With bitcoin’s value reaching unprecedented heights this winter, rising from around $1,000 to over $15,000 at the time of writing, cryptocurrencies are in the limelight as never before in their relatively short history. Billions in investment are pouring in to countless new ventures, many of which come in the form of ICOs, or initial coin offerings. Of these there are many which target the gaming industry, some of which are self-proclaimed “disruptors”, seeking to undercut or otherwise shake up the competition. Some of the latest contenders in the gaming industry we’ll consider below.
As bitcoin shoots up in price, so does the frequency of attacks on trading sites, mining services and cryptocurrency gaming sites and online casinos. From the recent spate of attacks, some of which have got away with millions in stolen funds, it seems the industry which is emerging around cryptos may be a long way from being well-established as secure.
So now that bitcoin is clearly something far more than just a flash in the pan, what developments are taking place within the gaming market, and just how mainstream is this crypto stuff going to get?
The very latest in the crypto gaming scene in Europe is the emergence of British-based coin Electroneum from a wildly successful $40 million ICO. This coin targets the gaming sector specifically, particularly focusing on mobile phone users and gamers. It is intriguing enough that we’ll likely run a full analysis on it in the near future. One innovative aspect is that they are offering smartphone access not just to wallets but to mining capabilities, so that users can mine their own coins without access to expensive equipment. They aim to facilitate use and transaction of cryptocurrency for the layperson, allowing rapid and wide uptake.
Another gaming company behind the popular mobile gaming app Spells of Genesis, Switzerland-based EverdreamSoft are integrating the blockchain into the functioning of their game. Assets in the game, such as rare cards, can now be transformed into “blockchain assets” whereby they can be preserved securely and traded at a later date. They plan to roll this function out to other games in the future.
This will, according to EverdreamSoft, allow their players “true ownership” over in-game assets. In a game where some cards have traded for up to $5,000, the security of ownership this offers does seem to be of significant value to serious players. The company is also working on a blockchain gaming platform which will enable other game studios to offer blockchain systems for owning “digital items”.
Some major players in the gaming world are taking a step back, such as the infamous Steam, who stated this month that they are no longer taking bitcoin payments for games due to their “high fees and volatility”. They have mentioned that they’ll re-evaluate this option in the future.
Still, it seems clear that there’s interest and movement in the market in response to cryptocurrencies. But are they secure enough? Only this month we’ve seen mining service NiceHash report a hack in which the attackers managed to steal $60 million in bitcoin funds. Bifinex, which claims to be the largest and most developed exchange for cryptocurrency, has reported three DDOS attacks over November and December. A recent Imperva report found that the bitcoin industry was amongst the top ten industries targeted by DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks.
Still, online gambling and bitcoin make a heady combination for any would-be hacker. A recent study into DDOS attacks concluded that over 70% of all bitcoin sites suffered a DDOS attack in the third quarter of 2017, and that gambling sites made up over a third of all DDOS attacks online. This problem is likely to worsen as cryptocurrencies gain ground and notoriety, and based on reports such as that from NiceHash above, it seems there’s a long way to go before the industry is really equipped to fend off these relentless attacks.
