As most of you know, Blockchain, cryptocurrencies and NFTs have been sweeping the world by storm.
While this is still the wild wild west where companies are innovating faster than what consumers can adopt to (be careful of what you invest in as many are hype over substance), when the dust settles there will be some clear winners that will define the future of technology, entertainment, and lifestyle.
Below we list 3 good examples of gamification being applied in the blockchain/cryptocurrency space.
Blockchain Gamification Example 1: Axie Infinity
You probably have already heard of Axie Infinity – which almost makes this a must-include on our list.
Traditional NFTs focus on just owning unique pieces of digital artwork or characters/cards which could go up in value and be traded later. However, without fun utilizations of these NFTs, the value of these NFTs are purely speculative and barely based on need or utility.
To increase the value of these NFTs, Axie Infinity (inspired by another NFT project CryptoKitties), Axie Infinity allowed people to “play” with these NFT creatures, including breeding more, buying land, upgrading the Axies, and battling each other.
The results of gamifying these NFTs made Axie Infinity the largest “Play-To-Earn” platform in the world, with their AXS market cap to exceed $3 Billion USD, and a daily trade volume of over $150 Million USD. Active players of Axie Infinity can earn from a few hundred dollars a month to over $4,000 a month, which becomes a nice living for many people in countries like the Philippines (warning: due to competitiveness of the platform, playing Axie Infinity may not guarantee actually earning money, and it is possible to invest into the game and lose money instead).
Blockchain Gamification Example 2: Fulldive Social Web3 Browser
Fulldive is a mobile browser (much like Chrome or Safari) that is supercharged by Blockchain, Gamification, and VR.
Not only does Fulldive allow the consumption of millions of VR content from a mobile phone, you can also gain gamified rewards such as XP points, increase levels, NFT badges, and quests. The in-browser coins that can be traded for gift cards, charity, or cryptocurrencies too.
Because of their unique combination of gamification, blockchain/crypto/NFT, VR, and ad blocking, FullDive mobile browsers has obtain over 15 Million Downloads. With their Gamified Social Browser alone, they achieved over 2.7 Million Downloads and a 4.73 rating from 111,000 ratings in their last update alone.
Fun fact: Yu-kai Chou and The Octalysis Group actually had the blessing and pleasure to provide some help to the Fulldive Social Browser to make it more engaging. Octalysis Group guidance helped(partially – we don’t claim full credit as their team worked incredibly hard to make everything happen) Fulldive’s Social Browser rating increase from 4.1 to 4.7, downloads from 600K to 2.7M, and the weekly retention rate from 12% to 29%.
Blockchain Gamification Example 3: Upland NFT
Buying virtual land has been a big topic in the Web3 world. Over $75 million USD worth of virtual land alone was sold in The Sandbox and Decentraland alone.
However, a very interesting project we have been eyeing on is Upland, which combines owning virtual land, real world real-estate, and monopoly into one NFT game platform.
A user basically purchases pieces of NFT property that represent a real world location (such as a building in New York). They can then earn a variety of currencies, rewards, and collections to increase their asset values.
There are a variety of strategies and optimizations in this monopoly game, making it quite engaging and enabling a valuation of $300 Million USD in just a couple years.
Honorable Mention: Metablox NFT (my own Blockchain Gamification Project)
Similar to Upland, my own gamified blockchain project harnesses the power of owning NFTs based on real life locations (a block instead of an address or building). However, we double down on the real world by allowing users to upload meaningful memories connected to that location and allow the Blox NFT to level up.
Leveled up Blox can generate an in-platform currency called MetaRent, which can then be used to bid for Landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge or Statue of Liberty.
The true purpose of Metablox is to motivate people to upload meaningful memories onto the Blockchain forever, so they will not live on a single server but can be immortalized like historical sites, museums, and landmarks.
I designed an intricate Game Loop to ensure longterm engagement as well as a steady rising in NFT utility, resulting in lasting value for owners.
Metablox is a new project that just launched in February 2022, and minting will start in April 2022. Eventually it will incorporate Augmented Reality (AR) experiences when exploring various cities, as well as social check-in/loyalty program implementations for real world locations.
If you want to join the early community and see how it’s done…
