1/ BITCOIN GAMING 2020 RETROSPECTIVE (a thread)

This has been a challenging year all around, but we’ve witnessed incredible commitment to building on Lightning.

The #bitcoin gaming community specifically used this year as an opportunity to bring people together through gaming.

2/ This year we’ve seen the #bitcoin gaming experiment:

- Onboard new entrants to #btc
- Make microearning for play possible
- Create new ad models to engage audiences
- Complete the in-game circular economy
- Add value to esports, connecting streamers & influencers

And more!
3/ With the cancellation of numerous IRL confs and meetups, the #bitcoin gaming community transitioned to online demos and tournaments.

@MintGox, a next gen esports tournament powered by Bitcoin, was born to showcase companies building games on LN. 🧙‍♂️

https://t.co/30Sg2YREB1
4/ Over the past 9 mo, @MintGox featured FPS, fighting, racing, battle royale, mobile games, & more.

The streaming dashboard intro'd a novel way to break the fourth wall, letting viewers interact directly with the gameplay, using sats to drop powerups, inc. bounty, & send tips.
5/ Since inception, @MintGox witnessed incredible growth (over 20% MOM inc. engagement) reaching global audiences and building a dedicated community. 🌏

The most recent MintGox event saw over 5,200 viewers, 10,000+ LN txs, and over 10 million sats (0.1 $BTC) in prizes.
6/ Check out @mintgox at https://t.co/30Sg2YREB1 and join the Discord below to stay up-to-date on upcoming #btc gaming events. 🏟️

If you’re interested in sponsoring / advertising, shoot me a DM!

https://t.co/yTH2xhWSBh
7/ Gaming companies @zebedeeio, @thndrgames, @donnerlab1, and @satohisgames all made significant progress in 2020, collectively moving the space forward and making #bitcoin gaming a reality (with even some events in VR!).
8/ @zebedeeio's dev tools make the frictionless transfer of value in-game a reality via $btc. 💸

This year they launched their developer dashboard, Unity SDK, & gaming-focused wallet (over 100k tx since launch) featuring gamertags + static QR codes.

https://t.co/fHr5uPM0Ap
9/ Last weekend at @MintGox, @zebedeeio announced their biggest news of the year: Infuse, which makes it possible to ‘infuse’ #bitcoin into any game.

Using @CSGO as the first case study, players earn sats instantly for in game actions.

Check it out: https://t.co/GGG0ZILByZ
10/ Leading the mobile gaming front, @thndrgames cranked out the hits: Bitcoin Bounce & Turbo 84.🏎️

Founder & CEO, @jackeveritt, fought the app store battle and his efforts are clearly working with stats like these:

- 236,436 tx
- 31,696 MAU
- 4,414 DAU

https://t.co/7KD510ZaDq
11/ @donnerlab1's online FPS, Bitcoin Bounty Hunt, paved the way in #bitcoin game development and the stats speak for themselves: 🔫

- Kills: 84,497
- Sats paid out: 5,631,432
- LN-payments: 471,418
- Avg payment size: 11.94
- Total player hours: 2,924

https://t.co/K3vjExhAXE
12/ @SatoshisGames's low poly, battle-royale, @lightnite had a big year with their early access release, Light⚡️Nite sessions, multiplayer, and numerous partnerships and skin collabs. 🏝️

Look for their gold release in 2021!

Check out the roadmap here:
https://t.co/fEYTC575HE
13/ While the Big 4 have made a lot of noise this year, we’re seeing promising new entrants to the space.

@hangarsixgaming makes it seamless to earn bitcoin for playing @callofduty WarZone, with regular tourneys with 50k sat prize pools and free entry.

https://t.co/wZnv4rFg0T
14/ Newcomer, @HS3D recently released an adorable, multiplayer game, Bitrealm, where users act as astronauts, frantically feeding “blob guy” various food items.

Easy game play, cute character appeal, and of course winning #BTC, make this game promising!

https://t.co/NGm5lO6mV5
15/ To get involved & stack sats, check out these community groups.

Game/company Discords:

@ZEBEDEEIO: https://t.co/oPh9oFfvmi
@Thndrgames: https://t.co/DiU1nNDLc2
@Donnerlab1: https://t.co/nXu9oWikkl
@lightnite: https://t.co/2RPLygqzjy
@hangarsixgaming: https://t.co/7CBQiy7Ul4
16/ Other communities dedicated to #bitcoin gaming:

- BLG Discord (@BitcoinLNgaming): https://t.co/5bab4Mxut5
- Bitcoin Gamers Telegram: https://t.co/LKGviX996D
- Lightning Gaming Sphinx Tribe (@sphinx_chat): https://t.co/gLbtg44iKb
17/ 2020 was just the beginning for #bitcoin gaming. Next year we will witness the true power of introducing real value into gaming and social economies.

Join us. We guarantee a fun ride. 😜

More from Crypto

Out of curiosity I dug into how NFT's actually reference the media you're "buying" and my eyebrows are now orbiting the moon

Short version:

The NFT token you bought either points to a URL on the internet, or an IPFS hash. In most circumstances it references an IPFS gateway on the internet run by the startup you bought the NFT from.

Oh, and that URL is not the media. That URL is a JSON metadata file

Here's an example. This artwork is by Beeple and sold via Nifty:

https://t.co/TlJKH8kAew

The NFT token is for this JSON file hosted directly on Nifty's servers:

https://t.co/GQUaCnObvX


THAT file refers to the actual media you just "bought". Which in this case is hosted via a @cloudinary CDN, served by Nifty's servers again.

So if Nifty goes bust, your token is now worthless. It refers to nothing. This can't be changed.

"But you said some use IPFS!"

Let's look at the $65m Beeple, sold by Christies. Fancy.

https://t.co/1G9nCAdetk

That NFT token refers directly to an IPFS hash (https://t.co/QUdtdgtssH). We can take that IPFS hash and fetch the JSON metadata using a public gateway:

https://t.co/CoML7psBhF

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