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Setting up shop in a foreign land, much like formulating a plan of attack in your favorite MMO, requires healthy doses of reconnaissance and strategy.
Before choosing Vietnam as their rebel base, the troop at RedFOX Labs assessed the locale’s growing economies and found the country ideal for spawning a blockchain business that builds blockchain businesses.
Ho Chi Minh City, home of RFOX headquarters, is strategically located in the heart of Southeast Asia’s ‘Big Six’ gaming cluster.
Within the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Phillippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam — 61% of the online population plays games.
Typical days may find residents defying gravity with expertly timed triple jumps, hurling chi-powered fireballs (Hadouken!), and coordinating with teammates to demolish enemy forces.
And if they’re not fighting tooth and nail to climb the leaderboards, they’re impulsively popping bubbles and tapping away on smartphones.
Point is, whether casual or hardcore, PC or console, the ‘Big Six’ are in love with videogames.
These countries also account for nearly all of SEA’s eSports income, which is on track to hit $1.5B in global revenue next year.
Not only is SEA a gaming hotbed, but the region is currently experiencing tremendous economic growth. Southeast Asian countries occupy five slots in this list of the world’s 15 fastest-growing economies.
Opportunities within Southeast Asia’s gaming market are created by a perfect storm of millions of tech-savvy citizens, thriving economies, and turbocharged demand for interactive digital entertainment.
Now, if there’s one thing the entire eSports industry is trying to sidestep, it’s cheating.
And in today’s realm of online gaming contests, dishonesty is rampant. The global eSports scene is massive and ultra-competitive. To gain an edge, some combatants resort to shady tactics.
The good news is that we now have a modern-day solution to an age-old problem. But before we dive in, let’s take a firsthand look into the mindset of cheating gamers.
Turning Back the Game Clock
Back in the PlayStation 2's heyday, I assumed the unfortunate role of fielding customer complaints as a tech support specialist.
Although we all enjoyed the daily gaming, free rentals of the latest titles, and learning how to repair controllers, cheaters were the bane of our existence.
Old-school games are easy to manipulate if you know how to write software. After all, the fabric of games’ existence is lines and lines of source code.
And to gain unlimited in-game superpowers, it’s only a matter of finding the right lines of code to alter.
Health bars that never deplete, ammo and spells that never run out, countdown clocks frozen in time — the white hat hackers I once worked with could perform their magic on nearly any title.
For consumers, it went like this:
- Load the GameShark and choose your cheats — careful not to select too many lest the game freeze on you
- Open the disc tray and swap the G-Shark for the game in which you’re becoming a diety
You see, certain users could never cheat hard or fast enough. The same people would call our support line months ahead of a game’s release just to get their paws on ways to make future gameplay easier for themselves.
Cheaters wanted to cheat before even trying games out for the first time. And if things didn’t go according to their pre-conceived notions once the game was out, we’d get an earful.
We’d also field complaints from people who bore the brunt of cheating during online matches.
One fellow was playing Madden Football and had the game easily won, with only a few seconds left on the clock. As time expired, the loser — aka the cheater — was credited with two wins for a losing performance.
Can you imagine the frustration of being on the receiving end of such online villainy?
Playing solo against a game’s AI is one thing — especially for overly difficult boss battles — but dishonesty against fellow humans is unwarranted.
Sony eventually became so fed up with cheaters that accounts found to be using a G-Shark had their Internet connection disconnected immediately.
Cheaters, whether digital or physical, suck the fun right out of all types of games and defeat the spirit of legitimate competition.
Because when it’s the final round and both contestants are down to just a few pixels of health, everyone’s heart is racing.
Nobody has the right to steal that adrenaline rush from anyone else.
Today, unscrupulous gamers may have more sophisticated technology at their disposal, but blockchain tech parries cheaters’ offensive blows.
A Legendary Moment in eSports History
While we’re on the subject of parrying, have a look at this short video.
Even if you’ve seen it before, watch it again — it’s less than 60 seconds long. There’s no cheating at play, but it’s from the G-Shark era.
Nothing captures the excitement of eSports like a near-impossible, come-from-behind victory in front of a live audience.Look at Ken’s health bar — he’s running on fumes:
Now, let’s put this gaming feat into perspective. Daigo “The Beast” Umehara didn’t merely pull back on his controller’s joystick to block attacks. The turtle tactic results in a small loss of health. And, as you can see, there’s none left.
Instead, Daigo chose a high-risk, high-reward technique. A parry is only successful when you move toward your opponent within 1/10th of a second of their attack landing.
