Cryptocurrencies Unleashed: Game Development & Enjin

I firstly want to start off by thanking each and every one of you for helping me reach 3000+ followers on Medium. This is something I never thought would be possible when starting this journey and I am grateful we are treading the advancements of the space together.

I would like to take this milestone as an opportunity to launch a new series titled “Cryptocurrencies Unleashed”. In this series, I will be discussing up-and-coming projects, significant project milestone releases and much more.

I will be debuting this series with “Game Development & Enjin” as an ode to Enjin launching their Smart Contracts on Ethereum’s Mainnet. In this post I will be focusing on the functions and benefits the Enjin Platform (as a whole) will unleash to game developers and publishers.

Overview

The Enjin Platform “gives communities, content creators, game servers and game publishers, an easy solution for implementing virtual goods and real value, into their gameplay and communities. Enjin has developed/will develop a powerful framework of open-source software development kits (SDKs), wallets, game plugins, virtual item management apps and a payment gateway platform”.

I have already featured Enjin in my “Real World Applications of Cryptocurrencies” series, discussing how Video Game Virtual Goods (from a gamer’s perspective) will be revolutionized by the introduction of Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies, which you can find here.

Unfortunately, current Ethereum Standards (ERC-20 and ERC-721) would have restricted the platform’s functionality and efficiency as these require a separate contract to be deployed for each fungible or non-fungible token/collection. A new standard (ERC-1155) was proposed by Enjin’s CTO, which is a standard interface for multiple item/token definitions in a single deployed contract making it vastly more flexible and efficient. If you want to find out more about ERC-1155 you should check out my blog post titled “A Proposal To Shake Up Ethereum”, here.

ERC-1155 is the cornerstone to the Enjin Platform and is the standard used by their smart contracts. Using it as its backbone has unleashed a host of functions and benefits for game developers and publishers which I will discuss below.

What are Enjin’s Platform functions & benefits?

Besides solving many issues faced by gamers today, the Enjin Platform brings a host of benefits for game developers and publishers. With the launch of their smart contracts (and Unity SDK & UI tools in the near future), developers will be able to back their video game virtual goods with cryptocurrency without requiring any blockchain knowledge. They will be able to leverage the Enjin Platform to create complex token designs and economies via an extremely user-friendly plug & play interface. Below you can find a list of functions that are available at launch:

• Reserve Value — Creators have the ability to mint items backed by ERC-20 tokens which immediately makes the item valuable. For example, each Mammoth Mount could be backed by 500 ENJ.
• Item Melting — Items can be destroyed (or melted) in order to retrieve its reserve value. For example, if a gamer decides to melt his Chromatic Sword (backed by 10,000 ENJ), this will result in her receiving 10,000 ENJ (if there are no fees) in return for having it removed (and destroyed) from her possession.
• Enhanced Security — Trading between two parties can be done securely using a built-in escrow system. In addition, items can be bound to specific owners and only traded with certain whitelisted parties. For example, creators could leverage this to also regulate the secondary market by whitelisting only approved marketplaces in which items can be sold/bought from.
• Advanced Commission Model — Creators can choose to apply a fee when trading takes place. Additionally, they can choose to charge a fee when items are melted. These fee are applied regardless of the platform trades/melting happen on as they are baked in the smart-contracts themselves.
• Controlled Item Economics — Creators have the ability to control the minting nature of their items. For example, they can mint 10 and only 10 of Chromatic Swords thus when one is melted, it decreases the total number whilst increasing their value.
• Unique Funding Models— Since there are so many options when minting items, game creators can find new and unique ways to fund their project. For example, creators could create rare non-fungible items that would be highly collectible used to fund their game pre-sale (see War of Crypto below).

Projects Utilizing Enjin

Given the power and ease-of-use of the Enjin Platform, it’s no surprise that projects are already primed and ready to leverage its power. These include:

War of Crypto (WoC)

WoC is “a blockchain-based 3D multiplayer game for PC, Android, and iOS has just announced via Twitter that their most valuable in-game ERC-1155 token will be a Dark Dragon that contains 10,000 in Enjin Coin (ENJ). These will be the first ERC-1155 tokens to ever go on sale, and the first cryptocurrencies to be backed by another cryptocurrency, Enjin Coin. War of Crypto’s pre-sale of characters will begin on the 28th of July and will offer a range of heroes and skins that will only be attainable through peer-to-peer markets, once the pre-sale has completed”.

You can find more information about WoC, here, as well as their reveal trailer below.

9Lives Arena

Touchhour has announced their adoption of the Enjin Platform in their upcoming game named 9Lives Arena. This is a “competitive online RPG that will also feature a unique companion app for iOS and Android that will give players an innovative commandable, Tamagotchi-style sidekick to help them gather and craft resources. Designed for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, with its companion app targeting iOS and Android, 9Lives Arena utilizes the latest in technology developed by Enjin to place all its characters on the blockchain”.

You can find more information about 9Lives Arena, here, as well as their reveal trailer below.

Conclusion

The Enjin Platform unleashes a host of benefits to game developers and publishers and it’s no surprise projects are already adopting it — “Actions speak louder than words”, “The proof is in the pudding”, etc.

I would like to close with a brilliant video related to this subject matter which I highly recommend you watch.

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Cryptocurrencies Unleashed: Game Development & Enjin was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.