Global online gaming is big business. In 2016, for instance, industry revenue exploded to over $100 billion, with online gaming accounting for a significant portion of profits.
As gamers know, multiplayer contests allow participants to earn or create virtual in-game items as a part of their experience. These items can include customized clothes, cars, swords and spaceships, among myriad other commodities valued by gamers. However, these virtual goods and assets have not been tradable in the global economy.
Unlocking this vast market economy — and accessing the 2.2 billion gamers who may be interested in possessing these virtual items — is the quest of DMarket The brainchild of gaming industry leader Volodymyr Panchenko, DMarket is a decentralized marketplace that aims to turn every virtual gaming item into a tangible commodity.
DMarket hopes to deliver to the worldwide gaming community an application programming interface (available on GitHub) that encodes the transactions of these virtual items through smart contracts on the blockchain. Through this venture, DMarket endeavors to make every in-game item tradable across multiple platforms.
“The DMarket blockchain will log transfer of ownership and automatically exchange payments using the DMarket token,” said Panchenko, the company’s CEO. “This is what will allow gamers to trade virtual items for real goods.”
This innovative solution underscores the power of blockchains, which in this case are allowing for a worldwide multi-platform marketplace that facilitates one-click trades of virtual items from one gamer to another. Through the use of distributed ledger technology, DMarket is creating a full-scale ecosystem that allows developers and publishers to translate their games into the global marketplace. This is a potentially transformative development for the gaming industry, one that for the first time allows trade between items of real value.
This innovative approach makes one-click sales accessible for any gamer in the world. Moreover, there are no intermediaries or additional costs to the user.
Panchenko touts DMarket’s ability to provide a safe and seamless experience for all gamers as its main value proposition.
“We offer an API for game developers that will make the items they want tradable, eliminating the need for them to create their own independent ecosystem or market,” he said. “Moreover, through our efforts we are able to open up a vast array of possibilities for indie developers seeking to take advantage of in-game markets. We see blockchain technology as the matchmaker between virtual and real economies, which we’re excited about.”
The vision of DMarket is to fuel an entire economic network that allows game users to create what can essentially be thought of as foreign trade for video games. By way of example, two players engaged in “Team Fortress 2” and “World of Warcraft” could cross-exchange the value of a sword to be used in the latter for a hat in to be worn in the former.
DMarket’s full launch is planned for early 2018. Currently, the company is in full launch mode, with a 72-hour capital campaign of its own tokens scheduled to begin August 17. The tokenized currency, called DMarket tokens, can be sold in exchange for other popular cryptocurrencies. During the first stage of the funding campaign, ether and bitcoin will be accepted. During a second sale, which will run from November 1-15, the Ethereum Classic and Litecoin platforms will be added.
The launch objective is to bring into the fold at least ten games that will be immediately supported.
“Every game developer will be able to easily connect their game to DMarket,” Panchenko said. “That will increase lifetime value, revenue and time spent in their games. In addition, gamers will finally be able to enter the global economy with their virtual items, which will foster a new billion-dollar marketplace that we believe will flourish.”
To learn more about DMarket, check out its website at dmarket.io.