Your guide to Bitcoin, Ethereum and Web 3.0
To bridge the gap between Web3 and mobile gaming, mobile payment company Zebedee and mobile game studio Viker announced Wednesday the launch of two new money-making games, Bitcoin Chess and Bitcoin Scratch, a digital scratch card game.
Launched in October 2019, Zebedee is a Bitcoin-focused gaming infrastructure company that releases Bitcoin-centric games through its mobile app. Bitcoin Chess and Bitcoin Scratch are the latest in a series of games launched with London-based Viker.
“Implementing rewards with Zebedee’s platform isn’t about players making money, it’s about creating a more interesting and fun experience,” Dan Beasley, co-founder of Viker, said in a press release. “Earning these tiny rewards just feels good, regardless of whether they’re small amounts that won’t impact most people’s lives.”
Zebedee says both Bitcoin Chess and Bitcoin Scratch are now available on iOS and Android.
While the trading price of a single Bitcoin is well into the thousands of dollars, games that allow players to earn Bitcoin are usually paid out in satoshis, or rate, named after the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, and the smallest denomination of the coin. To withdraw, players enter their Zebedee account in Viker’s app, where the gameplay takes place, to withdraw their earnings to the Zebedee app.
“However, these are not huge amounts of money, with players earning a few cents per session, which is what makes the concept sustainable,” the company added.
In July 2022, Zebedee raised another $35 million in funding after raising $11 million in Series A funding in September 2021. Zebedee and Viker have already released mobile Solitaire and Sudoku games that give players a chance to earn Bitcoin. That same year, Zebedee launched a private server for the first-person shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and implemented an unofficial Bitcoin integration.
“Essentially, players get a revenue share from the game, which means Viker shares what they earn from the game with the player,” Zebedee said in a statement. The company says this model creates a more engaging player experience, which leads to better retention and ultimately makes the game more profitable.
“These games have a huge global audience that largely doesn’t care about Bitcoin. And we’re not asking them to,” Zebedee Chief Strategy Officer Ben Cousen said in the release. “It doesn’t matter that it’s Bitcoin, except for the fact that what we’re doing is simply not technically possible with traditional currency.”
In September, Zebedee partnered with adtech startup Slice to implement Bitcoin lightning network payments in return for viewing browser ads after installing the Slice browser extension, a concept popularized by the Brave browser.
