An American blockchain technology startup, Algorand, has joined a major blockchain gaming association, the Blockchain Game Alliance, or BGA. Algorand, known for providing technology to a number of national digital currency projects, is now officially a BGA member. They join more than 60 BGA companies, such as ConsenSys and MakerDAO, according to the BGA website. Announcing the news on July 2, Algorand said that the firm will be contributing to the BGA as a member and supporting sponsor. Bringing online gaming on blockchain By joining the alliance, Algorand wants to bring a number of benefits to the gaming industry. These …

Blockchain’s inexorable push into the world of gaming is occurring simultaneously on a number of fronts. From AAA tentpole productions backed by major crypto players, through crypto-powered Esports tournaments in popular non-blockchain titles, to encouraging developers on board with easy-to-use blockchain integration tools. GOATi Entertainment is taking a dual-headed approach of its own with its Pavillion Hub offering; targeting both the developers and players on one of the largest gaming platforms around, Steam. Steam, but turbo-charged and blockchain-enabled Pavillion Hub, powered by Phantasma blockchain, acts as a kind of blockchain-enhanced front end for Steam. Gamers can simply link their Steam …

Esports superstars of the popular first-person-shooter game Counter-Strike will participate in a crypto-powered tournament where fans will be able to bet with crypto tokens. The tournament is sponsored by Verasity — an attention based platform for video, gaming and entertainment rewards with a native VRA token. The tournament will feature Nathan Schmitt (NBK) and Asia’s best player Kevin Susanto (Xccurate), who according to the press release, have two million fans worldwide. Verasity has signed a long-term deal with the players agents. The company is also in the process of obtaining a gambling license in Curaçao. VRA aims to take on …

Blockchain firm Dragonchain has announced a new contest system, which they claim is "provably fair." Dragonchain founder and CEO Joe Roets told Cointelegraph on June 25 that the firm has developed a blockchain-based contest system that allows participants to verify its fairness. It can be used for lotteries, raffles, sweepstakes and contests of skill. Rotes said that crypto exchange Beaxy has already adopted the system for its trading and promotional contests, and that Dragonchain was already in talks with various parties who wish to use the system in casinos, for sporting event giveaways, and charity raffles. The firm plans to …

Blockstream CSO Samson Mow explored a variety of topics in his latest interview on Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel. Watch the full interview above and be sure to subscribe to the channel for more weekly crypto content! Blockchain in Gaming Mow is not only the chief strategy officer at Blockstream, but also the founder and CEO of game development company Pixelmatic. He created the company after working for two years as a Director of Production for Ubisoft in China. His interest in gaming economies stems from his experience playing Lineage 2. He recalls that he and a friend ran a gold farming …

Hironao Kunimitsu, the founder of Tokyo social gaming firm Gumi, believes that blockchain-based trading of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in video games will grow to become ‘more valuable than Japan’s entire economy’. Kunimitsu was speaking about the future of gaming and NFTs at Cointelegraph Japan’s Traders Live last week. NFTs bring economic activities to gaming. They’re unique tokens representing a specific item. For example, an NFT can give game users proof of ownership of game items and characters. These can then be traded for cryptocurrencies at exchanges such as OpenSea. In Minecraft some players build lots of houses, but at present …

Algorand founder Silvio Micali played a Blockchain-recorded chess game against grandmaster Sergey Karjakin. This marked a historic moment for the fifteen hundred year old game. Gentlemen are cheating too The match, which was the inaugural game for FIDE Online Arena, was broadcast via World Chess. Although chess is considered a gentleman’s game, cheating presents a real challenge to its integrity. The hope is that recording games transparently and immutably using blockchain technology will help curtail existing problems. Chess has not been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as much as other sports. Timing was in fact rather apt, as competition had …

Virtual economies based on blockchain technology are starting to emerge as one of the biggest upcoming trends in gaming, gaining more traction with investors, gamers and developers alike. The use of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, which provide proof of ownership and the means to transact the set holdings in a seamless fashion, can drive further adoption of games that use virtual economies beyond the crypto realm. In the latest development, DMarket, a platform that leverages blockchain technology to enable buying, selling and trading of in-game assets, has closed $6.5 million dollars in venture funding. The round was led by Almaz …

The culmination of a year and half of work, the American Gaming Association has proposed a set of updated policy guidelines for casino payments. The proposition looks to let visitors fund their activities at gambling establishments via digital avenues instead of allowing only physical fiat currency, said a statement Tuesday. It remains unclear whether the AGA includes cryptocurrencies under its digital payments reference. Cointelegraph reached out to the AGA for comment but received no response as of press time. The masses want options More than half of customers desire other payment options, the statement said, adding: "The principles come at …

One of the time-honored traditions in the crypto community may be on the verge of becoming obsolete. Alchemy, a blockchain development platform, is going live with Alchemy Notify — a push notification for developers that could signify an end to repeatedly refreshing your favorite block explorer while waiting for a transaction confirmation. The crypto user-experience is one of the most derided aspects of the industry, with critics claiming that the complicated nature of transactions, and the time it takes for many blockchain protocols to finalize them, means that cryptocurrency will never find mainstream adoption. But along with events such as …

Korean Blockchain gaming company PlayDapp has launched a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), offering Korea’s multi-billion gaming industry a native gateway into digital assets. Announced on June 8, the new platform, ‘PlayDapp MarketPLAce,’ advertises itself as providing free support for coin-to-coin trading between NFT-based in-game items. Koh Kwang-Wook, a founding member and former CTO of Item Bay, an early online brokerage platform for in-game items, led the development of PlayDapp’s marketplace. Korean NFT marketplace targets gaming industry At launch, the platform supports items from Ethereum-powered collecting games CryptoDozer and DozerBird. Over the past 24 hours, the games have attracted 201 …

In the midst of ongoing protests across the United States, some turned violent by police brutality, one publication has uncovered information on a Pentagon war game created in 2018 that has an uncanny resemblance to current events. According to a June 6 article on The Intercept, documents reveal the United States Pentagon created a game called the 2018 Joint Land, Air and Sea Strategic Special Program (JLASS). In the scenario, members of Generation Z — people born starting in the mid-1990s — are rewarded in Bitcoin (BTC) for their efforts starting a rebellion, i.e. “Zbellion”. Players in the fictitious United …