So, to pull off this amazing display of tenacity, Daigo anticipated his opponent’s move in advance before parrying 14 consecutive split-second kicks from Chun-Li’s multihit special move.
One false step and the game was over. The opponent was most likely in a state of utter disbelief as Ken sprang into action to hand Chun-Li a match-ending beatdown.
Marshall Law: back 2, 2; bound; fwd, fwd, 2, 1, 3
Enter the Dragon
It’s no secret that the residents of Southeast Asia — in agreement with the entire global eSports community — are fed up with cheating.
Competitive gaming is a chance to showcase skills honed over hundreds, if not thousands of hours of practice.
Onlookers may not realize that gamers trying to make a name for themselves often live in cramped team houses, playing games for 8–12 hours nearly every day of the week for very little pay.
Success in a tournament can mean the difference between eating plain noodles for dinner or enjoying the luxury of adding meat and veg. In other words, the effects of cheating are felt outside of digital battlefields.
And Komodo Platform has an anti-cheat solution in place. Preventing cheaters from ruining games boils down to a single word: Validation.
Proof of Gameplay
Komodo prides itself on secure, scalable, interoperable, adaptable blockchain solutions.
Simply put, the team creates developer-friendly building blocks for creating products — including videogames — that interact with other blockchain networks.
When a team builds a new title using Komodo’s gaming modules, the software automatically employs consensus-level agreement across the whole of its network.
Every keystroke, in-game action, and hitpoint deduction gets replayed and verified. As gamers compete, network nodes mimic the gameplay to ensure everyone plays fair.
No hacks, no exploits, no rule-breaking, no aimbots, no turbo buttons, no falsified records on leaderboards. Cheating in KMD-powered games is a lost cause.
Transparency is one of blockchain’s best attributes. And when gameplay records onto a public ledger, cheaters have nowhere to hide.
But preventing swindlers from prospering isn’t the only trick in Komodo’s playbook. The project’s tech also facilitates the creation of in-game economies.
Fun with Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
Fungibility means a currency — crypto or not — is divisible and capable of mutual substitution.
On the other side of the token, non-fungible tokens are unique in that there’s no other crypto exactly like them anywhere.
And, Komodo game modules automatically save gameplay as NFTs. Gameplay in the form of a token is conveniently transferable to any other gamer on the planet.
Easily swap costumes, offensive and defensive gear, points, in-game currency, potions, profiles, golden amulets, you name it.
Giving an overseas friend an item from your inventory — so you both can better bash baddies — is but one benefit of in-game asset tokenization.
An NFT economy opens up a wealth of resale potential for the eSports industry.
Remember those gaming houses mentioned earlier? Imagine the in-game assets a large eSports team amasses during a single day’s training.
A pro player’s ‘throwaway’ items and character profiles may qualify as ‘legendary’ for gamers with less experience.
Invincible Against Network Congestion
Building a project on Komodo means having a chain all to yourself.
One of the most notable instances of a clogged blockchain was the Ethereum network’s CryptoKitties debacle of late 2017.
Cryptoland temporarily became so obsessed with trading virtual kittens that traffic on the network came to a screeching halt. And because they’re all on a shared chain, every other business built on ETH felt the effects.
So, even if KomodoDragonEggs ($KDE) becomes the next KMD-powered blockchain gaming phenomenon, other games within the Komodo ecosystem won’t have to suffer from slowdowns.
A private chain — still securely interoperable with the main chain — is a must-have blockchain gaming component. Network lag is devastating to competitors’ muscle memory-embedded combos.
New Game+
Komodo’s blockchain-fueled videogame products s are battle-tested and ready for action today. Which means that the first gaming venture RedFOX Labs builds won’t have to start as a noob.
With developer-level access to KMD’s pre-made tech, RedFOX Labs leverages Komodo’s XP to begin its startup game as a high-level warrior rather than a confused weakling.
Future gaming-based upgrades are in the works. And like any tech, enhancements naturally evolve.
You see, blockchain can clean up the eSports landscape while giving its participants enhanced control over the assets they create during gameplay.
I’d love the ability to sell and trade some of the characters I spent countless hours upgrading throughout my gaming career!
And now that we’ve covered the technological upgrades currently available to the eSports industry, let’s examine how RedFOX plans to drive tokenization throughout Southeast Asia.
Powering Up the RFOX Coin
Tokens are one of videogames’ oldest and dearest friends. However, (mostly) gone are the days of sending fiat into machines in return for custom currency accepted only within the confines of the local arcade.
