Opinion by: Yukai Tu, Chief Technology Officer of CARV
The ability to interact between Blockchain games is still a major and challenging goal. In theory, it's wonderful, but in practice, many difficulties arise. Contrary to the promise of removing the barriers of traditional gaming, Web3 recreates similar silos by locking assets, achievements, and even identities within independent platforms.
With the positive growth prospects in Blockchain gaming in the new year, from improving gameplay to seamless onboarding, we need to realize the long-standing vision. Achieve this by connecting identities with one-time and perpetual interoperability.
The challenge of digital identity
Today, gamers are suffering from digital fragmentation, regardless of their perspective. In traditional games, their history and items are trapped in isolated ecosystems. Sadly, the Blockchain gaming space is no better, as it promises to change the digital order. Ownership is touted as the differentiating factor, but in reality, it recreates the old problems. Despite the strong desire for interoperability, without tight backend integration, the mistakes of the past are repeated.
Fragmented identities and separate sovereign data hinder platform interoperability, forcing players to deal with scattered information across multiple chains. This effect ripples across the Blockchain gaming ecosystem. Players lose achievements between games, developers cannot know what players have done elsewhere, and studios miss out on the full user data to improve their products.
The lack of interoperability diminishes the value of assets. Game data, currencies, or items would be exponentially more valuable if usable across multiple platforms. Interoperability makes ownership meaningful, and earning in-game assets more worthwhile. Players want to flaunt their skins and victories wherever they play. It's time we let them do so.
The bright spot is that a unified digital identity can fill these gaps by creating a foundation for cross-game ownership. Combining protocols that balance privacy with scalability and open cross-platform standards, identities can be aggregated under a single banner and track players across the gaming universe. Games can verify who a player is and what they own through this unified identity, and assets can more easily move between platforms.
Developers can improve matchmaking, create better loyalty rewards, and achieve more effective user acquisition and spending. This is how we can deliver on the core promise of Blockchain gaming.
Open standards, data layers, and gaming chains
The first piece of this identity and interoperability puzzle is open standards. Developers need to share a common platform and create new internet-native elements. The recently released ERC-7231 NFT standard demonstrates this by combining multiple Web2 and Web3 identities into a single NFT. The identities within track the history, relationships, and experiences of the gamer in one place.
This approach will be convenient and open up new possibilities for self-authentication, social connection, and monetizing player-controlled data. The standard allows players to control the details of their identity. They can selectively share specific parts while keeping others private, with all data encrypted and verified for security.
Protocols are increasingly adding an identity and data layer to their Web3 technology stack. This aligns with the requirement for interoperability - managing verified identities and unlocking data on the Blockchain. Again, this leads to many new development and experience possibilities, such as cross-linked reputation systems, single sign-on gaming, and privacy-preserving user data, providing the necessary trust between platforms and players.
Gaming chains complete this picture by providing specialized infrastructure, simplifying deployment. Operating on the same chain means identities and items function across multiple game titles, making life easier for both developers and players. From built-in game tools and scalable transactions to familiar development environments, these chains help game makers hit the ground running, avoiding bottlenecks and getting started. There will be less latency, faster asset transfers between games, and lower gas fees for players. Even better, the technical support and tokenomics encourage traditional developers to venture into the Web3 space - a boon for the entire ecosystem.
Delivering on the promise of interoperability
Blockchain gaming is on the cusp of mainstream adoption. Games are becoming more engaging, onboarding is easier, and players crave digital assets to express and own. Importantly, the resistance from traditional gamers - who sometimes view our space with skepticism - is starting to subside.
To reach the next level, it's time for digital assets to truly have value and utility in games, improving interoperability with a unified identity.
Standardizing identity and interoperability also addresses other critical challenges in the game. For example, implementing the proposals could optimize player authentication, enable privacy-preserving analytics, and simplify cross-game content creation.
The infrastructure is ready, and the path forward is clear. When identity and interoperability are addressed, the grand vision of blockchain gaming will be realized, delivering the borderless experience players deserve.
Yukai Tu is the Chief Technology Officer at CARV and holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from UCLA. Yukai has also worked as a Software Engineer at Google and Coinbase and is a contributing member to the Cosmos SDK and the blockchain technical lead at the LINO network.
