Blockchain is quickly becoming an important part of the gaming industry. It’s is being used to create and verify the authenticity of collectible items such as sports merchandise and many games are even being built on blockchains. One company that is getting involved is BlockRocket, a blockchain consultancy firm that focuses on the development of non-fungible tokens. The team is responsible for the development of digital art marketplace KnownOrigin, physical provenance startup CryptoKaiju and BlockCities amongst other things.
Their latest offering is Nifty football, a football trading card game where users trade and compete against one another with unique collectible cards. The platform runs on Ethereum and each card is a non-fungible token meaning that each is unique, authentic and truly owned by the player.
We spoke with a member of the team about the New game and what blockchain is going in the gaming space.
Could you tell us what inspired the project?
The project was inspired by our love of football and non-fungible tokens, taking inspiration from the nostalgic feeling of opening a pack of football trading cards, but recreated so that players from across the world can trade and play against each other with digital versions that have proven scarcity.
Could you tell us how the game itself works?
Players create a squad of players that have implicit rarity and strengths that can be used in our games and 3rd party games. For example, the BrewDog cup will pit 32 teams against each other for a prize of a rare collectables and prizes.
First there was CryptoKaiju and now there is Nifty Football. Do you see Blockchain becoming the new standard for collectibles and tradables?
Yes, completely. Web3 technology has completely changed the way that we can collect, trade and play online. For the first time, collectors are actually able to verify the authenticity and scarcity of digital collectibles and transact in real time without barriers.
There is already a significant overlap between online gamers for games such as Fortnite and the crypto community. Do you think it is the same with fantasy football?
Yes, sports collectibles are a multi billion dollar industry, fans are passionate and want to collect what they are interested in as shown by the MLB NFTs. As shown by Fantasy Football which is huge across the world, players want to play against their friends and put together the best teams, being able to properly trade players that you own on open marketplaces is a huge improvement on existing platforms and makes the game much more exciting.
Your Co-Founder stated that the potential of non-fungible tokens is underused outside of crypto. What do you feel can done to combat this?
The technology is still in its infancy but showing fantastic signs of growth and adoption. The quality of games and platforms is already improving and we expect that in time, as larger companies see the benefits they will jump on board and bring their user bases with them. Look at LVMH as an example of a non-crypto company working with NFTs, they are reportedly looking at using NFTs to improve the handling of provenance and authenticity for handbags. Once these companies see the savings from the technology as well as all the other benefits it’s inevitable that others will begin to work with it too.
What else does BlockRocket have planned for the future?
We are working with some innovative people to build the future of decentralised applications as well as building products we think we enhance our knowledge and reputation. We will also continue to improve our existing range of products, adding new features and improved experiences to lower the barriers to entry and better onboard non-crypto users.
For more information, please visit https://niftyfootball.cards/ or https://medium.com/niftyfootball