Cryptocurrency enthusiasts and developers know that the technical complexity of the space is a significant barrier to entry for most people. For the uninitiated crypto curious, gaining access to the high volatility of digital assets via cryptocurrency exchanges is not enough to compel them to submit to crypto’s steep learning curve.
What if the big driver for mass crypto adoption has nothing to do with asset appreciation of crypto coins and tokens, but has everything to do with online players chomping at the bit to access immersive Web3 gaming?
What is The Fractal Crypto?
Fractal is a marketplace for video game players to discover, buy, sell, and trade gaming NFTs, launching more than 121 NFT collections throughout 85 games across its ecosystem this year.
Today Fractal announced the launch of its game-changing digital wallet that’s compatible with cryptocurrencies and NFTs. It’s called “Sign In with Fractal” and it provides game players with a cryptocurrency wallet that makes it seamless to start playing Web3 games, both on Fractal and within partner games. In an exclusive interview with Justin Kan, who co-founded both Fractal and interactive live-streaming service Twitch, he explained how to Sign In with Fractal could be the catalyst for crypto mass adoption.
“Before we launched our crypto-gaming wallet, it was a pain to link a crypto wallet to a game. Only 1.4 million crypto wallets have ever been linked to an online game, but there are more than 3 billion games in the world. There’s an opportunity to grow another 2,000%. Our Sign In with Fractal wallet allows gamers to sign in using Google, Twitter, or Discord — it’s super simple and gamers can be playing in about 30 seconds, they don’t have to go to a third-party site. We think that’s the future of how to onboard users into crypto games and the broader crypto ecosystem,” according to Kan.
He further noted that the most obvious utility for NFTs will be online gaming where players can use their unique digital assets like weapons, armor, vehicles, and nearly any other type of in-game asset across different games.
“Everyone keeps talking about utility and use of NFTs and the next big thing for NFTs will be in gaming. There are already sales of $60 billion sold a year of in-game virtual goods that allow you to do more things within the game. It’s an obvious next step to make those virtual assets more durable as an NFT,” Kan said.
In its official statement, the Fractal team acknowledged that it intends to usher in a new wave of innovation that enables games to be more fun, have better-aligned incentives between player and game studio, and drive faster growth than ever before. And with this new simple sign-in wallet, it may be the inflection point of widespread uptake of crypto technology.
For gamers who are unfamiliar with how crypto wallets work, downloading a chrome extension or plugin and figuring out how it works can be a barrier to entry into the blockchain gaming space. Fractal’s new product allows users to start playing a blockchain game in seconds, by creating a Fractal wallet using their existing Google accounts.
Fractal launched in December 2021, when gaming NFT trade volume was $49 million based on data compiled by The Block.
As of June 5, that number sits at around $3.3 million after the decline of the popular play-to-earn game Axie Infinity.
