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Crypto 2022: ‘The entire gaming industry will pivot to blockchains’ – project leader predictions
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There’s no doubt the interest in NFTs, metaverse and play-to-earn gaming increased significantly in 2021. Where’s it all heading in 2022? Six crypto identities from leading projects tell Stockhead what’s in the crystal ball.
‘The allure of GameFi will draw people into the metaverse’
Kieran Warwick, co-founder of Illuvium (ILV) – an Aussie-founded play-to-earn auto-battler and RPG set in a sci-fi world, and one of the top developing blockchain games in the space.
On crypto and blockchain-gaming adoption:
“Things will really kick into gear in 2022. It will mark the advent of the mainstream adoption of crypto. Sustainable play-to-earn [P2E] ecosystems are being pioneered on the blockchain right now.”
On the metaverse:
“I think the allure of GameFi will draw more and more people into the metaverse as it grows.”
‘Gaming’s entire industry will pivot to blockchains’
Jori Armbruster, CEO of agri-fintech blockchain platform EthicHub (ETHIX).
On play-to-earn gaming’s growth potential:
“In the short term, P2E or GameFi is where I see the most growth potential because it is the easiest way for over one million people to join the ecosystem within one to two years.
“Gaming’s entire industry will pivot to be built on top of public blockchains, bringing millions of users to these networks.”
‘Facebook won’t be able to simply buy the next platform’
Josh Neuroth, Head of Product at Ankr (ANKR) – a multichain Web3 infrastructure protocol enabling liquid staking.
On digital real estate in the metaverse:
“Digital real estate and unique items tokenised as NFTs will help make gaming a business for many players who are already heavily invested in the crypto and blockchain space.
“Porting items and identities from one game to another will be a large financial and creative opportunity for many game studios and publishers. Several of these metaverse games are currently building on Ankr’s Web3 infrastructure.”
On decentralised social networking:
“Decentralised social networking will emerge in a major way in 2022. Many projects are currently in development with the goal to bring a self-sovereign, data-privacy focused social network to market.
“This is especially interesting as Facebook will not be able to simply buy the next platform company, as Web3 users will be the owners and operators of the network.”
‘GameFi and the metaverse will be very important’
Sergei Sergienko, founder of Crypto Gaming United (CGU) – an Aussie-founded global crypto gaming guild.
On GameFi and the metaverse:
“I think GameFi and metaverse projects will play a big role and be very important in the industry – for at least the first half of the year.”
On crypto wages and further adoption:
“Later on in 2022, the whole sector may morph into wages/salaries and other remittances in crypto. But the adoption of crypto will keep accelerating as more and more institutions are coming to the space, just like CBA [Commonwealth Bank of Australia] recently did.”
On a potential bear market:
“It’s always possible another stagnation could happen at some point in the form of so called “crypto winter”. And that’s why we, as a guild, are looking way beyond gaming and looking at the whole thing a lot wider, from the point of view of jobs and wages, if the games go tits up.”
Gaming could be entering ‘a new era’
“Redmption“, Community Foreman of DeFi yield aggregator Harvest Finance (FARM).
On non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and gaming:
“As we head into 2022, projects like Parallel.life and Missing Frontier have the potential to take gaming into a new era. And this is because the digitisation of assets on the blockchain allows for improved fairness and provenance for in-game NFT assets. It creates an open financial ecosystem for trading of these assets.”
On the power of decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs):
“Combine this with the fundraising mechanisms in crypto where a DAO was able to raise $40M in two days from strangers all over the world in order to purchase a copy of the American Constitution [ConstitutionDAO], and it shows you the power of the masses and the potential of the metaverse and digital assets.”
‘Solana is poised to do really well in the gaming sector’
George Harrap, co-founder of Step Finance (STEP) – “the front page of Solana”:
On Solana’s blockchain-gaming benefits:
“Solana is poised to do really well in the gaming sector. Games need low costs, fast transaction speeds and access to high liquidity. If you are an issuer of in-game items, if no one turns up to your in-game marketplace and spends money on your chain, it’s worthless.
“For example, Axie Infinity had to build their entire new chain on Ronin because Ethereum was slow and expensive. You can’t build a gaming platform on Ethereum L1s. You’re not going to see gaming stuff on there. You are already seeing it on Solana with Star Atlas, DeFiLand and a few others.
“Solana is a great environment for gaming and we will see more experimental games emerge from that ecosystem.”
