of them, use the Ethereum platform, which requires you to buy another token just to trade the token of the game (Gas on Ethereum).
It’s needless to add that if only 10% of the games which use the Ethereum platform would start trading at once, the network would crash. Therefore, a blockchain game would ideally be a game which uses its own blockchain. Joseph Lubin, the co-founder of Ethereum, acknowledged onstage at Ethereal Tel Aviv 2019 that the network, in its original form, wasn’t built for mass adoption: “We knew it wasn’t going to be scalable for sure,”.
To add to the confusion of this type of games, some projects claim they are developing their blockchain so that others can use it to develop blockchain games. None that we know of, yet.
CryptoKitties has collectable and unique cat cards, which are in fact tokens you can exchange, but the entire game is based on Ethereum. Also, the game is not a blockchain game, only the tokens are on the blockchain. But yes, the tokens/collectable cards can be traded and the prices are in ETH, which can indeed be transferred to a cryptocurrency exchange and be traded for another crypto or fiat.
What is the essence of blockchain games?
Just ask yourself who controls or can check the back processes of those games, and how it is decided who scores more or who gets a better crypto kitty? A blockchain-powered game has all of these processes stored on the blockchain, easy to asses and transparent for all who want to verify it.
The many blockchain game names found on Google, have merely a whitepaper, for a future project, but none of them is functional. The market also exploded after the overnight success of CryptoKitties which was at its best a well-developed marketing plan. CryptoPuppies falls into this category as well as other not-so-famous variations of collectable crypto animals. The developers just stopped replying to their early enthusiasts. And this is not a singular case.
Let’s talk about crypto casinos.
Many believe that gambling and crypto put together in the same sentence give the blockchain technology a bad name. As you can see, there are many ways to utilize blockchain, but most developers seem to be in it for the short run, for the quick win. Ethereum platform has become their home and the network is invaded. Even the developers of Ethereum aren’t happy with this, as another short success of such a game would compromise the network.
Fortunately, crypto enthusiasts now know how to better research a project before investing in it. Just try to remember 2017, when ICOs weren’t regulated and nobody understood what they were, but people were just throwing money at anyone with a whitepaper.
Blockchain Games vs Crypto Games: What is a Blockchain game?
Blockchain games are any games that include blockchain technology in its backend or in its mechanics in general.
Blockchain, by definition, is a public and transparent distributed data ledger. It gives the developers and the users the chance to check and verify every transaction ever made, not leaving any place for interpretation or data manipulation. The blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data.
Nowadays, the blockchain stores not just cryptocurrency and tokens, but also in-game assets and progress. But most processes of the games, remain as they were: clueless of the blockchain technology and nowhere near it.
However, there is hope, as the market is barely starting to understand and embrace this new technology. At the moment there is exactly one cryptocurrency project with the blockchain technology to build a blockchain game, not just for the cryptocurrency inside the game, but for everything that the game implies.
This project which stands out, as a true blockchain game, is one in which not only the cryptocurrency used to develop its in-game economy is stored on the blockchain, but the entire game uses the blockchain technology. FootballCoin is a fantasy football blockchain game. It will probably become known at least for being the first project of its kind.
FootballCoin is the first and so far, the only blockchain game on the market. The rest of them just spend money they don’t have on marketing.
Gaming is evolving and as in any other field, gaming can and probably will adopt the blockchain technology the right way, not just for tokens.