DMarket is a decentralized game asset marketplace. The marketplace covers a wide variety of games and turns virtual items into real commodities that can be traded on the blockchain.
The idea of tokenization is central to the blockchain where any item can be represented as a token on the blockchain. This creates an emerging economy around digital assets where they become real items. There are an estimated 2.3 billion gamers worldwide and ample opportunity to monetize digital assets. The gaming economy is estimated at $450 billion.
We recently featured Enjin Coin (ENJ) which also brings its own solution to the same problem using the blockchain. But first, let us hone in on DMarket.
What Shortcomings have DMarket Identified in the Digital Assets Economy?
Most virtual items are traded on Steam. Steam is the digital games distribution platform that manages rights and sales of the biggest and most popular gaming titles. It has become a centralized marketplace for games and game mods. Most of the games on Steam do not have functionality for any in-game trading. The entire virtual asset economy is made up of game assets of the three top games – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota2 and Team Fortress 2. Steam users cannot cash out their virtual currencies and Steam charges up to 12% on in-game trades. Other platforms that rely on the Steam API have similar limitations.
How Does DMarket Connect Gaming Universes?
DMarket is the first, decentralized, global marketplace for trading digital game assets. It is scalable and offers cross-platform support connecting all gaming universes. Gamers can trade any virtual item from any game. Instead of game developers and distributors regulating the demand, instead it is created by the market. Game developers will be focused on creating unique and desirable gaming content that gamers will want to own and trade. Similarly, gamers will want to show off their game achievements to the community.
What Items Are Available on DMarket?
There are two types of assets available on DMarket. The first type is a virtual Steam item. This Steam item is an in-game asset this is available for a specific game. At the moment there is a horde of items available for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. There is also a DMarket Blockchain item that is an internal blockchain item that can be traded on the DMarket blockchain.
What Other Game Items Can Be Traded On DMarket?
To ensure widespread adoption in the game development community, DMarket has partnered with Unity Technologies. The Unity engine is one of the most-used 3D game development engines. Unity engine games were installed more than 24 billion times last year to over 3 billion gaming devices. This includes half of all new mobile games. The agreement allows any Unity-based game to connect to the DMarket blockchain instantly and make virtual assets available for sale or to trade. Gamers can also connect their gaming accounts and create digital game assets lists for trading.
What Are Digital Game Assets?
Digital game assets are any in-game item such as armor, weapons, gems or potions that have value and can be traded between gamers. There are various types of digital assets.
Firstly, there are games that have their own in-game currencies. Also, any other in-game items, skins and modifications (mods), music and sound effects are some of the many digital goods that can be traded.
What Makes DMarket Digital Assets Unique?
The entire item history of every transaction is recorded in the blockchain, hence each digital asset will have its own unique history. This adds to the collectible value of each digital item. Previous owners of specific items and their achievements could influence and drive up the price of items. Gamers might be looking to own a specific game item that was used by, for example their favorite Esports gamer. It will make the item more desirable and drive up the price of the item.
How Are Digital Game Assets Managed?
In-game items are generated on the DMarket blockchain by game item creators. These items are up for purchase by gamers. They can be bought and withdrawn to a DMarket user account. Also, items earned from in a game can be into migrated into the DMarket blockchain without leaving the game.
What Are The Internal DMarket Blockchain Items?
These are special virtual items that can only be traded on the DMarket platform. They are limited in quantity so are sure to increase in value. It is also comes with implied bragging rights for being one of the early adopters. There are currently 3 unique DMarket digital assets listed, namely GDC 2018 Exclusive Asset. This piece is a dedicated to the Game Developers Conference 2018 in San Francisco. The Founder’s Mark is limited to 1000 items and dedicated to the DMarket launch. Lastly, there is the DMarket Spring Cup Badge. This is to celebrate the first ever Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Esports tournament which is also organized by DMarket. These items range between 10 and 2000 DMC each.
What Currencies Are Accepted on DMarket?
Users can sell Steam items for US Dollars (USD) or DMarket items for USD or DMC, the internal DMarket cryptocurrency. Users can buy Steam items for USD or DMC or DMarket items for DMC. In order to sell Steam items on DMarket, users have to connect their Steam account to their DMarket account. DMarket blockchain items can be traded without connecting to Steam.
What Is the DMC Cryptocurrency?
DMC is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token that functions on the Ethereum blockchain. Smart contracts execute the rules of the platform automatically. This cryptocurrency is not to be confused with the DMC or DynamicCoin that already exists on exchanges. On the backend DMC is converted to and from DMT which is a tradeable coin listed on exchanges such as Bittrex.
What Technology Does the DMarket Blockchain Use?
The DMarket platform currently uses the Ethereum blockchain but in future after acquiring 10 million users the project will migrate to its own blockchain using the Exonum blockchain framework. It is very scalable and can handle 3000 transactions per second. There is also a second layer to the platform that can handle 100k operations per second. This interacts with the Ethereum blockchain using Golang and Postgresql. Although centralized, it is optimized for speed and creates a sidechain and performs microservices to the Ethereum blockchain.
How to Buy Dmarket DMT
You are not able to purchase DMT with “Fiat” currency so you will need to first purchase another currency – the easiest to buy are Bitcoin or Ethereum which you can do at Coinbase using a bank transfer or debit / credit card purchase and then trade that for DMT at an exchange which lists the token.
Make sure you use our link to signup you will be credited with $10 in free bitcoin when you make your first purchase of $100.
Once you have purchased Ethereum, you can trade for DMT tokens at the following exchanges:
How Can You Spend DMT?
Users can spend and earn DMT as currency for in-game virtual items. Digital rights are also paid in DMT to owners for usage of their digital items. User can buy premium DMarket accounts as wholesalers or individuals. There is also BigData analytics for traders that require this service.
How Do You Store Your DMT Coins?
The DMarket platform has an integrated wallet and there is an Android wallet app available also.
How Does the DMarket Work?
Users have to register on DMarket. This creates a DMC wallet for them where they can store their DMC currency and DMarket items. The DMarket platform also has its own block explorer. All wallets and transactions are recorded in the public blockchain.
Conclusion
DMarket has a future-proof use case as the demand for a universal gaming trading platform is imminent. Strategic partnerships between game title developers, the gaming community and gamers will ensure that DMarket lives well beyond its proprietary blockchain phase.
