Tag Archives: labs

Solana Labs GameShift May Unite Web3 and Blockchain Gaming

Solana Labs GameShift May Unite Web3 and Blockchain Gaming

Solana Labs, the company behind the fast and scalable Solana blockchain, has recently launched the beta version of GameShift, a platform that aims to simplify the integration of Web3 features into games.

GameShift promises to offer game developers a single, easy-to-use API that handles all the blockchain complexity under the hood, allowing them to focus on creating immersive and engaging gaming experiences.

But will it really change the blockchain gaming landscape and enable more games to be launched? Here are some of the key aspects and implications of this innovative platform.

How Does GameShift Work?

GameShift is a unified blockchain game development API that leverages the power and efficiency of the Solana blockchain. It allows game developers to access a full stack of trusted third-party Web3 components on Solana through a single API without needing blockchain coding or knowledge. Some of the features include:

  • User wallets: Integrates with popular wallet providers such as Phantom, Sollet, and Coin98, enabling users to easily connect their wallets to games and manage their assets.
  • NFT minting: Enables game developers to create and mint unique and verifiable digital assets, such as characters, items, skins, and collectibles, using the Metaplex protocol.
  • In-game marketplaces: Allows game developers to create and customize their own branded in-game marketplaces, where users can buy, sell, and trade their NFTs using the Crossmint protocol.
  • Credit card on-ramps: Enables users to purchase NFTs and other in-game assets using fiat currency through credit card payments using the Coinflow protocol.
  • Analytics and insights: Provides game developers with access to data and metrics about their games, such as user behavior, engagement, retention, and revenue, using the Metakeep protocol.

GameShift is designed to be Web2-friendly, meaning that it uses familiar technologies and interfaces that game developers are already accustomed to, such as REST API, SDKs, and Unity, and Unreal engines. It also aims to provide a seamless and user-friendly experience for gamers, who can enjoy the benefits of Web3 gaming without having to deal with the technicalities and frictions of blockchain.

What are the Benefits of GameShift?

GameShift offers several benefits for both game developers and gamers, such as:

  • Faster and more accessible game development: Reduces the time, cost, and complexity of developing blockchain games by providing a single solution that handles all the Web3 components and integrations. Game developers can focus on the core gameplay and design aspects rather than the backend infrastructure and blockchain coding.
  • Higher quality and diversity of games: Enables game developers to create high-quality and diverse games that can rival those of traditional PC, console, and mobile games. It supports various genres and styles of games, from casual and social games to RPGs and MMOs and from 2D and 3D graphics to VR and AR experiences.
  • More revenue and engagement opportunities: Allows game developers to monetize their games and create new revenue streams by leveraging the play-to-earn and play-to-own models. Game developers can reward their users with cryptocurrency and NFTs for playing their games and also earn a share of the transactions that occur in their in-game marketplaces. It also enables game developers to increase user engagement and retention by offering users more ownership, control, and customization over their in-game assets and experiences.

What is the Impact and Potential of GameShift?

GameShift is a promising and innovative platform that has the potential to revolutionize the blockchain gaming industry and attract more game developers and gamers to the Web3 space. It may also have a positive impact on the broader blockchain and crypto ecosystem by driving more adoption and innovation and by creating more use cases and value for Solana and its native token, SOL.

They are still in the early stages of development. However, it has already attracted some interest and attention from game developers and investors and is powered by industry partners like Crossmint, Coinflow, and Metakeep. This is a good start for them.

It is expected to launch more games and features on its platform in the near future and to expand its user base and network effect. Personally, I think they may also explore more opportunities, such as:

  • Interoperability and cross-chain gaming: They may enable game developers and gamers to interact and exchange assets and data across different blockchains and platforms, creating more diversity and interoperability in the Web3 gaming ecosystem.
  • Social and community gaming: It may foster more social and community aspects in Web3 gaming by enabling game developers and gamers to create and join groups, clans, guilds, and DAOs and to communicate and collaborate with each other through chat, voice, and video features.
  • Immersive and realistic gaming: They may enhance the immersive and realistic aspects of Web3 gaming by enabling game developers and gamers to use VR and AR technologies and to create and experience lifelike and dynamic virtual worlds and environments.

The Bottom Line

Gameshift has the potential to shake up the world of blockchain gaming. It simplifies and speeds up the process of adding Web3 features to games, making it easier for game developers. It could completely transform blockchain gaming, enabling more games to launch.

For developers, it’s like a one-stop shop that takes care of all the complicated Web3 stuff, and for gamers, it offers a smooth and user-friendly experience with all the benefits of Web3 gaming.

And it’s not just about games. This platform could have a positive impact on the wider blockchain and crypto world. It might encourage more people to get involved and develop new ideas. It could even boost the value of Solana and its native token, SOL.

Right now, the platform is still in beta, and it hasn’t hosted any games yet. But it’s already getting much attention from game developers and investors. They’ve also announced some cool partnerships with other prominent players in the gaming world.

They plan to launch more games and features soon and explore all kinds of exciting possibilities for Web3 gaming, like making games work together, creating social gaming experiences, and diving into immersive gaming.

