2020 year in review: Esports popularity surges to new highs

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The far-reaching impact of the COVID-19 outbreak has been inescapable, leaving several industries scrambling to adapt. Even during this global economic downturn, esports’ popularity surged to new highs, intensified by the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. 

People searched for alternative digital forms of competitive entertainment to replace the suspended traditional sporting events held at massive stadiums. Frequently, the online DOTA2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO), League of Legends (LOL) events filled that void. 

This year’s introduction of blockchain into esports has already shown the massive potential the technology has to facilitate a decentralized ecosystem for asset transfers and increased trust between participants. This progress will serve the gaming community well, elevating the industry wrestling with cheating scandals to new heights. 

Kronoverse is one such company that showed the way this year. CEO and founder Adam Kling started breaking down the barriers between blockchain games and traditional video games. He and his team at Kronoverse saw the potential that blockchain has in the gaming sector as they developed the new fun and competitive MMO game CryptoFights.

Kronoverse took the best from traditional games and incorporated them into the design of CryptoFights to create a more distinctive and playable blockchain game experience. They also moved CryptoFights to the BSV network to create a more transparent, robust, stable, and accountable environment.

Earlier this year, Kling told CalvinAyre.com that, “When I looked at the scaling roadmap of Ethereum, it became clear that we were never going to be able to have a million players playing on Kronoverse. Instead, everyone is having to develop layer-two technologies and are only submitting the results to the Ethereum blockchain. With Bitcoin SV, we wouldn’t have to do that.”

Kronoverse plans to implement verifiable results on-chain, making wagering on matches easy and attractive to bettors and regulators. They are not alone in recognizing this opportunity in online gambling; iGaming operator Unikrn is another esports company that focused on the convergence of blockchain technology with betting in 2020. 

Ethereum remains the current protocol of choice for new entrants into the blockchain and esports arena. Beyond the inoperability concerns, games running on the hobby project chain risk spamming the network with transactions and higher costs from increasing gas fees. 

Overall, the Bitcoin SV (BSV) network has the only real potential to provide a transparent network for increased trust, instant asset transfers, secure distribution of assets, and real-time micropayments—something which the traditional esports model severely lacks. It can seamlessly bring all of this together in a cost-effective way.