If you’ve got something to trade, you need somewhere to trade it.
What is it?
DMarket is a decentralised marketplace, primarily for gamers worldwide to trade virtual goods and game items across a variety of games and game platforms. This eCommerce market is based on Blockchain technology.
What is it for?
When gamers play, it’s often as much for the assets as for the gameplay itself – often, gamers end up with multiple duplicates of items which aren’t much use to them. DMarket enables them to trade them in a worldwide marketplace with a pool of fellow players only limited by the number of people in the game, either in exchange for cryptocurrency, or for other gameplay assets. The exchange action itself is designed to be as user-friendly as possible, with the blockchain ensuring that all transactions are secure.
What is the background?
Founded in 2017, the initial coin offering raised more than $10 million, drawing 4,827 transactions over the duration. However, it didn’t pass entirely without incident – members of DMarket’s Slack channel were subject to phishing attempts, something that has become quite common with blockchain projects preparing for ICOs. A second phrase of the token sale took the total funds raised to $19 million.
Headquartered in Las Vegas, the idea of DMarket was created by CEO Vlad Panchenko, and his co-founder Alexander Kokhanovskyy (who also goes by the name of “ZeroGravity” on Twitter). Panchenko is both a gamer and a successful entrepreneur, and has a strong belief that blockchain will change everything about the future of gaming, and particularly gameplay. Kokhanovskyy is also the CEO and founder of DreamTeam, an eSports platform, and also has a keen interest in cars, helping to create one of the most successful motor clubs in the Ukraine in 2007.
What will it bring to the gaming industry?
DMarket is the first of its kind on blockchain, so at present has no real competition. The model of trading made simple in terms of game items and assets is likely to attract players who might otherwise fall away from gaming because they are frustrated about trading assets. It is also possible to speculate that it will attract the casual gamer who is actually far more focused on cryptocurrency, since they can exchange unwanted game assets for a financial reward.
The UK Interactive Entertainment Association, or Ukie, estimates that between 2.2 and 2.6 billion people play games every day across a variety of devices and platforms, and business is booming. However, at present, only a relative handful of professional gamers are making a profit from their skills – estimated to be around 4000 players. Gaming platforms are reasonably active in selling game assets, but until now, trading has actually been illegal.
The solution that DMarket presents is to eliminate third party involvement, and use blockchain to enable those trades to be peer-to-peer. Eliminating the possibility of fraud means that assets can be exchanged for financial reward, and in turn, will extend enthusiasm for, and therefore the lifespan of any game.
