Revolutionary technology – no matter the industry – must undergo the process of gradual acceptance and deal with the various challenges posed in its transition from concept to viable everyday use. We’ve seen over the past two years or so that blockchain has certainly followed this path in the gaming industry. Importantly, though, it’s this ongoing interrogation by industry peers that ensures disruptive products develop the characteristics that give them their longevity at the end of this phase.
FunFair Technologies has been championing blockchain’s inclusion in our industry for a while now; indeed, we had first-hand experience of dealing with these challenges on our path to going live with a shippable product earlier this year. It is through these hurdles and learning processes that we, and our competitors, have pushed the conversation on from ‘What is the blockchain?’ to ‘Where does your blockchain service sit with our needs?’
Those pushing the technology have had to see out various hindrances on the way. Externally, there was the crypto boom of late 2017, followed by a crash and period of uncertainty soon after. There were, and remain, mixed reactions to the blockchain from some regulatory bodies in gaming and finance, while the ambiguous security-versus-utility debate rages on.
Closer to home, the onboarding process for blockchain technology and cryptocurrency acquisition hasn’t had quite the same progression into the day-to-day use that some may have hoped for. Meanwhile, as was to be expected, many in our industry remain reluctant to embrace new technology, no matter its potential benefits to them.
However, it’s testament to the progressive sector we work in that we’ve come, in a relatively short space of time, from an embryonic idea based on the fairness that comes intrinsically with the blockchain to a fully-fledged sub-industry that services a global audience of many millions. Even more so, it’s pleasing to be able to use the trade press medium to delve into the intricacies of the technology and its working nature nowadays, rather than offering another blockchain education piece.
But it’s this next phase of blockchain that will see its true potential come to the fore, and its lack of comparable technologies as use cases makes this an exciting time for the gaming space.
Something that has separated many blockchain companies from traditional fiat platform providers is the ready-made community developed during and post token sale. For potential clients, this ready-to-use pool of potential players and advocates who want to use the technology as soon as it’s available should not be underestimated.
It would have been more straightforward to deliver our platform direct to those in the community, ignoring KYC procedures and licensing requirements in the name of a quick buck, as opposed to positively disrupting the gaming industry from the ground up in a correct manner.
Blockchain gaming’s major challenge, however, almost certainly lies beyond this existing, open community. When talking to prospective partners, the benefits of blockchain’s player protection and lower cost as a platform are understood, but what we need to do, and are in the process of doing, is explaining and demonstrating why the non-crypto player would want to make the leap to the decentralised world.
The success of this will likely come from two sides. First, further blockchain adoption by a global audience. As use cases enter more routine, day-to-day transactions, the education process will continue and the leap into the crypto-unknown will become a mere step, arguably similar to how PayPal rose to prominence with online transactions.
The secondary part of this persuasion of the day-to-day gambler has to rest on us, the blockchain stakeholders in gambling. We must provide the experiences, products and tools that they’ve come to expect. Online casino gaming has embraced the likes of video games and cinema to turn its own experiences into an immersive, retentive and enjoyable one, and blockchain technology shouldn’t be comfortable with offering anything less than this just because it’s later to the party.
Blockchain suppliers and casinos must channel the best of what’s already out there – we know what players demand – and improve on them with the various benefits of the technology.
I’d like to think of this as the end of the first phase of blockchain’s amalgamation into the wider gaming space. We, as a blockchain collective, want to deliver a better experience to players through blockchain-powered casinos and tools, and we must keep on raising the bar, running to the consumer where we can to ensure a better online gaming industry for all.
Jez San is a British technology entrepreneur and investor whose pioneering work in the field of real-time 3D computer graphics led to him being awarded the OBE for services to the computer games industry. He has since gone on to found companies including 3D online poker room PKR and most recently blockchain casino provider FunFair Technologies.