03 Nov Demystifying cryptocurrency in esports: the background | Part 1
‘Demystifying cryptocurrency in esports’ is a new five-part series created in collaboration with Bitcashier, a corporate-focused cryptocurrency trading platform, to unravel the nascent relationship between cryptocurrency and esports.
Part 1 sets up the background behind the increasingly fruitful marriage between the two sectors.
(ESI Illustration) Image credit: Bitcashier
Hard-fought, dynamic, and veritably unstoppable: the dual digital empires of cryptocurrency and esports have both enjoyed powerful ascents into the mainstream in recent years.
Success stories of the digital age, both have clawed through doubt and disbelief to stake claims as permanent fixtures of the internet era.
Cryptocurrencies are a form of digital currency. Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies use blockchains — digital, distributed lists of transactions linked together using cryptography and verified by users of the cryptocurrency network — to prove digital ownership.
These networks look to offer a secure and easily accessible way of storing and transferring value online, without the need for centralised authorities like banks.
Cryptocurrency has penetrated a myriad of industries on its unrelenting journey to mainstream recognition — and esports has been no exception. The crypto industry has been seeping into the esports space ever since its valuable overlap became clear.
Newly-minted industries with staggering year-on-year growth rates, cryptocurrency shares a natural resonance with esports as a high-growth, digital-native sector.
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Anyone around the world with an internet-connected device can use cryptocurrency, a defining aspect of the phenomenon’s decentralised, globally-accessible ethos — and the same is true of esports.
Just like crypto, esports is a global phenomenon that transcends the traditional limitations of state borders to connect people through its technologies.
Sharing a prized demographic of young, tech-savvy 18-25 year olds with disposable income, the overlap between the industries is palpable. Moreover, with blockchain technologies increasingly being integrated into the underlying games themselves, the two worlds are colliding at breakneck speed.
Esports organisations including TSM, Astralis, NAVI, and BIG as well as esports leagues like the LEC have all inked crypto-related partnerships in recent months alone as sponsorship money starts pouring in from esports’ newlywed partner.
But the utility of cryptocurrency in esports goes far beyond sponsorship opportunities. Bitcashier is a cross-exchange cryptocurrency trading platform providing global trading services to corporate entities.
With overlap, interest and opportunities in abundance, crypto presents possibilities for fundamental innovations in esports.
In Part 2 of this series, Bitcashier and Esports Insider dive into the crypto industry’s existing penetration of the esports space, and how blockchain technology is changing the sector.
Supported by Bitcashier
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