A glimpse into the future of gaming: Unlockd enters the Blockchain Game Alliance.
Unlockd, the decentralized, cross-chain protocol that provides NFT liquidity while keeping ownership utility, is thrilled to announce that it has been approved as a member of the Blockchain Game Alliance.
The Blockchain Game Alliance is an organization committed to promoting blockchain within the game industry. Their goal — aligned with Unlockd’s vision — is 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.
Unlockd joins this leadership cluster— with international crypto and gaming industry drivers such as Binance, Ubisoft, Opensea, BITKRAFT Ventures, Polygon, Avalanche, YGG, AAVE, Metamask or Animoca Brands — to share knowledge and collaborate, create common standards, establish best practices, and expand our network.
We are very proud of this new step in Unlockd’s journey, as we are firm believers in the GameFi ecosystem. We want to work with the best to develop meaningful solutions for an ecosystem where digital assets abound — from which Unlockd’s loans can unlock their full value and potential.
BGA has recently published its BGA 2021 Member Survery & Report, a comprehensive study detailing how blockchain gaming has evolved, including insights from key players in the space. All of the data collected in this article is sourced from this study and supports Unlockd’s decision to join the Alliance.
GameFi and the quest to find new revenue and rewards models
The new models of blockchain gaming have given gamers the ability to own their in-game assets and be rewarded for their time and skill in playing the game.
While this has many benefits for players, it has also created new opportunities for developers and publishers to earn revenue from the sale and open trading of these assets. In the case of scholarships, where yield-generating NFT assets (such as the NFT creatures needed to play Axie Infinity) are purchased and then leased to new players under a revenue-sharing model, this can even help games to gain traction without the need for traditional marketing budgets.
And this is just the beginning.
New revenue models (74%) and player reward models (71%) ranked second and third respectively as the greatest benefits of blockchain gaming in the study conducted by BGA.
Unlockd was born to lay the foundation for the liquidity infrastructure that will enable the emergence of innovative and pioneering revenue and rewards models. Unlockd lending and borrowing market aims to become the go-to liquidity solution of NFTs from art, gaming assets, the Metaverse and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Sustainable growth. Non-dilutive funding. We are ready to meet the needs of the industry.
All signs indicate that the Metaverse will be one of the main economic engines of the digital society, and there’s a need to create opportunities for web3 natives across the world; rewarding gamers and communities and allowing people to make extra income by participating in the industry.
From niche gaming to a mainstream digital economy
Gone are the days when, in games, a micro-transaction to acquire an in-game asset was an expense.
Now, thanks to blockchain, NFT technology and decentralized economies, in-game items are investments, yield-returning assets and key pieces for many DAOs to become financial powerhouses with hundreds of millions of dollars in AUM.
As indicated in the study, “85% of survey respondents agree that asset ownership is the most important advantage of blockchain games as the technology delivers digital property rights and allows players to have true ownership of their in-game assets. This is in contrast to the traditional practices of centralized gaming platforms that strictly prohibit the sale of in-game assets on external markets”.
For Unlockd, this is one of the keys to forging close relationships with the projects that make up the BGA: player sovereignty is taken very seriously, and the organizations know that exploiting the full value of their assets will be key to reinforcing their positioning in the industry when this gaming revolution reaches the masses.
“68% of respondents stated that play-to-earn mechanics and economy will be the main force driving the industry forward. As a new category in gaming where players are rewarded with in-game cryptocurrencies that can be exchanged for fiat money, play-to-earn has spurred new demand and fueled growth for young game studios. The play-to-earn phenomenon attracted new users as well as mainstream media attention that put blockchain gaming’s potential in the spotlight.” notes the study.
At Unlockd, we want to work closely with all the members of this GameFi economy: the studios that design the assets (NFTs for the most part) , the organizations that acquire them to expand their business model, and with the gamers that will master their use to make a living in the gaming of the future — which has already arrived.
And, from this moment on, being a member of the Blockchain Game Alliance will allow Unlock to connect with industry leaders, learn from their insights, and design together the liquidity infrastructure that will shape the future of the digital economy of blockchain games.
Through our NFT-backed lending market, organizations that want to gain a competitive edge will be able to turn their yield-generating and idle resources, like creatures or land, into productive assets to optimize working capital. In this way, all ecosystem agents will have the extra liquidity needed to scale operations, onboard new players, dominate the arena, and conquer the GameFi industry.
Asia and the blossoming of gaming-based communities
Within our go-to-market strategy, Unlockd has a special interest in the ASEAN geographic area — which includes, among others, the countries of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines — the latter being well known to Carlos Otermin, one of our co-Founders.
Carlos has been able to appreciate from the inside the exponential growth of the #CryptoPH movement and to accompany local leaders in their Web 3 gaming ventures. Unsurprisingly, this growth has been noted in social media data, with blockchain metaverses and P2E being two of the most talked about topics in the Asia region in 2021, growing 33% month-over-month while reaching 1.7 million mentions across Asian media outlets.
In fact, although the metaverse trend is dominated by the US, the Asia presence is becoming more visible with India, Singapore, and Indonesia increasing their audience by 500%.
This indicates that the Asian ecosystem will be one of the most active in terms of player base for blockchain games and, therefore, one of the markets with the highest volume of GameFi assets — the perfect breeding ground for developing innovative DeFi x NFTs strategies by Unlockd.
Within the BGA we find international industry leaders based in Asia, such as Animoca Brands, Axie Infinity, Yield Guild Games, BlockchainSpace, Digital Entertainment Assets and Metabase.
Unlockd has already closed +30 partnerships with Guilds to provide them with the necessary tools for sustainable growth — many of them based in the ASEAN region. As such, we are currently developing a specific program to work with Guilds and accompany them on the road to professionalization.
We’re thrilled to forge lasting partnerships for joint growth — announcements coming soon.
In addition, Unlockd will integrate with +15 confirmed NFT infrastructure providers, and we will continue to develop our ecosystem with the opportunities that arise from the networking that the Blockchain Game Alliance makes possible.
We are convinced that blockchain can transform games and improve or disrupt existing business areas, and for this the NFT liquidity provided by Unlockd will be a fundamental piece.
Hand in hand with our new allies, and supporting the mission of the BGA, we will accelerate adoption by acting on existing barriers to innovation and by catalyzing efforts into creating actionable industry standards and best practices.
About Unlockd
Unlockd is the decentralized cross-chain protocol that provides democratized NFT liquidity and utility for Art, DeFi, Metaverse, Real World and Gaming.
Unlockd provides instant loans and enables seamless cross-chain borrowing and lending. With Unlockd, borrowers can compound their wealth with NFT-backed loans while maintaining 100% of ownership perks.
