Photo by Stackie Jia / Unsplash
Introduction
Dota 2 is a game with a huge fan base and there are hundreds of thousands of people who play it every day. One of the reasons why Dota 2 is so popular among gamers is because of its in-game cosmetics that you can buy using real money. You can buy skins, taunts, announcers, etc.
Dota 2 items are unique in their place of drop and rarity.
Dota 2 items are unique in their place of drop and rarity. In fact, they are not fungible—the item you have is the same as mine. Dota 2 items are also not divisible either; you cannot split up an item into smaller pieces like you can do with gold coins or crypto assets. Lastly but perhaps most importantly: Dota 2 items cannot be transferred or sold for money outside Steam Market which means that if Valve decided tomorrow that they don’t want anyone trading cosmetics anymore (or simply relisted all cosmetics as NFTs), then there’s nothing we could really do about it except wait until they change their minds again…
One of the biggest draws for Dota 2 fans is its in-game cosmetics. But if Valve decides to release a third game or shut down their current one,
Imagine this scenario: Your favorite game is Dota 2, and you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on cosmetics. But in the future, Valve decides they want to release a new game—let’s call it Dota 3. You’ve got an entire collection of cosmetics from your favorite hero that can’t be transferred or ported to any other games, so these items will become worthless when you play Dota 3.
With NFTs, Valve could solve this problem by releasing a smart contract for each item that allows users to transfer ownership along with their cosmetic purchases.
People can buy, sell and trade these items on a blockchain using digital wallets like Metamask.
You can think of blockchain as a database where transactions are recorded and stored in blocks. These blocks are chained together and updated in real time, making them secure and tamper-proof. Blockchain is decentralized, which means that there is no central authority controlling it; instead, it’s controlled by all the computers connected to the network. It’s also transparent—everyone can see what’s going on with their transaction history and assets within the blockchain.
Now that we have an understanding of how blockchain works, let’s look at how cosmetics could be sold using this technology:
Using blockchain to replace the random drop system could open the door for new markets (like resale markets) for Valve and new opportunities for gamers.
Now imagine if we could use these same principles to create digital assets that do more than just store data; how about ones that actually represent things? That’s exactly what NFTs are! They’re tokens designed specifically for games and other virtual environments where digital items have value (like CryptoKitties or Spells of Genesis). These tokens can be sold or traded on secondary markets like OpenSea because they’re unique and cannot be copied or manipulated in any way by anyone else who gets their hands on them!
Conclusion
The application of blockchain technology in games is still very new and has yet to be fully explored. This presents a vast market opportunity for game publishers, as well as developers who can create their own tokens within the gaming ecosystem.
