Proof-of-gaming: How new consensus mechanism could transform an industry

A crypto project is vowing to transform the gaming landscape with the help of a brand-new consensus mechanism.

Ulti Arena says that proof-of-gaming means that players can earn rewards as they rack up experience on a range of immersive titles.

The startup is building a dedicated game client that provides in-depth analytics on a player’s movement, speed and reaction times — enabling them to build on their skills.

Better still, Ulti Arena says that it will support some of the most popular games in the industry right now, including Dota 2 and LOL.

Its ecosystem is boosted further by an NFT marketplace for game assets — including 2D and 3D sprites, music and sound, and user interfaces. All of this results in a central repository for all things gaming — connecting artists and studios in a brand-new way. An early beta of this platform is due to be rolled out in September, and the first version of proof-of-gaming is set to go live by the end of the year.

An established, growing team

Ulti Arena says that it benefits from a strong founding team. CEO Duke Vu is a serial entrepreneur, while CTO Wojciech Harzowski has more than seven years of software development under his belt – and over three years of experience building everything from crypto exchanges to custom blockchains.

Now, the company’s top priority is ramping up marketing efforts and welcoming a diverse array of game studios and artists on board. The targets here are ambitious, with a goal of onboarding 1,500 game studios and more than 10,000 game artists.

Overall, the project says that proof-of-gaming is a greener and more sustainable alternative for crypto mining — especially as the environmental impact of Bitcoin continues to garner column inches in the press.

This consensus mechanism is described as being more energy efficient than proof-of-work because of how it can be utilized without powerful graphics processing units. Better still, Ulti Arena also claims that it is fairer than proof-of-stake, which is about to be embraced by the Ethereum blockchain. Whereas PoS favors nodes that have the largest stake in a network, PoG is going to be solely based on the number of hours a game has been played for — and the gamer’s individual skill level.

Of course, Ulti Arena’s founders admit that there’s a cool element to blending mining and gaming — injecting a bit of fun into the process, and creating an environment that could entice everyday consumers to discover more about how cryptocurrencies work.

The project is going to be based on Binance Smart Chain, but a multi-chain strategy hasn’t been ruled out for the future. This could result in PoG expanding to new networks, alongside the NFT marketplace that is being established for game assets.

Game on

Ulti Arena has entered into a partnership with Pragmatic Coders, a top DeFi and blockchain development company, in order to underpin the technology that drives its NFT marketplace and proof-of-gaming.

According to the project’s whitepaper, the gaming industry is rapidly evolving. A lot of this is linked to the rise of powerful smartphones and free-to-play business models. Esports has also facilitated a surge in multiplayer competitions that allow professional and amateur players to go head to head.

In time, Ulti Arena hopes to allow game artists to showcase their work, grow their customer base and get paid in cryptocurrencies — unlocking new opportunities to work with top studios.

A token sale is currently taking place for ULTI tokens, the platform’s native cryptocurrency.