Blockchain has given rise to the disruption of one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the modern world: the gaming industry. Yet, despite the promise that blockchain can bring games, game developers are understandably hesitant to build during the bear market.
As a result, young Web3 gaming teams serious about building for longevity have few choices that don’t tie them to equity bleeding incubators. Octopus Network acts as a low-budget venture studio allowing game developers to build a live Substrate blockchain that is even migratable to other platforms, such as Polkadot, or to an independent chain as they scale.
Even though capital is ready to flood into the blockchain gaming segment, with Dappradar estimating a 10b investment in Web3 gaming for 2022, the longtail innovation of blockchain gaming is going to require infrastructure and support to lower the barrier of entry for today’s innovative Web3 development teams.
Thus far, the most straightforward and capital-efficient route for blockchain gaming startups has been smart contracts on a one-size-fits-all application layer. Unfortunately, while smart contracts are perfect for particular use cases, they are inflexible because all contract terms are predetermined. So, while their composability is quite convenient, smart contracts fail with complex decentralized applications like on-chain games.
Scalability, customizability, evolvability, on-chain governance, and low gas fees are critical for mass adoption.
Sky Mavis’ Axie Infinity discovered this in practice, referring to Ethereum congestion as a perpetual thorn in their side that slowed their economy substantially. In response, they built the Ronin sidechain to support scaling and a smoother gameplay experience.
Another popular blockchain game, DeFi Kingdoms, which had initially launched on Harmony, decided to create Crystalvale, a subnet on Avalanche, to enhance scalability and customizability without sacrificing decentralization.
Launching application-specific blockchains, aka Appchains, is becoming increasingly desirable for blockchain games that have already gained substantial traction and therefore have the capital to do so.
In addition, blockchain frameworks such as Cosmos SDK and Substrate have substantially decreased the development cost of application-specific chains, drawing the attention of many gaming projects.
However, launching a Cosmos Zone, Kusama/Polkadot Parachain, or an independent blockchain is still prohibitively expensive for young and innovative Web3 gaming teams, especially during market downturns.
This leaves serious gaming startup teams who want to build projects with baked-in longevity very few options. Beyond getting VC buy-in or competing for coveted project grants and funding, many pitch to incubators who may fund them initially but beat them up down the road by draining equity.
Octopus Network provides the infrastructure necessary to lower the barriers to entry
Launched over a year ago, Octopus Network refers to itself as a “3rd gen” interoperable multichain protocol. Octopus Network is an infrastructure project that has developed a unique method of connecting Substrate-based blockchains to NEAR Protocol with interoperability to NEAR, Ethereum, and any IBC-enabled blockchain, such as Polkadot or Cosmos.
The result is that Appchains, such as game chains, are much easier and less expensive to launch. Because Octopus uses Substrate, game chains are customizable, even at the bottom of the tech stack. And because NEAR Protocol uses Nightshade sharding technology, game chains are almost infinitely scalable with minimal transaction costs. How can Octopus Network do this?
Octopus Network’s novel security design, LPoS (Leased Proof of Stake), allows game chains to scale the amount of security they need with demand. This alone decreases the cost to launch an Appchain by close to 100x and allows game developers to launch in months rather than years.
In addition, games launching on Octopus Network are given generous development support to launch in the vast existing NEAR and Octopus Network ecosystems where a ready-to-be-engaged audience is waiting for the next new thing.
Octopus Network provides a complete infrastructure set for gaming Appchains — including RPC Gateway, Appchain Explorer, Appchain Indexer, and Appchain Archiver. Once an Appchain is booted, game developers just need to update the front-end configuration for the Appchain to be ready to serve players. Octopus Network game chains also have the advantage of being born as self-contained decentralized economies without relying on centralized exchanges. From the onset, they can establish close symbiotic relationships with DeFi protocols on NEAR.
Octopus Network supports protocols that “graduate” from its network
An interesting feature of the Octopus Network is that they support Appchains that want to leave their network. If a game chain has scaled to the extent that it is ready to build its own chain or migrate to a Kusama/Polkadot Parachain, Octopus Network provides tools to support what it refers to as “Graduating Appchains” — Appchains that choose to cease using LPoS and transform into an independent PoS blockchain or migrate to another project — so that existing cross-chain assets aren’t affected.
Octopus Network supporting projects that leave its platform may seem antithetical to the average crypto enthusiast. But the Octopus Network’s whitepaper clearly states that its raison d'être is to unleash an innovation wave on Web3. So, it appears that the philosophical Web3 tenets of its founder and team continually drive the Octopus Network to seek ways to truly make the mass adoption of Web3 a reality.
Octopus Network looks to be an oasis for blockchain game startups whose development abilities have reached a standstill amid the desert of market downturns and lack of funding.
The flexibility and support Octopus Network offers teams even extend to free Substrate Development training and Accelerator Programs that offer comprehensive courses in governance, tokenomics, branding, and other essential facets of protocol development. Considering that bear markets have always been recognized as periods of innovation that fuel the next growth cycle, Octopus Network has certainly poised itself to unleash the next wave of Web3 gaming innovation.
