I told you quite a few times about my newly discovered appreciation for the Steem blockchain.
I've decided to start a series of posts where I present to you, in each of them, one aspect of Steem that has no apparent relation to blogging and social media, the main purpose for which this blockchain was created a little over two years ago.
Before I go on, I want to praise the Steempress Wordpress plugin, which allows me to post both here on my blog and, after an hour, on my Steem account for my audience there. And they won't stop here, I've read an update yesterday that they want to develop it further, to the point of "providing full-integration of STEEM comments, upvotes, account login and wallet on a WordPress-blog using SteemPress", and that's only for the 2018 roadmap. Here's the full update if you are interested.
That being said, let's begin our series.
I'm going to talk in the first issue of our series about a game which has become very popular way before its completion. It is a collectible card game called Steem Monsters, where you can earn various contests and tournaments based on how powerful and upgraded your monsters are compared to your opponent's. The site has captured the imagination, money and support of many Steem users, including some of the most influential.
There is a trade market for these cards, and you can buy packs of random cards from the site. The interesting part is packs can now be purchased with your credit card too, not only with cryptocurrency.
Games have always been a great way of onboarding new people, and including direct fiat purchases as an option makes it easier for new people who have no affiliation with crytocurrency to enter this world, via Steem Monsters, which is built on the Steem blockchain.
So, anyone creating an account at Steem Monsters would be creating a Steem account, which can be used for any of the Steem decentralized applications, and there are a ton of them (and it's only the beginning).
If you like games, take a look! If you don't have a Steem account you can create one using Steem Monsters, while you pay for a starter pack which at the time of writing costs $5.