Translate article on Crypto Gaming

_posts/en/2022-03-22-crypto-gaming-survey.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Crypto-gaming survey"
+excerpt: "Video games, crypto, blockchain and NFT: in the heart of new business."
+authors:
+    - marianne
+    - marishka
+permalink: /en/crypto-gaming-survey/
+categories:
+    - crypto-gaming
+    - blockchain
+
+cover: /assets/2022-03-16-enquete-sur-le-crypto-gaming/enquete-crypto.png
+---
+
+## Introduction
+
+[Crypto-gaming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain_game) is booming on the internet, but what is this new passion? Can you really make money playing video games?
+
+<div style="text-align: center;">
+    <img src="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/2022-03-16-enquete-sur-le-crypto-gaming/enquete-crypto.png" width="300px" alt="Carte Haaland sur Sorare à 600k" style="display: block; margin: auto;"/>
+</div>
+
+## Basics
+
+For people unfamiliar with the world of cryptocurrency, you must first understand how several concepts work.
+
+[Cryptocurrency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency) is a digital currency that does not need a central bank, and is based on the blockchain ([Basics of blockchain](https://blog.eleven-labs.com/fr/bases-blockchain/)). Please note that the blockchain is not cryptocurrency, but it is the technology on which it is based.
+
+You may have already heard of it in the artistic and especially sports world, the NFT replaces Panini collection cards. [NFT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token) short for _Non-Fungible Token_ is often a digital object that will be certified via the blockchain as belonging to a digital identity (= an owner).
+
+<div style="text-align: center;">
+    <img src="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/2022-03-16-enquete-sur-le-crypto-gaming/sorare-nft.png" width="233px" alt="Carte Haaland sur Sorare à 600k" style="display: block; margin: auto;"/>
+</div>
+
+*<center>On Sorare, Erling Haaland's unique card is worth 600k, while the non-NFT card is worth nothing.</center>*
+
+The difference between a “normal” token and an NFT is that the token is interchangeable: 1 Bitcoin token is worth the same value as another Bitcoin. A bit like in commerce, where a 1 euro coin is worth another 1 euro coin. The NFT on the other hand is unique.
+
+We can compare the NFT with Pokémon cards: being a limited edition, the most expensive card was sold for [$900,000](https://gaming.gentside.com/pokemon/pokemon-les-10-cartes-les-plus-cheres-de-l-histoire-du-jeu_art24621.html) in February 2022.
+
+## How are video games related to this?
+
+Even if the boom is recent, the first crypto-game dates from 2017 with [CryptoKitties](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoKitties). In this game you could buy, sell, grow and breed CryptoKitties. In 2018, [Axie Infinity](https://axieinfinity.com/) was released, which is a play-to-earn (play to win) where you also have to raise creatures like CryptoKitties, which can also be fought as a team, or “farmed” to win objects that can be then be sold to other players.
+
+This encourages gamers to play even more, a community to form and therefore the game to last over time.
+
+But where does the boom come from? These games already date back a few years... Well, quite simply as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic: people locked up at home (some without work) then turned to crypto-gaming as a source of income.
+
+## 💰 How can we earn money with video games?
+
+### Context
+
+For this article, I tested crypto-games that I would describe as “serious”: they have been on the market for a long time, are from trusted publishers and are not “click-to-earn” (“games” where you just have to click to earn tokens).
+
+I have tested and discussed crypto-games with people who are deeply into them, but the offer being very vast, this article does not of course present you with a complete and exhaustive overview, and only engages my opinion on the thing. I personally played Axie Infinity and Sorare.
+
+### Starting a game
+
+When a publisher launches its game, it will sell NFTs (or tokens) so that players can access the game. Some may be free-to-play, but you will not be able to, or rarely, earn resalable items.
+
+The publisher will already make money by selling these first generated tokens, sometimes infinitely, sometimes in limited numbers (especially for NFTs). Why in limited numbers? Quite simply to prevent the price of the token from falling if there are too many in circulation, and therefore discourage players/investors.
+
+<div style="text-align: center;">
+    <img src="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/2022-03-16-enquete-sur-le-crypto-gaming/crypto-gaming-start.png" width="700px" alt="Starting game project" style="display: block; margin: auto;"/>
+</div>
+
+### Game life
+
+The publisher will then offer users the opportunity to win objects in the form of tokens by playing via combat, prediction, farming or breeding mechanics, for example. And the objects can allow you to improve your skills, farm faster, breed, etc...
+
+In many cases, the more advantages the game offers to play, the more attractive the game will be, the more players there will be. And the players who have invested will make the game attractive for those who want to develop or newcomers: they are the ones who buy their tokens, and who will allow them to earn money.
