The advent of blockchain technology came with many exciting benefits, mainly in the financial sector.
Blockchain technology has revolutionized finance so much that it has changed how many view and handle money.
Many major organizations, including Microsoft, Home Depot, Starbucks, and Tesla, now accept one or more forms of cryptocurrencies using payment gateways. People also use cryptocurrencies for easy cross-border transactions because they are faster and cheaper than traditional methods.
Cryptocurrencies have revolutionized several other sectors, including healthcare, insurance, and real estate. One industry currently experiencing the benefits of crypto is gaming. The global blockchain gaming market was worth $4.83 billion in 2022, projected at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 68.3% from 2023 to 2030, showing just how beneficial crypto is to the industry.
Cryptocurrencies are integral to gaming transactions and governance across different gaming systems. Although many games develop their own tokens, creators need to consider whether or not these altcoins are better for gaming than Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Gaming
Bitcoin is the world’s most popular cryptocurrency and the largest by market capitalization. Despite its popularity, Bitcoin is not commonly used for gaming. The Bitcoin whitepaper published in 2008 touts the crypto as a decentralized digital currency for sending and receiving online payments. Essentially, Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer cash system for easy payments.
Bitcoin is somewhat sidelined in gaming for many reasons, including its limited scripting language. Firstly, Bitcoin’s scripting language is deliberately restrictive to reduce the risk of security vulnerabilities and errors. Unfortunately, this limitation means that the blockchain might be unable to handle the kind of complex operations gaming requires.
Also, Bitcoin’s support for smart contracts is limited. While smart contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain are possible, they are much more basic than available on Ethereum because they are not Turing-complete. Consequently, developers prefer other networks and crypto assets when building blockchain games.
Even though the Bitcoin blockchain might be unable to handle complex functions for blockchain and NFT gaming, crypto casinos benefit from using Bitcoin as an alternative payment method. Gaming platforms known for supporting third-party payment methods to receive player deposits are now integrating cryptocurrency payments to appeal to broader audiences. However, these sites don’t just accept Bitcoin. Many of the top 40 sites to play with crypto accept a variety of coins, allowing gamers to enjoy gaming thrills powered by cryptocurrencies, no matter which coins they hold.
Altcoin Gaming
Since most blockchain games use networks other than Bitcoin, altcoins are the preferred option. At the time of writing, the 5 largest games by market cap are The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, Decentraland, Wreck League, and Gala Games. The five games, with a combined market cap of $3 billion, are all on the Ethereum blockchain.
There are several reasons why altcoins are more popular for gaming than Bitcoin. In some cases, these tokens are specifically designed for the gaming platforms and have specific features that make gameplay easy. On the other hand, building games on adaptable blockchains like Ethereum allows developers to modify their gaming projects to particular needs.
Another advantage to altcoins is that their underlying blockchains are more programmable. Blockchains like Ethereum and Solana support the robust development of smart contracts that help to serve special functions during gameplay. Since these blockchains are Turing-complete, developers actualize more possibilities than they can on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Perhaps the most essential benefit of altcoins in gaming is scalability. Many altcoin blockchains are more scalable and can handle more transactions than the Bitcoin blockchain.
In addition, altcoin blockchains have layer-2 networks that push the boundaries of the layer-1 blockchain’s transaction speed limits to accommodate more players. This is especially important for games that handle thousands of transactions and are likely to succumb to congestion. Although altcoins are largely more volatile than Bitcoin, many of them more than make up for these fluctuations with increasing utility and scalability.