NFT platform files for IPO to tap on Steam – Trustnodes
Steam, the near monopoly that dominates the gaming market, could be disrupted by the brand new technology of NFTs.
Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs), allow proof of ownership of digital objects, including games, in a distributed and decentralized manner without an intermediary, such as Steam, to take a 30% cut, kick you off the platform, or remove a game.
NFT Gaming (NFTG) plans to build this platform and says its goal is “to develop a robust digital gaming platform, to be named ‘Gaxos’, that brings together players, developers and publishers.”
“We believe that the ability to create and use in-game NFTs that are recognizable and tamper-proof gives players more power over their assets and the ability to have expanded and exciting gaming experiences,” they say in an IPO.
In addition to minting NFTs in the game, the game itself may arguably be an NFT, allowing for actual ownership.
Currently, with platforms like Google Play, you don’t buy a movie, you rent it. The platform may deny you access, and does not allow the transfer or rental of the film.
With token ownership, a digital asset can mimic a physical asset to some extent. Like your cassette the way it used to be or DVD, you can just give it to whoever you want, or actually sell it.
However, implementing something like this is naturally very difficult and to begin with would require some level of semi-centralization, but the token ownership handled through the public blockchain would still make it more distributed than something like Steam.
They plan to use Polygon, which is currently an ethereum sidechain that plans to launch a zkEVM, which is actually ethereum, but with penny fees.
However, the team of NFT Gaming seems to have mostly a funding and investment background, but interestingly, they have a license with Columbia University. They say:
“Columbia University granted us a royalty-bearing, exclusive, worldwide, non-transferable license to certain intellectual properties to (i) discover, develop, manufacture, have made, use, sell, offer to sell, have sold, import, export, distribute , rent or lease certain Licensed Products (as defined in the Columbia Agreement) solely for computer gaming for entertainment purposes involving non-fungible tokens (NFTs).”
This is not running, so the business currently has no revenue. Additionally, no one can in any way predict whether they will succeed as they are entering a very experimental field with its actual capabilities unknown and untested at this stage.
But conceptually, why do we really need Steam? They are there to attribute ownership and through that attribution grant permissions and they also process the payments.
All of this can be automated through blockchain NFT platforms, and while the graphics part can maintain some centralization since this is all extremely new, the basic design must be token-like gaming.
It opens up the platform and allows for actual ownership, rather than renting. Additionally, fees can be far lower and players, as well as game developers, can have far more control.
Steam could therefore be at risk of disruption, something they know very well as they recently banned NFTs in what is arguably an anti-competitive act with their parent company, Valve, updating its rules last year to disallow “applications built on blockchain -technology that issues or allows the exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs.”
However, they cannot ban the blockchain, but whether NFT Gamer is is of course very much up in the air.
Nevertheless, it is somewhat more certain that a new field has opened up with unknown potential or capabilities, but with significant room for exploration, as actual ownership of digital assets can be a very significant competitive advantage, especially since it is all digital.
