Popular blockchain gambling platforms process transactions daily worth millions of dollars. Up to 15% of platform earnings go to developers of decentralized applications.
A service provider for the gambling industry, DAOPlatform, explains how to create and monetize blockchain games.
Building the application. The key is smart contracts
In the market for decentralized applications, there are projects that help developers create and promote blockchain games, such as the gambling platform FunFair and the betting P2P platform Decent.bet.
FunFair offers tools to launch blockchain casinos. Operators choose games hosted on the platform by third-party developers. FunFair does not use the blockchain to determine game logic — it is used only to record game results. Decent.bet plans to launch a marketplace with content for blockchain games: images, skins and sounds. In addition, Decent.bet will host examples of smart contracts for gambling applications.
Writing smart contracts is the most complex part of development. Smart contracts perform calculations between players and the casino. Games with bugs in smart contracts become targets for hackers. For instance, in 2018 a user of the EOSBet gambling app exploited a vulnerability in the game’s smart contract and stole $200,000.
DAOPlatform will soon launch—a platform for creating and promoting blockchain games. The project team aims to simplify the development of blockchain gambling applications.
DAOPlatform will provide developers:
- smart contract templates. The templates define the rules for calculations between the casino and the user, the application’s response to player actions, and the payout principle to the game’s creators. Developers only need to design the game logic and specify the reward amount;
- a Signidice PRNG with a certificate of conformity from Gaming Laboratories International;
- a JavaScript SDK for porting classic games to the blockchain;
- a notification service for player actions. Casinos will receive data from the blockchain without running a full node;
- tools for testing game scenarios and calculating the games’ return-to-player (RTP) percentage.
To develop applications on DAOPlatform, knowledge of JavaScript and basic C++ are required. The platform’s operating guide is available on GitHub.
The game is ready. How to earn from it?
The developer earns money if the game has users. An audience can be reached in three ways: publish the game online, on an aggregator, or in a casino.
In the first case, the developer will have to promote the application and search for players themselves. In the second and third, the game creator will gain access to the user base but will pay for intermediary services.
DAOPlatform has implemented a marketplace for blockchain gambling applications. At the core of the marketplace are smart contracts that automatically pay rewards to game creators. According to DAOPlatform, developers will not pay for listing apps: the project will earn revenue from casino operators.
The only condition for listing on the platform is a game audit by DAOPlatform. During the audit, the project team tests the smart contract, checks the game’s logic, and looks for vulnerabilities in the application.
When a new game is added, DAOPlatform sends notifications to its partner casino network. The marketplace operates on an App Store model: operators select games for casinos and integrate them using a script provided by DAOPlatform. Adding a game to a casino site takes no more than a minute.
Application developers receive a share of revenue from every game transaction. Casinos cannot interfere with the calculation and payout of rewards. The process occurs automatically:
- the casino hosts the game on its platform;
- the game’s smart contract accounts for the developers’ share in each transaction;
- monthly the game’s smart contract transfers the developers’ share of revenue to their address. The payout frequency can be adjusted by agreement with DAOPlatform.
The size of the reward is set by the developers: they specify it in the smart contract when creating the game.
A quick guide for developers
Developing blockchain games is largely no different from creating ordinary gambling apps. The difference is that blockchain games require a smart contract. This is the ‘engine’ that defines how the game operates and its financial logic.
There are a few rules to follow when building blockchain games:
- think through possible user actions in advance and how the system should respond to them;
- study the logic of smart-contracts. Errors in smart contracts can lead to hacks or theft of users’ funds;
- test the game before release;
- do not inflate the reward percentage — this gives you a better chance of being accepted into casinos. DAOPlatform recommends taking no more than 10% of the games’ revenue.
Takeaways
According to analytics service Dapp.com, in 2019 the volume of blockchain game transactions stood at $6.71 billion, and the number of blockchain casino users rose by 372%. Gambling is the only segment in the decentralized apps market in which a million new users appeared in the past year.
As gambling apps rise in popularity, projects entering the market simplify blockchain game development: they advise developers, provide smart contract templates, and media content for the game’s visuals.
According to DAOPlatform, blockchain game developers earn several thousand dollars a day. Creating profitable games is possible without blockchain experience: DAOPlatform offers an SDK, smart contract templates, and other tools for developing decentralized apps.
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