2021 was a monumental year in the crypto space. It saw the much anticipated institutional flow of money into the industry, the explosion of NFTs, the first country (El Salvador) to embrace BTC as legal tender, and the emergence of viable Layer 2 scaling solutions. Not to mention all time highs for BTC and ETH.
Crypto showed itself to be the most rapidly innovating industry in the world as new technologies, protocols, and ideas continued to emerge, especially in the NFT and DeFi sectors. It also showed that it remains highly volatile.
We are now well beyond the point in time where a single person can be aware of everything happening even in the NFT or DeFi space, let alone the whole of crypto. So it makes sense to try and understand the broader themes of where the industry is headed so we can get a better grasp of where crypto is separating itself from the Web2 and traditional finance worlds. Understanding the direction and trends underway means we can take advantage of the new opportunities that are arising, and invest our time, money, and interactions into the right areas.
World Wide Web3
The term “Web3” is increasingly being used to describe new technologies and working models for individuals and communities to interact online. While it can sometimes be difficult to grasp exactly what the difference between Web2 and Web3 is, one useful model is to consider the evolution of internet participation as:
Web1 — read
Web2 — read / write
Web3 — read / write / own
Web3 offers people a genuine ownership stake. This can take the form of membership of an online community or of a financial incentive or reward for participation. Users no longer have to simply be followers or fans, they now have a genuine opportunity to be owners, investors, and members of communities with true agency and influence on the direction of that community.
Crypto as cultural evolution
While the existence of tens of thousands of different crypto tokens points to the “tokenisation of everything”, it makes more sense to consider crypto as the “financialisation of everything”. Humans naturally try and put a value on everything that is important or can be considered an asset. Crypto is providing the opportunity to democratise access to financial assets that were previously walled in by financial organisations.
It is now even extending to the financialisation of items or trends of cultural significance.
So the creation of a token or an NFT serves as a means of placing a known and tradable value on a part of culture. People can take an active part in a subculture of their interest with the added benefit of seeing financial recognition for that in a way that has never previously been possible. And the value of those NFTs or the tokens in a project ultimately become driven by the size of the network or the number of connections made within each of those communities.
NFTs and the gaming space
Many people underestimate the size of the gaming market. There are more than 2.7 billion gamers worldwide and in 2021 the gaming industry pulled in over $180 billion dollars in revenue. To give greater perspective on how big gaming really is, if gamers were a country, then by GDP they’d be in the top quarter of all countries, in the 53rd spot.
The gaming industry is starting to actively shift focus to the blockchain and metaverse space. When Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for $68 billion earlier this year, it wasn’t just the biggest tech deal ever, it was also a positional play by Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadellato, to “provide the building blocks for the metaverse”. The thinking behind the huge deal is further illuminated by Satya’s comments that,“In gaming, we see the metaverse as a collection of communities and individual identities anchored in strong content franchises accessible on every device”.
Like other big tech companies, Microsoft wants to ensure it’s producing gaming content that is engaging to gaming communities across all available platforms, including the emerging metaverse. The success of blockchain gaming guilds like Yield Guild Games, Merit Circle, and Avocado Guild also shines a light on how gaming communities are evolving. This is especially the case in light of the role that NFTs of in-game items are playing in how financially lucrative games can be for individuals or gaming communities. Ownership of in-game items is now so valuable that gaming guilds and DAOs are building out sponsorships that pay people around the world to ensure that valuable NFTs of in-game items and characters are being utilised 24/7.
Mass scaling
New scaling technologies are overcoming the limitations of the Ethereum base layer, which can only perform 15 transactions/second. Polygon, Optimistic Ethereum, StarkNet, Immutable X, and zkSync have all demonstrated the effectiveness of their scaling technologies, which allow for the required mass scaling of the NFT and gaming spaces to occur. This will be a major driver for bringing new users to the play to earn gaming and NFT spaces that were previously limited by high gas costs and slow transaction times.
Scaling solutions mean the bulk of the data moving through the ETH base layer can be shifted to other chains. The result of this is that eventually the use of the Ethereum base layer will be dominated by protocols and whales. Everything else will be pushed out to Layers 2’s, giving gamers and NFT users faster and cheaper transactions as well as a more seamless metaverse experience.
How Amasa can help you
While over short time frames, crypto appears to be highly volatile, the longer term fundamental value of blockchain technology use cases in evolved monetary and digital ownership systems doesn’t change. This is why Amasa is so well placed to help users in 2022 because the narratives for earning in Web3 and amplifying that value in DeFi are stronger than ever.
Decentralisation and blockchain tech have opened up gaming assets to real time income streams that are paid directly to the game players. And the play to earn gaming space is rapidly expanding as the big game studios and big tech are recognising that it is gaming communities that are really driving it.
Earning money in gaming isn’t just about e-sports where a select few players earn money from gaming tournaments held in stadiums in major cities. Play to earn gaming is making gaming lucrative for any player, anywhere in the world, 24/7. These opportunities are being amplified by NFTs, gaming guilds, and DAOs. And Amasa is making it easier than ever for people to find out about these play to earn and other Web3 opportunities and turn them into regular, long term income streams.
Whether Web3 users choose to earn income via play to earn games like Nine Chronicles or REVV Racing, data streams via Permissions.io or Swash, or NFTs and the metaverse via Enjin, the Web3 opportunities are already here and are expanding every day.
About Amasa
Amasa empowers people anywhere in the world to capitalise on the wealth building potential of Web3 income streams and DeFi. It’s helping to inspire the mass adoption of Web3 platforms so people are rewarded for their gaming, time, energy, attention, content, data, and interactions.
The Amasa platform will make Web3 income streams easy to capture, combine, and access as stabilised income streams that can then be amplified through user-selected DeFi investment options.
Combine. Stabilise. Amplify. All in the background of everyday life.
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