You can now play Solitaire, Snake, and even Counter-Strike to earn satoshis, a small fraction of bitcoin (BTC). Cointelegraph spoke with executives at Thndr Games, a Play-to-Earn (P2E) gaming company built around bitcoin. But as well as those of Zebedee, a gaming platform “that will change gaming with the power of bitcoin. »
Using Lightning Network (LN), a Layer 2 payment solution built on top of the Bitcoin network, Sats instant microtransactions can be quickly paid to players around the world. “It fills a real need in the gaming industry. Ben Cousens, chief strategy officer at Zebedee, told Cointelegraph.
Zebedee offers Bitcoin and LN support for popular games such as Counter-Strike: Go (Global Offensive). They encourage casual play and the creation of inviting environments that can “bring people to the Bitcoin network in ways that surprise them.” Cousins explained.
In the case of THNDR, which launched a Solitaire-like mobile game on September 19, the rollout of popular and casual game types is also aimed at encouraging people to use the Bitcoin network. The company is actively targeting players in emerging markets as well as female audiences.
Desiree Dickerson, CEO and co-founder of Thndr Games, shared some statistics with Cointelegraph during a call: “60% of women around the world play games, and 60% of them play mobile games every day. »
Furthermore, the gaming industry is bigger than the movie industry: “2.6 billion people around the world play games. Within this segment, mobile gaming is the most popular. “It’s 60% of the total gaming market and it’s only growing. Mr. Dickerson explained.
The launch of Club Bitcoin: Solitaire specifically targets the growing female market:
“The mission is to get people on board with bitcoin, but we will never make a game that is not a good game. We don’t want to focus on bitcoiners all the time. It’s about making a great game that has bitcoin in it.”
About 60% of Thndr Game users are located in the global south, a popular touchpoint for bitcoiner businesses. Emerging markets suffer from unstable systems, volatile currencies and weaker socio-economic development.
In this environment, bitcoin as an asset can be an economic lifeline for many. And thanks to Bitcoin’s near-instant payout ramps and network-centric gaming, Bitcoin as a protocol now offers a loophole as well as small economic rewards. At Zebedee, for example, the average transaction size is small, just $0.02.
Cousens told Cointelegraph, “Bitcoin and Lightning games and the network are a huge launch pad [l’adoption] bitcoin. noting that Brazil is an important territory for its user base, followed by the Philippines, two emerging countries where cryptocurrency adoption is flourishing.
Additionally, both Dickerson and Cousens pointed out that games are a way to introduce bitcoin without “ideology”. The bitcoin and crypto spaces are full of attacks, attacks and accusations, and games, especially sane games, are a temporary environment where users can start to stack up positions.
Also read: Bandai Namco, SEGA among gaming giants interested in blockchain
Thndr has managed to send over 1.5 million rewards to LN, and has gained a growing number of dedicated fans. All of their games have a rating of 4.5 stars or higher on the Apple App Store. “We think first and foremost about the pure joy of play. Mr. Dickerson explained.
For Cousens, well aware of the risk of “hyperfinancialization” of gaming products, it is difficult to underestimate the role that consumer games could play in the adoption of bitcoin: “A bad consumer mobile game has about 10 million downloads […] You get a game or two, you eclipse El Salvador. »
Through the Bitcoin Law, El Salvador could encourage a total population of 6.4 million people to earn, save and spend bitcoins. By comparison, Solitaire has 35 million monthly users, according to Microsoft. And it’s just one game.
