Blockchain gaming has embarked on its journey since 2014 with the launch of Huntercoin to test the potential of integrating blockchain technology with games. After nearly ten years of exploration, blockchain games are looking more and more like advanced prototypes of traditional games: the gameplay loops are not just about grinding, and the graphics are much more eye-catching. However, crypto gaming remains the hilarity of the minority at the current stage. To illustrate it, one of the most popular blockchain games, Axie Infinity, is less than 0.2% the size of Counter-Strike 2 in terms of average monthly active users. To open paths to onboarding more both players and developers, a growing community of Web3-native developers and players finds another approach to the next level of blockchain gaming by building the ecosystem of games and NFT primitives that operate completely on blockchains. In other words, fully on-chain games.
Fully on-chain gaming is one of the most promising areas for creating the next Alpha space, with multiple top investment institutions conducting in-depth research. Currently, fully on-chain gaming is still mainly attracting the attention of niche geek groups, with most attention focused on the Layer 2 network RedStone created by the team behind the Dark Forest game. Recently, more and more projects are participating in developing fully on-chain gaming engines and products. Among these pioneers leading the paradigm shift to fully on-chain gaming, Web3Games.com stands out with its latest product, W3Gamez Network.
Web3Games.com has been committed to integrating decentralized blockchain technology with games since 2021, giving players real ownership of game assets, enhancing game transparency, and providing developers with more user-friendly blockchain development tools. In the early days, Web3Games.com focused on building the infrastructure for blockchain gaming. After three years, it is almost the only project that has delivered technical infrastructure applications and game products at the same time. The team officially announced in 2024 that it will focus on the fully on-chain gaming ecosystem and bring its fully on-chain gaming Layer 2 network W3Gamez Network, which is invested by the NEAR Foundation, developed based on the OP Stack framework, and uses NEAR for Data Availability (DA).
Since on-chain gaming requires that games solely use smart contracts to execute the gameplay logic and store in-game data, it challenges developers and players to operate under strict technical limitations. Therefore, the experimental trials for any project are inevitable, and the accumulative cost becomes consequently expensive. Moreover, traditional GameFi games typically only put game assets on-chain, while game logic is still processed on centralized servers. This can lead to transparency and fairness concerns, as players cannot verify that the game is being played fairly.
Web3Games.com has addressed these challenges by focusing on Layer 2 rollup solutions, enabling developers to create fully on-chain games that are both performant and affordable. In 2024, Web3Games.com launched its W3Gamez Network, a Layer 2 network specifically designed for blockchain gaming. The network uses NEAR Data Availability (DA) to provide low-cost and high-throughput transactions for game assets and logic.
In addition to launching the W3Gamez Network, Web3Games.com is also launching two tokens: WGT and W3G.
WGT (Web3Games.com token) is a utility and governance token that will be used to incentivize and reward activities that support the Web3Games ecosystem. W3G (W3Gamez Network Token) is the native gas and governance token of the W3Gamez Network. The W3G token sale is currently ongoing on Web3Games.com and will end on January 28, 2024. The token price is $0.02 USDC, and the target raise is $400,000.
W3Gamez Network has raised $4 million in two rounds of funding from investors, including NEAR Foundation, DAO Maker, and LD Capital. The team has also worked with NEAR on multiple projects, including providing blockchain technology solutions to Alibaba. W3Gamez Network is the first Layer 2 gaming network to use NEAR’s Data Availability (DA) technology.
To make games trustless, open-source and composable, with the game’s state always immutable and transparent on the blockchain, W3Gamez Network, along with the entire ecosystem powered by Web3Games.com, has provided a fully decentralized ecosystem with robust blockchain security, where everyone plays fair and owns their experience. However, the idea of putting an entire game onto a blockchain is still controversial among traditional game developers, because blockchains are notoriously undesirable for its computing speed, scalability and storage. There is a long journey ahead of fully on-chain gaming. In 2024, Web3Games.com will be fully focused on the development of fully on-chain gaming, having taken the road with the launch of W3Gamez Network as a major milestone. Although fully on-chain gaming remains experimental in the crypto industry, the thesis is that it is highly possible onboarding of the next billion users to blockchain will be through gaming. Hence, it’s essential that well-designed incentive structures, sustainable economics, and developing architectures are available for both developers and players, which is exactly what W3Gamez Network has been focusing on.