Is Microsoft Azure Token the next Blockchain Gaming token?

NEWS
Nov 5, 2019
3 min read

Azure Blockchain Tokens is a new Azure managed service that allows you to create and manage ledger-based tokens easily to accelerate your blockchain solution development. This service provides a set of pre-built templates and the flexibility to create your own templates based on the standards developed by the Token Taxonomy Initiative. Azure Blockchain Tokens also comes with an open and extensible SDK to integrate your business processes quickly and easily. Sign up for access to the preview today. The Power of Tokens

Tokens will disrupt global economics and radically change how commerce will be transacted. While various implementations exist for tokens for specific blockchain platforms, the industry is currently lacking a venue for all participants to collaborate on a shared description and approach, resulting in a lack of interoperability, reuse, and common ground to address regulatory issues. The mission of the Token Taxonomy Initiative is to create this venue and develop a clear definition and scope of the token concept, including use cases, taxonomy and terminology, and a specification neutral to underlying technology

As Michael del Castillo wrote on his latest Forbes article "Microsoft To Help Enterprises Mint Their Own Ethereum Tokens" Among the earliest users of Azure Blockchain Tokens is Mythical Games, based in Los Angeles, using blockchain to reimagine video game economies. Last year, Mythical’s founders, from Activision and Zynga, raised $16 million from hedge-funder Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, and others. Similar to bitcoin, Mythical is using blockchain to let game developers prove that their game currency is scarce or that digital objects like special weapons, a magical power or a character’s virtual wardrobe aren’t being copied and pasted ad nauseam. By limiting supply, Mythical’s founders believe they can make it easier for digital objects to be traded in virtual worlds, denominated in real-world value.

"Azure Blockchain Tokens service in combination with Mythical Games' open-source dGoods standard allows for a simple way to tokenize any in-game asset, creating opportunities for players and content creators to participate in player-owned economies."

Rudy Koch, VP, Blockchain & Marketplace Services

If such virtual markets seem far-fetched, to a lesser degree, they already exist—just without the blockchain. Earlier this year, an avatar controlled by and representing EDM producer and Forbes 30 Under 30 member Marshmello performed in front of 10 million other avatars from around the world on a virtual stage in Epic Games’ massively multiplayer online (MMO) video game Fortnite. Similar to how a T-shirt might be purchased at a real-world event to prove the attendee was there, “skins” or costumes that make a player’s avatar look like the DJ, were available to virtual concertgoers for 1,500 Fortnite v-bucks, or about $15. So far, a total of 37 of those skins have sold on secondary markets at an average price of $427.86, according to eBay’s product comparison site Terapeak. That’s an increase of 2,746%.

While the total size of such secondary markets is hard to nail down, a study commissioned by the Worldwide Asset Exchange, another blockchain startup, estimated it could be as high as $50 billion. One site that connects traders online, PlayerAuctions.com, claims to have 515,000 monthly active users trading credentials that give them access to video game currency, player accounts, increased player power and the video games themselves. In 2017, the company conducted 800,000 transactions, according to its site, charging between 5% and 12% the value of successful deals, plus fees.

To give an idea of the potential benefits of moving any number of assets to a blockchain, Mythical Games hopes its digital goods, or dGoods, will enable three new business opportunities. First, unlike current secondary markets, or what Mythical cofounder Rudy Koch calls gray markets, which exist outside the game and frequently require players to sell their entire login-credentials, these objects can be sold within the game and move freely from player to player. Second, unlike old-fashioned Super Mario Brothers coins that can be created or erased as easily as passing a level or hitting reset on the console, respectively, these digital objects will have provable scarcity. Third, digital objects tracked on a blockchain could be coded with unbreakable smart contracts that move with the object and pay a predefined dividend to the object creators, a sort of digital object royalty to software developers.

While Mythical Games is a good example of how tokenization works, other early users of Microsoft’s blockchain tokens mint include Sacramento, California-based CEEK Virtual reality, which is creating a token that verifies streaming content viewership on the blockchain; London-based Adhara, which is creating an emoney service; and an unspecified token being created by GE Aviation, the aircraft engine parts division of General Electric. Global investment in blockchain is expected to reach $15.9 billion by 2023, according to International Data Corporation, a market intelligence firm. Read Michael del Castillo the full article here