According to Shaban Shaame, CEO of EverdreamSoft, which in 2015 released Spells of Genesis, or SoG, which is widely regarded as the first blockchain-based mobile game. This trading card game debuted at a time when few investors or gamers recognized the significance of blockchain gaming or even Bitcoin, and it faced stiff competition from AAA game studios that had switched to a free-to-play model.
Originally, players who reached a particular level could use the Counterparty protocol to mint in-game cards as tokenized digital assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. SoG becomes compatible with the Ethereum blockchain in 2020, after years of stagnant sales. NFT collectors didn’t put the game’s rare NFT cards back on the map until mid-2021, when sales began to rise.
Other blockchain games have received attention, such as CryptoKitties, which allows users to gather, breed, and sell virtual cats. The CryptoKitties NFT collection was released in 2017 and is credited with convincing collectors and gamers that owning in-game assets was valuable. CryptoKitties was placed 15th in terms of volume among the top most traded collections on OpenSea at the time of release.
Shaame revealed that as an early blockchain enthusiast, he “found a new family” in the crypto community, which he described as “brilliant and a little insane.” He compared Bitcoin’s creation to the internet’s, and he set out to construct on-chain valuables that would last the duration of the game. Shaame, who has always believed that SoG trading cards would appreciate in value, envisions those cards being placed in a museum 50 years from now.
Shaame stated that the recent surge in usage and price caught him off guard. He disclosed at the end of the video that he is working on another project to “revolutionize the usage of computers” in the goal of “changing lives.”
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.