Bitcoin backers believe the cryptocurrency’s next frontier is gaming. That’s already happening as Bitcoin slowly makes its way into mobile games. If you’re both a Bitcoin and gaming enthusiast, here’s a game you might want to try out.
Oh Crop!, which was recently released on Android, now features a Bitcoin rewards system. The objective of the game is simple: you need to earn high scores by staying alive while hostile, mutated plants chase after you. Players who manage to accumulate enough points to grab a spot on the top 10 chart are rewarded with bitcoins.
The leaderboard on Oh Crop!, which resets on a weekly basis, ensures that the current week’s top players need only maintain their positions until the end of a cycle. It sounds easy, but most users end up playing their darndest to ensure they remain on top week after week. The Bitcoin rewards are transferred into the players’ Bitcoin wallets, and they can do whatever they want with them – they can use the bitcoins to buy stuff or exchange them into fiat money.
Faster cash
The title is made by Loud Panda Games and the Bitcoin rewards system is powered by Paylance. Both Paylance and Loud Panda Games are born out of Philippine mobile app development startup Loud Panda Interactive.
Loud Panda Interactive’s decision to marry its verticals has proven to be a wise move. Marvin Apacible, Loud Panda Games’ product director, says the company saw an almost immediate surge in Oh Crop! user downloads after it introduced the rewards system.
Jon Roque, the company’s business development guy, tells Tech in Asia that the number of installed devices jumped from about a hundred to over a thousand the day they introduced the Bitcoin feature.
Roque says they don’t know of any mobile game that integrates Bitcoin the way they do. “We came across one game on iOS just recently, it’s called Feel The Ball. But the mechanics are quite different. You are only given the chance to get bitcoins after completing all the stages of the game.”
New prizes
Loud Panda Games may be one of the first ones to do Bitcoin rewards, but it expects that the cryptocurrency will soon shape up to be gamers’ reward of choice.
Bitcoin transactions enable peers to send or receive money directly, in less than 10 minutes, bypassing middlemen and payment processors. These transactions are easy to set up and cost considerably less than traditional money transfer services. They also provide ownership anonymity.
More Bitcoin prizes will be added into Oh Crop!, which means competition will get tougher.
“For now, this is the only game we published that rewards bitcoins. But in a few weeks, we’ll be releasing more games that will give out bitcoins,” Roque says.
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