[Analysis] The real benefits of blockchain are here. They’re being ignored. – Gharegozlou and Flynn

The advent of blockchains is still relatively recent, even though most professional and hobbyists in the industry feel like they exist in a time warp. As such, remembering the core values that influenced the creation of this technology—decentralization, open networks, and self-sovereignty—is important, writes Roham Gharegozlou and Brian Flynn. Too many developers are willing to cut corners on these features to make a new technology more accessible to more people. An alternative strategy, argues Gharegozlou and Flynn is to turn creators and users into stakeholders—games are an easy format to accomplish this. Indeed, blockchain-based gaming are one of the most challenging application environments to build, but the value of a trustless, decentralized gaming environment is secure in-game value exchange, player identity, and a compelling narrative is a product that could cause blockchains to reach escape velocity into mainstream consciousness.