Web3 Games Will Be Biggest Drivers Of Mass Crypto Adoption, Polygon Co-Founder Says

Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal has expressed confidence that Web3 gaming will bring large-scale opportunities for crypto adoption.

During an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit's r/India community, Nailwal was asked what he sees as some authentic at-scale "real life" uses of blockchain, besides payments and trading, and he replied, "I think gaming is the largest scale opportunity for crypto."

"There are some top games launching in Web3 in the next 6-18 months and it would be very interesting to see if some of them are able to crack the crypto code. Last year itself there was $2 billion+ in funding for Web3 games," Nailwal added, reported CoinTelegraph.

He also discussed the recent partnership between Polygon and Immutable X, which was announced in March, to build a scalable gaming blockchain with the help of the Ethereum powerhouse's EVM-compatible zk-rollup tech.

"Polygon combined with its ecosystem players like IMX [Immutable X] got the lion's share in terms of those funded games. Fingers crossed for some of them to go big!" he said.

The network will be launched in the coming months with the aim of making blockchain games faster, among other aspects.

"Building on Immutable zkEVM with the Immutable Platform will make developing Web3-enabled games faster, easier and less risky for large game studios and independent developers alike," according to the Ethereum scaling platform's website.

The two companies received approximately $2 billion in investor funding last year with the hope of making a momentous impact on the multi-billion dollar gaming landscape, Venture Beat reported.

Blockchain technology has revolutionized the way businesses interact and transact with digital assets, particularly in the gaming industry. The crypto industry and gaming community are adapting to a new crypto-gaming model, which operates on NFTs and digital currencies for in-game purchases. The new model functions on decentralized networks to enhance security through protected data encryption and no centralized servers. The market for the blockchain-based gaming industry is estimated to be worth $435 billion by 2028, thanks to businesses experimenting with innovations in the crypto-gaming model.

One of the most prominent trends emerging in the blockchain gaming scene is the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs help in creating a more secure and transparent marketplace for both gamers and developers alike, according to Blockchain Magazine.

During the AMA session, the Polygon co-founder was also asked if "crypto has become too speculative?"

While Nailwal didn't deny it, he underlined that the speculations are both a "boon and bane" for the digital currency.

"Boon cuz [because] it attracts top talent toward the industry, bane cuz obviously, a large number of users and applications are speculative in nature," he explained, adding, "But one could argue that any potential big industry invites a lot of speculation early on. It was the same with the Gold rush area and it was also the same for the dot-com boom."

Regarding decentralization, the Polygon co-founder pointed out that crypto is still in its "nascent stage."

"I don't believe that any blockchain ecosystem, except Bitcoin and Ethereum, is fully decentralized yet," he said. "What we need is progressive decentralization of protocols and applications as they achieve larger and larger significance."