Since 2017 blockchain technology has developed rapidly and it became more prevalent and notorious through the false myths that the digital currency application offered the public. In 2018, with the strengthening of supervision in various countries and regions for blockchain tech, new economic blockchain models in many industries, particularly in gaming has been rejuvenated.
CYZONE was informed that BlaCat announced their completion of the Cornerstone of about 10 million RMB financing. BlaCat creatively proposed technology of multi-chain structure with high response speed to support ecological development of blockchain game and provided easy embedding wallets, SDK, decentralized asset exchanges, and game platforms so as to develop a true blockchain travel ecosystem through the development of full-blockchain games and high- speed application blockchain. CYZONE visited BlaCat to have an informed interview with their CEO Sean Chen and discuss how their startup is focused on using blockchain technology to change the gaming industry.
CYZONE: What are the characteristics and differences of blockchain games compared to traditional video games? What role does blockchain technology have in it?
Sean:I think the features of blockchain games can be broken down into five parts.
First of all, it offers the decentralization of game ownership.The ownership of the game and assets in the game will be recorded on the blockchain and will always exist. Therefore immutable.
Second, changes of ownership will bring about new operation models.Game development, operations, etc. will no longer be provided by centralized developers but will be transformed into an open source community such as having a team made up of “core executives + volunteer admins”.
Third, a new profitability model. After decentralization, the original centralized operations will eventually disappear. Based on the characteristics of the blockchain gaming community operations, the developers will profit from the extraction of fees and some value-added services instead of only from the direct sales of digital assets.
Fourth, a new consumption model. Unlike the conventional receptive levels of games, blockchain games will have more “investment + receptive” behaviors.
Fifth, a new promotion model. Games can be promoted at the beginning project stage, show project goals and gain a fanbase so as to seek user support and investment for the game. Because of the opportunity to invest, the user is a gamer, a community participant, a shareholder and a community promoter.
All these features depend on the blockchain technology and community culture based on this technology. The decentralized, traceable, tamper-proof, open source and censorable networks together with new set operation models of community consensus, token mechanisms, and economic incentives will bring an unprecedented game experience.
CYZONE: Because you are an experienced video game enthusiast and a techie, please give us an analysis of the current development of the blockchain gaming industry from a technical and marketing perspective.
Sean:Ok, from a technical point of view. It has been 10 years since the birth of blockchain with Bitcoin and the road to technological innovation with the development of blockchain. From the distributed ledger in the 1.0 era to smart contracts and oracles in the 2.0 era great progresses have been made. However with the existing technology, the infrastructure of the entire blockchain industry is still in its infancy. Developers generally believe that it will take about 2 to 3 more years to really progress further. However, in the field of video games the cultivation of blockchain technology is considered almost to be at an advanced stage and it is expected that a full blockchain game will appear in a year’s time.
On the other hand, from a marketing point of view, whether in the Internet industry or a conventional industry, we are experiencing a “blockchain+” stage and blockchain tech is slowly reaching into all aspects of our lives. Blockchain games is one of the superior applications of blockchain. I personally have worked in the Chinese game industry for 15 years. From my experience whether in client game, web or mobile games, only the first batch of people can enjoy the bonus brought by the subsequent high-speed growth of the market. In 2012, a partner of BlaCat released a mobile game and quickly achieved 2 million daily active users and nearly 100 million downloads in less than a year.
We believe that in the near future the blockchain game industry will have very rapid growth after fully completing it’s infrastructure construction and mode exploration. It is expected to form a 100 billion scale of emerging market.
CYZONE: What problems have arisen with the emergence of BlaCat?
Sean:BlaCat is a blockchain-based platform based on NEO technology, including wallets, game assets, NFT exchanges, global communities, game levels systems and more. We are developing a chain called ZoroChain which can solve the problems of long transaction confirmations and network congestion through a multi-chain structure, new network synchronization technology and a consensus algorithm. It is expected that the side chain of ZoroChain will reach a response speed in the milliseconds by the end of 2018.
CYZONE: What kind of game ecology does BlaCat want to build? What components are included? How are you going to operate and manage this?
Sean: We think the two most valuable parts are the game developers and users. Developers will produce the game content, then the users will consume it and together they should establish the most important part of the blockchain. BlaCat’s goal is to create such an ecosystem built around it’s users and developers to form a great interactive community.
The upstream of the game application chain is the developer and the downstream is the game user. In the upstream segment we had more than 200 teams all over the world in the NEO competition and the first product CryptoGladiator which started it’s presale in July sold more than 400 gladiators in less than 8 hours. At the downstream user level, we have just begun to establish parts of the community around the world and of course this endeavor will continue on.
One of my favorite books is “The Mysterious Island” from Jules Gabriel Verne and I recommend everyone read this book. The plot focuses on the adventures of five Americans on an uncharted island in the South Pacific. During the American Civil War, five northern prisoners of war decide to escape during the siege of Richmond, Virginia by hijacking a balloon. With the knowledge and innovation of the brilliant engineer Smith, the five are able to sustain themselves on the island. I refer to this book because I feel that is in parallel with how BlaCat is also rooted in innovation but through blockchain technology. Exploring and serving the gaming industry to build a decentralized ecosystem with developers and the users.
About Mr.Chen:
He has led the development of top game 3D and Web3D engines. Since 2009 he has had abundant entrepreneurial experiences in the video gaming industry completing the R&D of multiple game products that have reached monthly revenues in the millions of RMB yuan. Some of these include MU Web(《奇迹来了》), RO Web (《仙境物语》) and Yulgang Web (《热血江湖》).
BlaCat Official Site: http://blacat.game/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlaCat_platform
Telegram: https://web.telegram.org/#/im?p=@blacatplatform
Discord: https://discord.gg/THhtFQ