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Every time a person plays an online game, virtual goods are acquired during the time spent on the game. These goods can vary from items like swords, armors, cars, or just a pile of crystals. Unfortunately, online games are not connected to each other, and trades between them are not safe and reliable.
Currently, there are thousands of games, where people can potentially trade and exchange digital goods. However, due to the inability of game developers to provide in game trading markets, this is yet to happen.
Another reason why buying virtual goods is not as safe as other physical items, is that it is not covered by buyers protection. As part of the latest update to its scammer policy, Valve, an online gaming platform stated:
"We sympathize with people who fall victim to scams, but we provide enough information on our website and within our trading system to help users make good trading decisions. Our community assigns an item a value that is at least partially determined by that item's scarcity. If more copies of the item are added to the economy through inventory rollbacks, the value of every other instance of that item would be reduced."
The DMarket Solution
DMarket, a decentralized global marketplace for trading digital items, has conceived a cross-platform solution that allows users to trade any virtual good from any game. Users will be able to perform easy one-click buy/sell orders for every possible game asset, currency, item, skin, or any other game object.
The project will also offer a unique solution for game developers, the DMarket API. The API will enable in-game items to be integrated into popular online stores, used as payments for goods and services, or received as loans. Potentially DMarket will enable in-game items to become real assets. When this happens, users might be able to insure in-game assets or receive a loan from a bank using virtual assets as security. Additionally, the team is also working on a mobile game solution for iOS and Android.
How does it work?
The DMarket system is divided into two parts. The first one is a decentralized blockchain database - a completely independent distributed information storage system for all transactions that take place in the game or on the trading platform. DMarket`s blockchain will take advantage of smart contract technology, which will ensure transparency and security of the transactions for all participants. In addition, the technology allows for reducing transaction costs.
DMarket will employ several functions through the use of smart contracts such as, verification of in-game items presence (based on HASH) and their available quantity, monitorization of users solvency to purchase a particular item, and other parameters that will be preset by the user or the platform.
After a successful purchase, a smart contract, that is responsible for making mutual cost clearings, is activated.
The second part of the DMarket system is an independent trading platform that is capable of processing hundreds of thousands of operations per second and interacting with the blockchain data at the same time. This layer is developed using the GoLang, PostgreSQL. In order to deliver the best performance possible, DMarket developers have chosen a micro-service architecture with the RestFull API. Clusters, built on Kubernetes, ensure the stability of micro-service operations.
The DMarket system also uses an independent multimedia storage service. This service interacts with both the blockchain and the trading platform, functioning as a high-speed storage of media resources. Thanks to this service architecture, even its complete disconnection will not affect data continuity and safety.
Integration of DMarket`s API
To manage in-game items, game developers will receive all the necessary tools in the form of API documentation, DLL-libraries or ready-made solutions that will be developed for popular game engines, simplifying DMarket`s API integration. At the moment, the team is already developing services that will help games written in Unity 3D, CryEngine or Unreal Engine to make the adaptation process as quick and understandable as possible.
How does the system work from the perspective of the end user?
The user will need to create an account on the DMarket platform. Automatically, the system creates a wallet on the basis of DMarket Tokens. Once the user has access to his account, he can immediately start working on the wallet, adding the needed amount of DMarket Tokens or in-game items supported by the marketplace. The purchase of DMarket Tokens can be done with a credit card. The system also allows instant conversion of any cryptocurrency into DMarket Tokens.
To conduct trading operations, the system automatically synchronizes the users’ in-game items with his personal account on the blockchain and marketplace. Synchronization is carried out with the help of an API using the users’ credentials for authorization.
To implement this synchronization and the overall interaction of the game with the trading platform, game developers will be provided with an API that will contain several basic groups of methods. The whitepaper reads:
“Methods for registering a developer in the system, while the system registers a new balance account for the developer; Methods for generating HASH values for each game item (HASH will be used as a unique value, to account for virtual items.); Methods for transferring HASH values within the network between players and sellers; Methods allowing the identification of the state of each game item; Methods that track certain parameters of certain virtual objects.”
Token and ICO
DMarket Coin is the only cryptocurrency that operates on DMarket. All transactions with digital goods (including fees) are made in DMarket Coin only. After the Token Sale Phase #2, all contributors will receive an ERC-20 exchangeable DMarket Token on the Ethereum network. After the launch of the main DMarket network, this will be exchanged 1-to-1 with a native DMarket Coin. The number of tokens produced will correspond to the number of tokens sold at the crowdsale, but no more than the declared Hard Cap.
DMarket Coin will be used on the DMarket and will not be limited to the platform. In the future it will become a fully-fledged virtual currency item. You can buy DMarket Tokens during two sale phases. The first sale phase was held on 17–21 August 2017. During this period, users were able to buy tokens with more favorable purchase terms. The second sale phase will start on November 3, 2017 and will continue through November 17, 2017. See ICO details here.
To learn more about DMarket please visit their official website.