Mobile gamer Animoca is doing yet another deal to make “blockchain games” — this time working with a new kind of tech.

Blockchain games are any kind of game that include blockchain technology.

Blockchain is best known as the technology that secures transactions in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin — but it’s increasingly used in other applications where digital dealing takes place.

Animoca (ASX:AB1) already owns the China rights to one of the best-known blockchain-based games, CryptoKitties, a cat-breeding game that uses cryptocurrency Ethereum to trade “crypto-cats”.

Now they’re working with a new software developer called OpenST.

They’ve created blockchain “infrastructure” on top of which users can build scalable blockchain token “economies”, where people can actually buy and sell the points they earn in games or apps.

Animoca will bring the gaming nous and OpenST the coding chops and together they plan to use the blockchain infrastructure to make consumer products and integrate it into some of Animoca’s existing products, like its gamified cryptowallet WalletPet.

“Animoca Brands will also serve as advisor to OpenST Limited, assisting it to bridge the gap between blockchain and mainstream consumer apps,” the company said.

Animoca is the ASX’s most successful blockchain stock, with its shares rising 746 per cent in the last 12 months on the back of the cryptokitties phenomenon and Crazy Defence Heros, a game it signed in January.

OpenST on the other hand has gathered investors including Tencent, 500 Startups and HuffPo- and Venmo-backer Greycroft.

Animoca shares over the last 12 months.

Making games pay

OpenST says their open sources software allows businesses to run token economies in their apps, a detail that is perfect for the gaming industry.

Online games already include items for purchase using in-game cash as well as points earned while playing

What companies like Animoca and iCandy Interactive (ASX:ICI), another of the ASX’s blockchain gamers, are trying to do is set up or enable game developers to set up cryptocurrencies within games.

It means players can cash in game tokens for Ether or Bitcoin, or developers can create an ‘economy’ within a game or app where people can buy and sell things.

Or as OpenSt founder Dr Chris Dark says, traditional games allow players to earn points but provide few options to spend or sell them.

“With blockchain tokens, such constraints disappear and there are countless possibilities to explore. OST has already built many of the blockchain tools that gaming developers need, so there are strong synergies with Animoca Brands’ expertise in gaming, blockchain, and AI.”

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