While physical tokens are on the decline, digital tokens continue to gain extra lives all over the world.
Especially within emerging markets like SEA, as well as countries with hyper-inflationary fiat — where residents use wheelbarrows for cash to buy a loaf of bread — digital currencies are on the rise.
Yes, the cryptocurrency market is volatile. But no, bitcoin’s not going to see the 50% overnight value retracement that certain countries see in their gov’t-printed money.
And as a cryptocurrency creator, it’s your responsibility to provide holders with ample opportunities to put that crypto into action.
Every business RedFOX builds will use $RFOX coins as a form of payment — each new venture creates additional use cases as well as liquidity.
The Southeast Asian eSports industry, all on its own, provides plenty of fuel to power the $RFOX coin’s momentum. In-game transactions conducted with in-game currencies are increasingly commonplace.
However, it’s important to note that the team’s plans for tokenizing replications of unicorn companies extend well beyond the world of games.
Now, although RedFOX is a relatively new project — completing their IEO only a few weeks ago — recent announcements tell us industry that the project has the gaming industry directly in its crosshairs.
The team recently selected Arclegger to head up their new gaming division. No doubt about it, the first blockchain venture RedFOX Labs builds is all about play.
Plus, staying true to the project’s mission of helping to bank the unbanked, a mobile wallet is currently in development:
Most of the globe’s citizens already interact with apps and games on their phones. Using a blockchain-powered wallet app isn’t much different.
Although with some mobile wallets you‘ll have to write down a series of words on a separate piece of paper.
But aside from the need to secretly stash your wallet’s seed phrase or private keys — because the blockchain doesn’t always have a ‘forgot password’ option — mobile crypto is nearly identical to mobile banking.
And chances are high — especially in Southeast Asia — that those same mobile bankers are also mobile gamers.
Giving gamers a great reason to put a crypto wallet on their phone is a perfect method of cross-promoting both the gaming and blockchain industries.
DEX — The Future of Cryptocurrency Exchanging
A mobile, decentralized exchange is an innovation that essentially turns your smartphone into a crypto hardware wallet.
All blockchains in the Komodo’s ecosystem support atomic swaps and cross-chain smart contracts. In other words, KMD tech allows separate blockchain networks to communicate and exchange assets.
98% of coins and tokens flowing throughout the cryptosphere — literally 1,000s of digital asets — will trade inside the RFOX wallet.
Most gamers know of bitcoin, and soon they can stash the world’s original cryptocurrency alongside their RFOX coins.
Exchanging crypto on a peer-to-peer basis is as secure as it gets — there’s no intermediary between you and your trade partner when using a DEX. Rather than leaving funds on an exchange, tempting hackers with lump-sum rewards, you always retain control of your crypto’s private keys.
The RFOX mobile wallet provides access to nearly all of crypto, right in your pocket, on a device you carry around anyhow. Now that’s how you spread global blockchain adoption!
Endgame
Residents of Southeast Asia are more than ready to accept blockchain tech into their lives.
From growing middle-class populations to an abnormally high concentration of gamers per capita, SEA is a veritable playground for building high-tech businesses.
And RedFOX, using Komodo’s tech, is out to give the people what they want — cheat-free gaming and secure transactions within familiar digital environments.
For others still, blockchain and crypto provide a portal to the financial world. Who needs a traditional bank — with its fees, overhead, and slow transactions — when you can carry your own bank wherever you go?
Bolstering RedFOX’s chances to make inroads is the lack of specific communication barriers. In two of the ‘Big Six’ countries — the Philippines and Singapore — English is an official language.
Gamers as well as business partners who understand each other naturally play better together.
With a customer-centric approach to business building and pre-baked tech ready to deploy throughout a region that continues to spend more and more funds on gaming, RedFox has an excellent chance of capturing the flag.
Once the gaming community catches on to the benefits of a robust anti-cheat solution, there’s no stopping the protocol from becoming industry standard within the realm of eSports.
And though we’ll never entirely rid the world of bad actors with ‘me-first’ mentalities, we can now use blockchain tech to keep them out of our games.
Disclaimer: This is not investment or financial advice. Information within this article is primarily speculative opinion, and for entertainment purposes only.
Always conduct your own research before involving yourself with any project — in or out of the crypto market. The author holds the native cryptocurrencies of both projects mentioned within — $RFOX & $KMD. Did you make it this far? You win!
Shameless Plug
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Ready Player 124,000,001 was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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