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The markets centered around gaming are growing at a remarkable pace. According to Newzoo's latest study, 2.2 billion gamers will generate $108.9 billion in game revenues in 2017, 87% of which are generated by digital game revenues which come from in-game items or currency sold directly by the game developers.
However, despite being impressive, these statistics leave out the sale of gamer-earned digital goods. So far, the methods that allow for the exchange of items between gamers have been lacking, leaving a huge potential for a liquid market for gamer-earned digital goods. These items, which are often more valued by gamers due to the effort associated with obtaining them, are often exchanged in non-transparent marketplaces or peer-to-peer deals where fraud is prevalent.
While the demand for these gamer-earned digital goods is big, so is the supply. Gamers often end up with valuable items they no longer need or want and they will almost inevitably change to another game at some point. So, there is both demand and supply, just no proper method of connecting the two. That’s where Gameflip comes in.
What is Gameflip
Founded in 2014, Gameflip is a one of the largest marketplace platforms on the web, with over 2 million users. This overwhelming growth of the Gameflip platform, has allowed its team to understand the gaming industry, the digital goods marketplaces, and the technological expertise of the current platform. Moreover, it has also allowed them to envision a way to grow and scale into a new decentralized ecosystem.
The current Gameflip platform offers multiple features such as a mobile app, fraud detection and prevention systems, escrow of digital items and advanced inventory management tools. However, Gameflip wants to take the platform to the next level through the use of blockchain technology and smart contracts.
The Gameflip decentralized ecosystem will be based on the Ethereum network due to its popularity and flexibility. Game publishers will be able to incorporate functions that allow gamers to securely transfer digital goods outside of a game, allowing them to trade these items for FLIP tokens in a safe and trustless environment, where funds are only released once the transaction has been fully completed. The white paper explains:
“The blockchain will act as a multi-game database, securely storing all digital goods and FLIP and tracking who owns them. With the new FLIP token, we aim to shift the paradigm for the industry by unlocking digital goods from each individual game and creating liquidity for them via trading in the decentralized ecosystem. Blockchain technology allows such trading to take place not only on the Gameflip platform, but also universally across any and all marketplaces, safely and securely. In turn, this will advance the entire digital goods ecosystem.”
The FLIP token & ICO
The Gameflip ecosystem will be fueled by FLIP, an ERC20 token based on the Ethereum blockchain, used to purchase digital items. Gamers can send FLIP and digital goods using familiar mechanics like how users of Wechat Wallet, Paypal and Venmo send value to one another. Game publishers or third party tool developers can also provide their own branded wallets that allow gamers to more easily navigate and manage their inventory.
The FLIP ICO started on the 4th of December and will last until the 29th of January, 2018. The ICO token allocation represents 43.2% of the total FLIP supply. - Read more here