Pokemon Go... On The Blockchain!

Hi everyone!    

It is no secret that Pokemon Go is taking the world by storm. Go to any city, town or park and you will undoubtedly see hoards of people gazing at their mobile phones more intently than usual swiping their fingers across the screens and chattering about Squirtles and Pidgeys.    

At it’s best Pokemon Go is an addictive game that encourages usual basement dwellers to venture outside and discover their local landmarks, walk around and even socialize with others in real life. There are plenty of stories of players losing incredible amounts of weight whilst playing the game and it certainly changed the gaming landscape forever by interacting with local surroundings.   

Whilst nobody knows how much money Niantic the developer is making from the game it must be a hell of a lot. They make money by players buying extra balls to catch Pokemon, upgrading equipment etc. The sponsorship and advertising revenue from businesses that want to use the game to their advantage also has great potential. Players are spending 50% more time on average on Pokemon Go than Facebook and we all know how much money they make. A lot!   

 

So players are grinding for hours and hours to level up and catch the best Pokemon possible. But the game, like all games, can be hacked by people who are serious coders and so there is a potential for the hours spent to become worthless over time if hacking becomes prevalent or the developers decide to make the game easier. The more property protection the players of Pokemon Go have the more valuable the franchise will surely be. 

That’s where blockchain technology comes in! Estimates show that there are around 10M daily users of Pokemon Go and this seems like plenty for Niantic to launch a new Pokecoin digital currency. Each Pokemon could have it’s own unique blockchain code that cannot be replicated once created. The level of inflation (creation of new Pokemon) could follow an algorithm like the creation of new bitcoin thus ensuring a certain level of scarcity. An algorithm could also be used to determine the rarity of each Pokemon and move sets and stats could be coded as well.    

This would drive the potential for collecting, hoarding and trading to go to a completely new level. With property protected by the consensus of the network and miners rewarded with Pokeballs (or such) to validate transactions, the value of the most desirable Pokemon would likely go way higher. This would lead to even more players joining the game with the hopes of hitting the jackpot by finding a valuable rare Pokemon. Exchanges would emerge buying and selling Pokemon, secure “wallets” to store them to avoid theft and even Pokemon savings vehicles. In short the value of the game and franchise would go through the roof!    

And I would know the market value of my Bulbasaur that I hatched the other day!