 

 

 

Source: https://www.techopedia.com/solana-labs-gameshift-may-unite-web3-and-blockchain-gaming

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j

Yahoo: How Yuga Labs’ NFT sale failed to put its community first

Yahoo: How Yuga Labs’ NFT sale failed to put its community first

The largest and perhaps most highly anticipated NFT sale so far this year took place recently when Yuga Labs launched their sale of virtual land to ApeCoin holders for around US$5,800 (the clearing price was set at 305 ApeCoin). The huge level of demand for the hugely popular Otherdeed NFT mint, which raised about US$320 million, created a two-fold problem for the Ethereum-based sale. Firstly, the steep rise in the volume of transactions led to a spike in the price of Ethereum gas fees, requiring people to spend around two ETH (approximately US$6,000) in fees to mint. Secondly, many of the participants in the sale, due to the bottleneck in demand, both missed out on the minting and lost their Ethereum in the process.

 

 

Original Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/yuga-labs-nft-sale-failed-030400730.html

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j

Opinion Article on Forkast : How Yuga Labs’ NFT sale failed to put its community first

Opinion Article on Forkast : How Yuga Labs’ NFT sale failed to put its community first

The ‘virtual land’ sale that broke Ethereum was also a fiasco for buyers. Should Yuga Labs have seen it coming and taken preventative action?

The largest and perhaps most highly anticipated NFT sale so far this year took place recently when Yuga Labs launched their sale of virtual land to ApeCoin holders for around US$5,800 (the clearing price was set at 305 ApeCoin). The huge level of demand for the hugely popular Otherdeed NFT mint, which raised about US$320 million, created a two-fold problem for the Ethereum-based sale. Firstly, the steep rise in the volume of transactions led to a spike in the price of Ethereum gas fees, requiring people to spend around two ETH (approximately US$6,000) in fees to mint. Secondly, many of the participants in the sale, due to the bottleneck in demand, both missed out on the minting and lost their Ethereum in the process.

Such was the chaos that soon after the sale, Yuga Labs tweeted: “We are aware that some users had failed transactions due to the incredible demand being forced through Ethereum’s bottleneck.” While YugaLabs promised “we’ve got your back” and that they would be “refunding your gas,” there was considerable pushback from the NFT (non-fungible tokens) community. Considering the stature of the sale, it is worth examining what happened in greater detail to understand what this means both for the NFT market going forward, not to mention its implications for the ideal of the core importance of the Web 3.0 community to the future of NFTs and the metaverse.

After Yuga Labs acquired CryptoPunks earlier this year, which put the VC-backed company valued at US$4 billion in the spotlight, this latest event certainly raises the stakes. Yuga Labs admitted the scale of the minting event not only crashed Etherscan but also seriously impacted Ethereum. “It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. We’d like to encourage the DAO to start thinking in this direction,” they added. But clearly with all the resources at their disposal, the chaotic result only created more skepticism on crypto Twitter.

But before diving into the organizational aspects, the upset among NFT newbies should not be ignored when crypto is so keen to gain mass adoption. That upset was voiced by NFT influencer ap3father.eth, who pointed out that he’d brought many friends into the space for the drop: “My friends said things like, ‘who would ever use Ethereum?’ ‘NFTs are only for rich people’ … and to be honest I agreed with them … although my initial reactions were filled with emotion … I agreed … How was this going to prove we are ‘innovating.’” It’s worth noting that Yuga Labs raised around US$320 million through the minting, with 55,000 tokens sold out in under three hours.

The key problem is that it’s not only an issue with scaling the number of transactions but also the number of smart contracts (“trustless computation”) — an issue also faced by so-called Ethereum killers like Polygon, Avalanche and Solana. While these chains may boast of a fast transaction per second (TPS) performance, only a small percentage is available for smart contract operations. It is interesting that in the example from U.K.-based Radix DLT that they’ve done away with the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) and instead built their own engine, which meant “a transaction is a transaction, it doesn’t matter if that is minting NFTs, swapping on DEXs or taking out a crypto loan,” tweeted Radix Works CEO Piers Rudyard in response to the Yuga Labs mint bottleneck and proposed scaling solutions. “That means that TPS performance and DeFi performance on Radix are basically the same thing,” Now, while I appreciate Rudyard is using this opportunity to plug his solution, the Yuga Labs mint controversy is also highlighting the significant blockchain bottleneck challenges ahead for mass adoption.

Putting that high-level critique of Ethereum smart contract functionality aside, using optimized smart contracts, such as ERC-721A, could have made the mint more equitable by reducing gas fees to the bare minimum. As Will Papper, co-founder of SyndicateDAO, tweeted: “Modifying a few words would have saved $80M+.”

Furthermore, limiting the number of KYC (know-your-customer)-approved wallets to only those required for the mint would have helped avoid gas wars and provided a positive minting experience for all parties involved. But for some, such as @DrNickA of FactoryDAO, this was missing the point because the fact that the number of NFTs outstripped KYC’d wallets was intentional. After all, Yuga had the KYC information in advance for all the prospective buyers, they could have created a whitelist to manage demand.

While Yuga Labs has since confirmed it would refund the fees for transactions that failed due to the problems, it’s clear that lessons need to be learned from its minting debacle. While the likes of Yuga’s VC backers, a16z, point to the core importance of “community ownership” to Web3, including NFTs and the metaverse, surely how that ownership is delivered is important?

Particularly coming so closely after its purchase of CryptoPunks, it’s worrying — and not helpful to the cause of mass adoption — when the leading NFT company is so careless with its community. It’s certainly my hope that ApeCoinDAO, which styles itself as independent of BAYC and community-led, lives up to its responsibilities and shows that Web3 is more than a business model for the metaverse, but also a way for people to engage in this new (virtual) world.

 

Original Source: https://forkast.news/how-yuga-labs-otherdeed-nft-mint-failed-put-community-first/

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j