“Gaming will be the first killer app to take blockchain mainstream.” So says Joshua Galloway, CEO & Founder of Lepricon, a prediction gaming platform set to launch later this year.
He may be right. There is explosive growth in the decentralized finance ecosystem, and cryptocurrencies have long surpassed their existence as a means of payment or store of value. However, have a conversation with someone who does not have a Telegram account about staking, liquidity pools, or yield farming, and you are likely to draw blank looks.
Galloway, a 20-year video game industry veteran, serial entrepreneur, and former VP at innovation venture fund Plutus VC says that it’s the offering of familiar experiences that will normalize the adoption of blockchain-based applications. “First, we get them to play the games. Then, when they are on the platform, we can slowly introduce the DeFi elements that form the backbone of Lepricon,” he explains.
Lepricon offers distinct layers of activity. On the one hand, it is a gaming platform specializing initially in hyper-casual prediction games that are fast and simple to play. On the other hand, it is a decentralized finance application that offers the opportunity to earn through staking or swap with different tokens. All of this is held together by Lepricon’s operating token, L3P. Galloway says, “The two are intrinsically linked, but participants on the DeFi side need not be participants of the games, and vice versa.”
At this point, Galloway is keen to introduce two additional components of the Lepricon value proposition. The first is that Lepricon will transition to a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation over time. The plan is for holders of L3P to be able to make suggestions and vote on economic parameters.
The second is that Lepricon will make extensive use of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, as both collectibles and proof of status in its reputation system, which, continuing the Irish theme, they call Shamrock. “Our first NFT is called Genesis, and it represents our highest status level. We will mint just 77 for the first participants that enter into our liquidity pools. Holders of Genesis will have many advantages across the entire Lepricon platform.”
Galloway summarises the Lepricon experience: “At Lepricon, you can play, earn, swap, predict, fund, and collect. All of those activities use L3P, and all of them offer the chance to earn more L3P.”
Asked what he expects will be the biggest challenges for Lepricon, he offers two areas that they are focusing on; experience and technology. “We realize that while we may use Blockchain as an enabling technology, we are not a blockchain company. We are an entertainment company. Most of our community participants will be the gamers coming to play games. Our user experience must match those expectations, and their first playing experience must be quick to start and simple to understand.” He adds, “The success of the gaming platform will entirely drive the value of L3P as a token on the open exchange market.”
When it comes to technology, Galloway’s primary concern is speed. Blockchain networks are well known for their slow transaction speeds, and this is a big headache for a gaming platform that offers instant access and rewards. His answer to this lies in partnerships, the first of which Lepricon announced in December with RioDeFi to utilize their Polkadot parachain, RioChain. He explains, “we will be able to process more than 3000 transactions per second and with substantially reduced transaction fees through RioChain. Our players can jump in, and if they win, jump straight back out with their new L3P.”
Galloway is bullish about the future of gaming and blockchain as the two industries merge. He reminds us of the fact that gamers have used in-game currencies for many years. It is not a giant leap to understand the world of digital money that exists on-chain. He thinks this is at the core of transforming the gaming industry.
“In-game currencies have always been stored on a database and existed only inside the game. They had no other value and could be wiped out, by the publisher, or even in a server crash,” he says. “But, you put that in-game currency on the blockchain, then it has real value. The player now has skin in the game, which transforms his or her relationship with the entire gaming experience.”
He adds, “the future is community-driven and player-owned gaming economies.”
Lepricon will launch in the Spring of 2021. They expect to announce details on their private and public token sales by the end of February. For more information, visit their website at lepricon.io.
