Blockchain exchange provider Huobi Cloud revealed a bold move into the realm of online gaming Monday, Sept. 17, via an official press release stating the company’s intent to partner with BlockGames.
Will Video Games Popularize Blockchain Technology?
The new project, called BG.top, is hosted by BlockGames and backed by Huobi and, according to its website, aims to bring the decentralized nature of blockchain technology to online gaming. In a press release, Huobi stated:
“The venture is presently a fully-functional cryptocurrency exchange but will, in time, develop into a boundary-less, decentralized environment where game developers, investors, and even everyday gamers can come together to buy, sell, fund, develop and launch video games through the use of blockchain technology.”
Though Huobi does have a token, the company’s main offering is its hosting service, which allows partners to create their own cryptocurrency exchanges to suit their needs.
Huobi has undertaken aggressive and rapid efforts to expand its footprint, recently extending its reach into the Japanese market through its subsidiary Huobi Japan, which became a majority stakeholder in the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange BitTrade last week.
Huobi intends to continue its rapid growth, according to Monday’s release. The company says it set up the venture with BlockGames in “a matter of months” and that it will continue to seek out new and mutually beneficial partnerships. Other companies already on board with Huobi include Taiwanese investment company Chi Fu Group, Russian banking company Vnesheconomback and Hong Kong’s Yatai International Holding Group.
This new venture into gaming seems particularly close to the hearts of the Huobi brass, however. In a massive Blockchain Industry Special Report published on Medium, the company detailed why it chose to get into gaming and why it believes the industry could be the key to popularizing blockchain in the mainstream marketplace.
According to a report published by Huobi Research:
“[The] video game industry is one of the most lucrative internet-powered industries that saw the rise of Tencent, Blizzard Entertainment and Steam. However, the traditional video game industry today is suffering from divisions caused by centralization.”
The company also believes the present structure of the gaming market gives too much power to distributors; puts an undue amount of pressure on developers; doesn’t allow gamers to actually own their in-game assets, creating a sunk cost proportionate to those assets; and the market has a high risk of runaway inflation.
Here we present our Huobi Blockchain Industry Special Report: Blockchain Games
We believe that the popularization of blockchain games could potentially leads to mass adoption of blockchain technology.https://t.co/cMQkDk0cNg
— Huobi Research (@Huobi_Research) September 13, 2018
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Huobi goes on to say in its report that it hopes to solve these problems using blockchain to, among other things, give ownership of assets back to the players via the security of blockchain and allow games to reach players on self-distributed networks.
In addition, the exchange maintains that blockchain’s integration into the gaming market will start small by offering developer tools to traditional video game companies and helping to meet their infrastructure needs, which will allow more games from publishers like Blizzard and Steam to be “distributed on-chain.”
Though not currently established in the U.S., Huobi has teams in Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia and the U.K., serving millions of customers, according to its website. It currently has 50M token in circulation and a 24-hour trading volume of almost 15.5M.
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