Direct from the desk of Dane Williams.
Is it just me, or do CoinGecko’s top 5 gaming coins look weird?
So with the platform’s default ordering done by market cap, we have the following top 5:
- Internet Computer (ICP)
- The Sandbox (SAND)
- ImmutableX (IMX)
- Axie Infinity Shards (AXS)
- ApeCoin (APE)
Coming in at number 1 on the list, we have Internet Computer (ICP), the self described sovereign network of standardised hardware "nodes", owned and operated by independent parties.
Hmm, I’m not sure how ICP qualifies as the top placeholder in a list for gaming coins, but I’m sure there’s a technicality that I’m missing somewhere.
The Sandbox (SAND) at number 2, sure I can understand.
While I’d love to see the Metaverse eventually encompass the entire open digital realm, right now the reality is that it’s a series of cordoned off games just like we see in the Sandbox.
Next we have ImmutableX (IMX), the layer-2 (L2) blockchain used to increase scalability on the Ethereum network.
Hmm, sure it’s a network that gets used to house NFT and Web3 gaming projects.
But again, is a list of gaming coins really the best place to house a project like this?
It takes us all the way to number 4 before we get to the only coin which I’d consider a genuine gaming coin.
Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) is an ERC-20 token that powers the extremely expensive, Axie Infinity.
An actual blockchain-based game where players can battle, collect and build a digital kingdom for their NFT pets.
That's it - Huzzah!
However, we round out the top 5 gaming coins with another coin that has nothing to do with games.
ApeCoin (APE)... LOLLLL!
Well they at least say they will have a game I suppose.
…Eventually.
…Probably
…Maybe.
Ah fuck it, who are we kidding, they are just raising money and chucking it in a pool to fund the devs’ suddenly lavish lifestyles.
They’re not a gaming coin, jeez.
What should a top 5 gaming coin list actually look like?
When I think of gaming coins, I think of coins that are actually used in or earned via… well, games.
Flicking over to dAppRadar’s list of top blockchain games, you can see that none of the top 5 games by Unique Active Wallets (UAWs) even make CoinGecko’s list.
Now that looks more like a list of top gaming tokens.
But unfortunately the market caps of their various in-game and governance tokens, just don’t line up with actual usage of the games themselves.
Tokenomics of those games are quite frankly a mess (or early adopter experiment, depending on how optimistic you want to be about the P2E gaming space).
Which is sad for the players and investors that don’t get to reap the full benefits.
Especially since SPS, the governance token of Hive’s very own Splinterlands, should be earning our community members more.
Anyway, just some Monday musings for you to ponder.
Best of probabilities to you.
PS. If you’re a Splinterlands player or investor, let me know what you think about the tokenomics of the ecosystem and the P2E industry as a whole.
I am genuinely intrigued.