Many of you already heard of Algorand being one of the new smart contract platforms using their Pure Proof of Stake consensus mechanism. But probably not many of you know it to detail and how it can disrupt the gaming industry, right? I will try to describe to you why and how.

ERC tokens on Ethereum

Ethereum is the main smart contract platform. It has its own token standard called ERC, which is an acronym for Ethereum Request for Comments.

The most common and known types are ERC-20 tokens, which are fungible tokens. Those ERC-20 tokens are used for transfers and balance tracking functionalities and those are the most common tokens.

Fungible tokens can be divided (1 can be divided to 0,5 and 0,5 or 0,2 and 0,8) and transferred.

NFT tokens on Ethereum

Non-fungible tokens (NFT´s) are tokens that can’t be divided. NFT´s represents ownership over asset both psychical and digital. For gaming, digital assets are more important and relevant. In the Ethereum blockchain, those are ERC-721.

Some other tokens on Ethereum are ERC-223, ERC-809, and ERC-1238. Those are not so relevant to this article.

Algorand Standard Assets in Layer-1

Algorand brought recently a major protocol upgrade called Algorand 2.0, which expanded the range of dApps and processes, which can be built upon the Algorand platform. The upgrades were Algorand Standard Assets, Atomic Transfers, and as well as Algorand Smart Contracts. All directly on Layer-1 of Algorand blockchain.

The advantage of building those upon the Layer-1 is that those upgrades can exploit the advantages of Algorand blockchain itself, which is a great level of decentralization, good rate of scalability, and security performance.

What are the Algorand Standard Assets (ASA)? Can they be both fungible (as ERC-20) and non-fungible (as ERC-721)? So, let’s get deeper into what they should be:

Fungible tokens (ASA):

• Cryptocurrencies (ALGO)
• Stablecoins (USDT, USDC)
• In-game points
• Loyalty points
• System credits

Non-fungible tokens (ASA):

• In-game items
• Collectables
• Identity tokens
• Supply chains
• Real Estates
• Certifications

Algorand and The Blockchain Game Alliance

Algorand already joined a major blockchain gaming association called The Blockchain Game Alliance. The Blockchain Game Alliance got already dozens of partnerships including Enjin, Ubisoft, AMD, MetaMask, Maker, Matic and others due to their web https://blockchaingamealliance.org/

Algorand will be both member and a sponsor of the BGA and aims to bring more adoption of online gaming on blockchain. The gaming industry can benefit from the technology Algorand brought already to its platform with new monetization models and easy creation of NFT´s (non-fungible tokens) and as well as the fungible tokens on Layer-1 such as gaming cryptocurrencies and tokens.

Major advantages of the gaming industry using Algorand blockchain are low transaction costs, fast finality of transactions as well as the community ownership of the ecosystem.

As the marketing program director at Algorand, Shamir Ozery, stated in his article:

”Gaming is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world with an estimated 2.5 billion gamers worldwide and a 9.6% increase in worldwide spending between 2018 and 2019. The gaming community has always been “ahead of the curve” when it comes to innovation and the adoption of new technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence and there’s a big opportunity to be had with using blockchain that has not yet been fully realized.”

Shamir Ozery also wrote that

“Joining the BGA is an opportunity to spread awareness about blockchain technologies and encourage adoption by highlighting their potential to foster new ways to create, publish, play, and build strong communities around games.“

Algorand and chess connection

One more thing about Algorand and gaming. A few weeks ago, founder of Algorand Silvio Micali played a blockchain-recorded chess game with Sergey Karjakin, who is a well-known chess master. This game was broadcasted live and it was one of the most popular games since the battle between Kasparov and the computer program Deep Blue.

As Silvio Micali stated, that

“...perhaps in the future, Algorand will create a grant aimed at popularization of chess around the world.  Micali observed that both chess and blockchain have things in common — they bring people together regardless of their background.”

Conclusion

Algorand and it's Algorand Standard Assets both fungible and non-fungible can bring benefits to the gaming space by bringing scalability, network speed, and transaction finality, which the gaming industry really needs and deserves.

The simplicity of creating NFT´s (non-fungible tokens) and minimal transaction costs are another welcomed advantage.

While using blockchain, there is still proof of ownership that games players own selected characters and items in the game. That brings the real value to their gaming because the internal value of NFT´s is here and they can be transferred to someone else and monetized. This means that even gamers can profit from gaming in the real-world.

The last amenity deserving mentioning in this conclusion is the joining The Blockchain Game Alliance, which can be beneficial to the whole blockchain industry.

With the ingenious improvements such as Algorand Standard Assets build right in Layer-1, Algorand is a very promising player on the smart contract platform field to become a perfect solution for the online gaming industry.

About Algorand

Algorand is a decentralized blockchain platform for smart contracts that uses the PPoS (Pure Proof of Stake) algorithm to conclude consensus within the network.

The PPoS algorithm has low computational complexity with fast and cheap transactions. The finality of blocks is very fast and immediately after the approval of the block within a maximum of 5 seconds.

The validator of the block can be anyone who owns at least 1 ALGO and due to the random and secret selection by using cryptographical function VRF (Verifiable random function), the chance is the same for every ALGO.

By involving the whole community in the proposal and approval process, there is achieved a maximum level of decentralization without any compromises on security or scalability. That is how Algorand is solving the so-called blockchain trilemma proposed by Vitalik Buterin.

Behind Algorand protocol is the Algorand Foundation led by Silvio Micali, co-author of Zero-Knowledge Proof and holder of the Turing Award from 2012 for laying the foundations of modern cryptography. Turing Award is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in IT.

The first Algorand block was mined on 11th June 2019, the native cryptocurrency of Algorand is ALGO.