For many months, decentralized finance (DeFi) has monopolized the forefront of the crypto scene… so much so that the world of video games combined with blockchain solutions has taken advantage of this craze. This has led to the creation of a new ecosystem called “GameFi”.
GameFi: the next DeFi revolution
Since late 2019/early 2020, Ethereum’s (ETH) DeFi ecosystem – and subsequently on other blockchains – has continued to grow. As a reminder, this ecosystem combines traditional financial services and decentralization solutions offered by blockchains.
However, this ecosystem could be overtaken by a new trendy phenomenon: GameFi. This new ecosystem combines the world of video games and DeFi. In short, it is the result of the gamification of financial mechanisms.
This gives rise to games in which users can earn profits by playing. Like free-to-play we now find play-to-earn mechanisms, literally meaning “play to win” (in this case, cryptocurrencies).
As an indication, the game CryptoBlades hosted on the Binance Smart Chain would have welcomed 681,000 players worldwide in the last 30 days. Its competitor Axie Infinity on Ethereum, on the other hand, is said to have 298,000 players, creating a daily volume of more than $27 million.
Tron blockchain (TRX) is betting everything on gaming
Obviously, who says emerging ecosystem and trend says massive investments. Thus, last week, it was the Tron Foundation, the one behind the network and the eponymous cryptocurrency, that announced the launch of a $300 million fund. In fact, this fund will allow the financing of GameFi and NFT projects on the Tron platform over the next 3 years.
Entitled “Tron Arcade Fund”, it was founded in collaboration with APENFT and WINKLink projects, operating respectively an NFT marketplace and an oracle solution on the Tron network.
For the occasion, Tron founder Justin Sun expressed his opinion on the GameFi ecosystem and its upcoming developments:
“GameFi is going to be the next big thing that makes DeFi, NFTs, and the broader crypto space easy to understand and engage […] Tron is excited to partner with APENFT and WINKLink to build a robust GameFi ecosystem that is accessible to everyone.”
While blockchains are slowly getting into video games, their creators are also getting into blockchain. For example, rumors have been swirling around video game publisher Ubisoft for several years about the use of blockchains in some of their games. More recently, the publisher has officially joined the Tezos network as a validator. Does this suggest partnerships between the two companies?
