Kronoverse, the gaming platform that creates fair and transparent ecosystems around esports through online tournaments and item economics, has created a Bitcoin-based solution for building in-game items. Before Kronoverse created a custom solution, they used Ethereum-based Enjin to build in-game items; however, the team ultimately ran into problems inherent to the Ethereum network.
The problems with Ethereum
When building their in-game item system on Ethereum, the Kronoverse team realized that at scale, they were going to run into problems.
“Relying on the Enjin item container platform used Ethereum, [which] posed some issues with our long term goals,” Kronoverse CEO Adam Kling told CoinGeek.
“We think the underlying blockchain (Ethereum) could have some issues in the future which could threaten any games that utilize it. We also had already developed a backend technology on BSV (something we couldn’t do on ETH) and thought it was overly complex and inefficient to support multiple chains for items.”
If a platform is looking to operate at scale and requires hundreds if not thousands and tens of thousands of transactions to be recorded, then they are going to run into problems on the Ethereum network. In addition, Kronoverse had already developed back-end infrastructure on Bitcoin SV (BSV). Both of these factors caused the team to make the switch from Ethereum to BSV when it came to building in-game items.
According to a recent blog post from Kronoverse, the Kronoverse team realized that Ethereum had three major problems, which also prompted them to stop building on Ethereum and to start building on Bitcoin:
Ethereum is at capacity, slow, can’t scale, and [is] expensive. This is discouraging to gamers who want to buy, sell, and trade in-game items on a frequent basis.
Proof of Work is the only proven consensus mechanism and we lack confidence that [Ethereum’s] PoS/DPoS will work.
Ethereum 2.0 scaling approaches are still experimental whereas BSV has demonstrated its scaling ability.
The Ethereum network is no stranger to network bottlenecks. Back in December 2017, the Ethereum-based game Cryptokitties was generating so many transactions that it nearly brought the Ethereum network to a halt. A network that can’t handle a significant number of transactions per second will not be able to support applications and platforms where transactions happen frequently.
In addition, Ethereum has plans to become a Proof-of-Stake network when the network upgrades to Ethereum 2.0 (if the network upgrades to Ethereum 2.0—the release of 2.0 has been rumored for a long time and has not taken place). However, Proof-of-Stake networks are not as secure as Proof-of-Work networks.
And the Ethereum 2.0 scaling approach and test environments are not tangible, whereas the Bitcoin network has proven its ability to scale and is already up and running. All of these factors made it clear to the Kronoverse team that it was time to leave Ethereum and create a solution on a blockchain that could handle the transaction load that would help them achieve their goals.
How Bitcoin Improved the Kronoverse platform
Kronoverse’s Bitcoin-based solution will initially be used in Kronoverse’s CrypoFights, a turn-based strategy fighting game based where all moves will be logged to BSV.
“[The solution] improves CryptoFights by giving us the incentive to create an item protocol on BSV to unlock gaming economies in a far superior way. With hundreds of millions of gamers wanting to trade and compete online we needed a scalable and limitless technology that was solid to build upon,” said Kling.
Bitcoin provides the technical infrastructure Kronoverse needs to accomplish this goal. There is no block size limit on BSV, and according to the Bitcoin Association’s first annual report: “The Bitcoin network consistently sustained 1,300 transactions per second for a prolonged period, in addition to handling a peak load of 6,400 transactions per second.” With such high throughput and limitless scalability, Bitcoin is the perfect protocol for any company looking to build a platform where transactions happen frequently.
What’s next for Kronoverse
By the end of 2020, Kronoverse plans to have a marketplace where its users can sell their in-game items for profit; and soon, the Kronoverse team will be announcing the date of CryptoFights open beta, which will be available for Android.
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