+
+<div style="text-align: center;">
+    <img src="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/2022-03-16-enquete-sur-le-crypto-gaming/business.png" width="700px" alt="Starting game project" style="display: block; margin: auto;"/>
+</div>
+
+A question nagged at me, and I saw it in Axie: how are tokens, especially in infinite numbers, created? I don't like the answer: a token is created from nothing, it only has value for the people who use it.
+
+### Finally, money!
+
+As with classic cryptocurrency, tokens have their own stock market price.
+
+<div style="text-align: center;">
+    <img src="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/2022-03-16-enquete-sur-le-crypto-gaming/axie-slp.png" width="700px" alt="Cours de l'objet SLP du jeu Axie Infinity" style="display: block; margin: auto;"/>
+</div>
+
+*<center>On Axie, you can win in combat SLP items that allow you to farm.</center>*
+
+Depending on the price, it will be interesting or not to resell them, as on the stock market.
+
+<div style="text-align: center;">
+    <img src="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/2022-03-16-enquete-sur-le-crypto-gaming/speculation-down.png" width="700px" alt="Starting game project" style="display: block; margin: auto;"/>
+</div>
+
+*<center>The more buyers there are and the fewer purchase intentions there are, the more the price falls.</center>*
+
+<div style="text-align: center;">
+    <img src="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/2022-03-16-enquete-sur-le-crypto-gaming/speculation-up.png" width="700px" alt="Starting game project" style="display: block; margin: auto;"/>
+</div>
+
+*<center>The fewer buyers there are and the more purchase intentions there are, the higher the price rises.</center>*
+
+NFTs can be valued in several ways.
+
+There may be a price on which the NFT is indexed, for example a creature with super characteristics will have a bonus, while a creature that has already had several offspring will lose value.
+
+There are also, as on Sorare, sellers who set their price or offer items at auction, and it is the buyers who validate the amount.
+
+In any case, we can draw a parallel with material possession: when you want to buy an apartment, it does not have the same price as the one next door because it does not have the same characteristics, the seller has fixed its own price, and it is only up to you to validate or not the value of the good.
+
+In any case, the game publisher will earn a small percentage on the transaction and the blockchain miners will also take their share of the cake.
+
+## Reviews of a system
+
+
+### 💸 A Ponzi scheme?
+
+For those who do not know the [Ponzi scheme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme), you still know its application: it is a fraudulent financial arrangement which makes it possible to finance the investments of the customers by the new entrants. The system collapses when customers no longer get paid because there are not enough new investors. One of the most famous cases of his last years is that of Bernard Madoff.
+
+For the anti-crypto-gaming, this type of game is a Ponzi scheme, and for the pros, it is about investments like an apartment or a table that can be resold.
+
+Where I agree with the pros is that we can actually tell ourselves that when we no longer need an object, we can resell it. But what they forget is that they want to resell at a profit, not at a loss. As the goal for the majority is to make money, it would be better to take as an example the bottles of wine which can sell for 26k in the hope that someone too rich can afford it to finally drink it.
+
+In the world of crypto-gaming, the NFT token has, for the moment, no purpose except in the game: except if someone who is too rich wants to have fun playing and does not worry about losing money, you can only make money on new entrants hoping that they are not also there to invest. If the majority of new entrants are there to invest, we may find ourselves faced with a Ponzi scheme.
+
+### 🌱 An ecological aberration
+
+This is not the first time that I have spoken about ecology on this blog, especially with the article on [eco-design](https://blog.eleven-labs.com/fr/leco-conception/) . Token and NFT transactions are computed via blockchain, similar to cryptocurrency. This requires considerable resources: rare earths and energy which is often of fossil origin.
+
+At a time when there is a shortage of materials to make graphic cards or chips, players are making money on the backs of the planet.
+
+## Why did I try?
+
+Around me, I heard a lot of people talking about it and playing it. I had a priori and questions: how does it work? Are these games fun? How do we make money?
+
+I already knew that from an ecological point of view it was problematic, and that it was very similar to the Ponzi scheme. After having dug a little, that does not seem to me to be the first goal of the editors, it is especially the use and the speculation which can arrive from there at Ponzi.
+
+I will continue to play some time out of curiosity, because a question still remains unanswered: how long does it take to make your investment profitable?
+
+## To go further
+* [Are Play To Earn Crypto Games a Ponzi Scam?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4W3wsz5uYc) by On Chain Gaming
+* [NFTs are proliferating, despite their catastrophic impact on the environment](https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/arts-expos/art-contemporain/les-nft-proliferent-malgre-leur-impact-catastrophique-pour-l-environnement_5007331.html) on Franceinfo Culture