Blockchain gaming for money and NFT has become two major events and movements in the world in the field of technology in 2021.
Blockchain gaming movement in the form of play-to-earn
The play-to-earn blockchain games started appearing a few years ago, but had grown quietly until Axie Infinity gained global attention in May.
Axie Infinity is a game project incorporating blockchain technology developed by Ho Chi Minh City-based company, Sky Mavis. The in-game digital currency has increased in value over 26 times this year, becoming the first Vietnamese-developed cryptocurrency with a market capitalization exceeding $8 billion.
The founder and CEO of this game is Nguyen Thanh Trung, a 9X programmer in Hanoi, voted by CoinDesk as an influential figure in the crypto world. Nguyen Thanh Trung is commented as ‘The person who makes cryptocurrencies more interesting’.
A series of blockchain game projects also thrived globally this year. Many traditional gaming companies declare blockchain as the “next revolution” that they do not want to be missed. This trend differs from traditional games in terms of decentralization, where in-game assets are distributed among players instead of being centrally controlled by a server.
Blockchain games are considered to be changing the lives of many people, especially in Southeast Asia, when helping them have an additional source of income, even instead of their main job. However, most of the games that have appeared in the past time focus on making money, while the gameplay is simple, the graphics are not attractive, causing concern that it may drag down the development of game culture.
NFT booms
In March, the tech world was surprised when a digital mosaic of 5,000 paintings called Everydays: The First 5000 Days was purchased for $69 million – a record high at Christie’s auction house. This Beeple artist’s work is tagged with an NFT (non-fungible token), also known as a unique token, identity data is encrypted, and it’s stored and exchanged on the blockchain.
After Beeple’s work, a series of other million-dollar NFT artworks were also traded. Analysts say that NFT is creating a new wave in the art market, helping artists have more income and new approaches to the community.
Not only in the field of art, but NFT is also attached to everything from the first tweet of the Twitter founder, ape avatars, doodles or stone images … for sale for thousands to millions of dollars. In particular, along with the trend of metaverse – which is said to be the next era of the Internet, many people have started investing money in and buying virtual real estate in the form of NFT. In November, the virtual land in Decentraland was purchased for 618,000 Mana, equivalent to 2.43 million USD; or the Genesis land in Axie Infinity costs 550 ETH, equivalent to 2.3 million USD…
NFT fever is so high that data from the Collins dictionary system shows that the frequency of using NFT keywords has increased by 11,000% compared to last year, surpassing hot topics such as Covid-19, Crypto, Metaverse to become Word of the year.
However, earlier this month, Gou Wenjun, director of the Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center of the Central Bank of China, also warned that decentralization and anonymity make the NFT a tool for criminals and terrorists.
