Making the cryptocurrency industry more approachable is an ongoing challenge. However, the advent of gamification, play-to-earn gaming, and NFTs has brought much more mainstream attention to this segment. Any platform innovatively embracing gamification can make a lasting impact.
Gamification Matters To Crypto
Even though cryptocurrency has tremendous potential in the financial sector, that might not be the industry of interest for mainstream users. Financial matters are something most people either ignore or try to circumvent in whatever way possible. That is a bit problematic for the companies and projects pursuing opportunities in decentralized finance, as they will – most likely – only attract existing crypto users rather than those who have a pressing need for these products and services.
Changing that narrative requires a very different approach to bringing crypto services to the world. Gaming represents an excellent opportunity, as it is a far more popular industry than finance. Unfortunately, most public blockchains will not scale properly to accommodate any gaming endeavors, creating another bottleneck to resolve. Although networks like Cardano, WAX, Solana, and others provide far better scaling,
Gamification of blockchain technology presents new exciting opportunities, but it may not necessarily trigger a major shift. Play-to-earn gaming attracts many people to this industry, as they see opportunities to make money. GameFi, the gamified version of decentralized finance (DeFi), seems to have a similar effort, although it is still a bit too early to say. The ongoing growth of metaverse technology can bring more people into the fold, but only if the correct infrastructure is built to accommodate millions of users.
Thankfully, that necessary infrastructure is currently in development across major blockchains. Surprisingly, it will not be Bitcoin or Ethereum that will bring the essential solutions to the table. Like the ones mentioned above, other blockchains note an influx of new projects that can help make gamification the catalyst to bring the mainstream into cryptocurrency and blockchain.
Gamification Examples Available Today
While some people may think the future of gamification will not happen until a few years, things look very different today. Numerous projects have gaming elements to bring their product or service to the market. Outside of play-to-earn gaming, there are also solutions like NFTs unlocking virtual avatars or items for virtual avatars, providing access to gaming environments, and more.
However, the concept goes much further than that. Decentralized finance platforms make a concept like yield farming, staking, and liquidity provision much simpler and more accessible by adding game-esque elements to them. It makes DeFi more accessible to newcomers who are not familiar with these concepts, yet they can see the benefits of clicking on a website’s section to earn money or collect rewards.
Even in the decentralized exchange industry, gamification is taking hold. AdaSwap, the ecosystem builder on the Cardano network, supports various use cases, including serving as an AMM DEX. All of its core functionality is accessible seamlessly, and users will have fun swapping tokens, supplying liquidity, and experimenting with non-fungible tokens. Combined wth low trading fees, a referral program, and stake-and-forget functionality, AdaSwap removes many headaches newcomers would face otherwise when entering the crypto space.
Closing Thoughts
Gamification changes the way people think about topics that might otherwise make them uncomfortable. No matter how important, financial matters make people’s skin crawl, as we prefer not to think about these things. However, it is not something to avoid forever either, and gamifying elements of [alternative] financial concepts can make these matters much more approachable.
It is a welcome change to the overall cryptocurrency industry. Decentralized finance, DEXes, and other solutions can change the lives of millions of people, yet they often only cater to those who are entrenched in cryptocurrency already. That is now what these initiatives were about, and gamification may be the catalyst to enable mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain in the coming years.
