How Gaming Will Affect Cryptocurrency
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We are always looking for the areas in which cryptocurrency will catch on as a useful and popular store of value. And despite the fact that most people now look at cryptos primarily for the investment opportunities they can represent, there are more opportunities for actual usage emerging. One broad space we’d recommend keeping a close eye on is gaming, where there are already clear indications of widespread crypto adoption.
Microsoft Digital Gaming
The biggest and most influential single company we can point to when discussing gaming and cryptocurrency is Microsoft. The software giant is behind Xbox and all related services, and thus controls the increasingly prominent digital side of all things related to the console. Put more simply, today’s console users generally expect to buy and download games (as well as add-on content) online. Naturally this means that payment, too, occurs digitally, and while Microsoft users are by no means in a position in which they have to use cryptocurrencies, they can use them if they like. Microsoft started accepting bitcoin several years ago now, and unlike some other larger companies that got in early, it’s continued to deal in bitcoin.
Adoption By Online Casinos
There may not be one company as widely known as Microsoft in the internet casino business, but the business itself is absolutely massive, spanning the globe with sites on offer everywhere from Canada to New Zealand. These sites offer a virtually endless selection of casino games, but they also emphasise payment, deposit, and bonus features quite a bit, as these are what often determine customers’ interest and participation. Some sites will openly boast of how many payment methods they accept, and a rundown of 2019 deposit bonuses from one game provider demonstrates how these sites effectively pitch the ability to hand out cash in response to a deposit as well. In recent years we’ve started to see cryptos gain a foothold in all of this. Some sites proudly list bitcoin among the types of payments they’ll accept, and others pitch similar matching bonuses up to a given amount of cryptocurrency.
Blockchain-Based Game Sites
This is less to do with cryptocurrency usage specifically – at least on the surface – but it should also be noted that there’s increasing chatter about blockchain-based gaming sites emerging and becoming popular online. This in fact is something CrypThor has made note of before, in an article about global brands that will adopt bitcoin. There, the online gaming company Sp8de was mentioned for its efforts to create a blockchain ecosystem within which companies can build video games. Sp8de isn’t the only gaming company exploring blockchain use of one sort or another, and it follows that if this trend continues and becomes more meaningful, crypto spending in relation to the games could become normal.
None of this is meant to suggest that cryptos are by any means taking over gaming. For the most part, people still look to play games for free or else pay for them by more conventional means. There are, however, enough examples of cryptocurrency and blockchain involvement that we’ll be keeping our eye on this industry to see what changes in the coming years.
