What is it?
As stated on the UnikoinGold website, the aim is to bring about an “all-inclusive e-sports ecosystem” operating through use of UnikoinGold (UKG). The token is decentralised (as are all cryptocurrencies), and the creation of an e-sports betting company, and is based on the Ethereum blockchain.
What is it for?
With the worldwide e-sports industry estimated to reach a value of something like $900 million by the end of this year, it isn’t surprising that a cryptocurrency created with e-sports platforms in mind has appeared. UnikoinGold will allow game players not only to place bets and win on their favourite teams, but to win prizes too.
The cryptocurrency itself is used on the Unikrn.com website, where users take part by predicting the outcome of professional e-sports matches. UnikornGold also has a relation in UnikornSilver, which was the transition from the site’s free tokens when UKG was under development, and currently has no value.
UnikornGold’s major function is to enable players to participate in jackpots, which complies with the current laws on cryptocurrency and gambling, and which make it problematic for e-sports platforms such as Unikrn to give out winnings in both actual and cryptocurrency.
Users can also gain UKG by winning eligible games.
What is the background?
Headed up by Rahul Sood, formerly of Microsoft, and has advisory input from Ethereum co-founder, Anthony Di Lorio. It has the odd celebrity amongst its backers as well, with the likes of Ashton Kutcher investing. Completing the team is Karl Flores, CMO, and co-founder, who is heavily involved with product development and coming up with future innovations.
The UnikornGold ICO in October 2017 raised around $30 million, with each token at a price of 0.00115 ETH.
What will it bring to the gaming industry?
Unikrn is a well-established platform within the e-sports community, and has a very large presence indeed. There are an estimated four million active users each month, and around 90,000 who have actively placed bets on the platform.
In terms of what they will make available to UnikornGold holders, they will be able to place bets on professional eSports matches, play to win UKG in competitive video game matches, host tournaments themselves, bet on engagement applications specifically for spectators, and also earn rewards for hosting gaming servers.
What UnikornGold is most likely to bring to the gaming industry therefore is special credibility to the e-sports sector. The solidity of an established platform and a due diligence process coupled with a betting platform that is fully integrated with the gameplay experience itself means that wagers and other interactions all happen in one place. Catering to casual gamers is inevitable with rapid growth markets, and this means the relative simplicity of gameplay is conducive to new users picking up the ropes quickly enough. Even though there are competitors, Unikrn is at a far more advanced stage, which sets it out in front in every sense.
