👾Introduction

The state of the market and why we're here

While the blockchain is one of the most innovative and important technologies in a generation, it has thus far failed to capture mainstream adoption. Initially relegated to the financial sector, decentralized finance (DeFi or Web3) has begun an expansion into new use cases, but has yet to find its footing or the right catalyst to widespread acceptance in the general public.

The inability to capture and retain the attention of the average person has kept Web3 on the outside looking in. For every financial firm on-boarding blockchain technology, we have twenty mom-and-pop shops scratching their heads trying to decipher Bitcoin. If Web3 is to make significant inroads, there must be more generalizable applications built using this technology. These applications need to be easily accessible and engaging to attract evangelists who will rush to share their value. This is the way to global adoption.

While some argue that straightforward financial access is a viable enough use case that justifies adoption by the general public, this is simply not the case. Even cautious users can accidentally lose their funds, therefore making the financial markets of DeFi akin to a casino filled with landmines. Assuming someone safely invests funds into a DeFi asset, the price volatility of the market brings unfamiliar risk levels for a general audience. Fund managers are highly paid professionals that custodian investor assets for a reason: most of the general public is ill-equipped to handle the nuance of financial markets, especially those of DeFi.

Assuming a member of the general public maintains a robust enough understanding to interact with DeFi applications, they’re left with few non-financial opportunities. Arguably, most tokens on the market today are projects that seek to profit in the short term and have no long term viable business plan. This means that DeFi markets currently host a high concentration of pump-and-dump tokens, to which the general public disproportionately falls victim. The news and social media focus on meme tokens and their currently outsized returns do little to offset these intrinsic risks. Yet, the public has signaled clear interest in the blockchain space based on increasing search engine results, media coverage, and the rapid growth of fiat currency on-ramps into the industry.

At this point, a new Web3 user just wants an opportunity to participate in this exciting new movement in a way they can understand. NFTs are one way. After all, everyone is familiar with art. The cheapest CryptoPunk, one of the original viral NFTs, reached a value over $70,000. Unfortunately, most NFT collections don't experience such highs, and most fail to retain value or use long-term. Currently akin to programmable Beanie Babies, most NFTs just… sit there. While many wealthy individuals purchase art as a form of wealth preservation or for aesthetic purposes, an average person purchasing an NFT to one day get rich may very well end up disappointed. While investing in NFTs may not deliver overnight wealth to the average investor, the rich functionality of NFTs--blockchain secured asset ownership--may well offer a significant “a-ha!” moment for the general public. But NFTs need to find the right home.

Therefore, the crucial step along this journey to adoption will be thoughtfully designed blockchain platforms and apps that specifically target a general audience and demonstrate this nascent technology is easy to use, engaging, and--most of all--fun. Enter video games.

Like the blockchain, video games were once relegated to the fringe of society. The so-called nerds and geeks would crowd arcades, much to the disdain of parents and the public at large. However, as technology continued to improve access to video games at home and on the move, the global mobile gaming market hit nearly $80 billion in 2020 and is now estimated to reach a $175 billion valuation by 2027.

What was once a niche hobby is now a global phenomenon. The Turbo Battle Arena team observed these trends and documented similarities between the the early days of the now robust video game industry and the nascent blockchain technology applications currently on the market. We concluded that as blockchain adoption continues to grow, we must leverage the successful aspects of past innovations and build the use case for future adoption. NFTs can serve as a way to verify game asset ownership and a mechanism to trade freely on the open market and across platforms. Tokens allow real-life rewards for skillful gameplay. Decentralized community building opens up possibilities for crowd funding and content creation that will allow independent studios to compete with industry behemoths. At Turbo Battle Arena we position ourselves and Web3 gaming as the catalyst to global blockchain adoption.