Openfort: Opening New Horizons in Web3 Gaming
Openfort: Opening New Horizons in Web3 Gaming
Openfort's Answer to the Mass Adoption of Web3 Games
TL;DR
Web3 games have the potential to democratize blockchain but face challenges in gaining mass adoption. To overcome this, there’s a need to innovate user experience and break into the mainstream market.
Openfort addresses these challenges by enhancing user experience and reducing technical barriers with specialized infrastructure and wallet solutions for Web3 games. This approach streamlines development and boosts user adoption.
Recent innovations like account abstraction have made Web3 gaming more viable. The focus now is on engaging users through the fun of the game rather than token incentives, with Openfort leading this shift.
1. Web3 Gaming Market Struggles to Achieve Mass Adoption
Web3 gaming has long been regarded as a pivotal area for democratizing blockchain technology. However, contrary to initial expectations, this sector remains in its early stages and faces significant challenges in breaking into the mainstream market. Many Web3 games, including notable titles such as CryptoKitties and Axie Infinity, have struggled to gain momentum and achieve widespread adoption. Moreover, these games often experience a rapid decline in user interest, leading them to eventually fade away from the market.
This can be attributed to the "chasm" phenomenon, a well-known occurrence in the tech industry where innovative products struggle to gain traction in the mainstream market after initially capturing the interest of early adopters. In the Web3 gaming sector, this chasm is particularly pronounced. Many games experience a brief surge in popularity, only to face a steep decline after that. Few succeed in securing a sustainable growth trajectory.
The root cause of this phenomenon lies in the Web3 gaming industry's reliance on "token incentive" based user acquisition methods. This approach tends to attract participants who are more focused on consumption and short-term gains. As a result, the user base for Web3 games is often unstable, with users quickly entering and exiting the market rather than forming a strong foundation in the early stages. This instability makes it difficult for Web3 games to build a solid growth foundation, leading to a higher likelihood of failure.
2. Strategies to Break Through the Chasm
The strategy for the Web3 gaming industry to successfully bridge the gap and enter the mainstream market is becoming increasingly clear. The critical factor lies in moving beyond the initial token-incentivized user base and shifting focus toward engaging the broader general public. This transition requires the industry to collectively recognize the importance of appealing to a broader audience and to actively develop strategies that engage and attract this demographic.
The primary objective of this approach is to cultivate a stable user base from the outset, one that values the intrinsic enjoyment of the game rather than being driven solely by short-term rewards. This strategy is particularly crucial given the sheer size and potential of the market. Presently, there are approximately 500 million crypto-native users, compared to the 3.4 billion users of traditional Web2 games. This significant disparity underscores the importance for the Web3 gaming industry to broaden its appeal to the general public. Without tapping into this vast user base, it will be challenging for the industry to achieve the scale necessary to advance to the next level.
However, attracting the general public to Web3 gaming presents considerable challenges, particularly in two key areas.
2.1. Complexity of the User Experience
One of the primary challenges facing Web3 games is the complexity of the user experience, which arises from the distinctive technical nature of these games and the fragmented ecosystem in which they operate. To engage with Web3 games, users are often required to have a basic understanding of blockchain technology, which already creates a significant barrier to entry.
For instance, participating in NFT games typically involves navigating a multi-step process that includes creating a Web3 wallet, converting fiat currency into cryptocurrency, and purchasing NFTs. This can be a daunting and unfamiliar experience for the average user accustomed to the straightforward processes of traditional gaming. Additionally, the fragmentation within the blockchain ecosystem exacerbates this complexity. Each blockchain network operates on its own unique technology and set of rules, leading to limited interoperability between different networks.
2.2. Lack of Diversity in Games
Another significant challenge confronting the Web3 gaming market is the lack of diversity in games. This limits the options available to the general public and diminishes the overall appeal of the Web3 gaming ecosystem. This issue primarily arises from the technical challenges faced by developers. The complexity involved in integrating blockchain technology into games serves as a substantial barrier to entry, deterring many developers and consequently leading to a limited variety of Web3 games.
This lack of diversity is shown in numbers. In 2023, approximately 14,000 new games were released on Steam, a global game distribution platform, compared to just 720 games across the entire Web3 gaming market. This vast disparity underscores the limited diversity within the Web3 gaming landscape, highlighting a critical area that must be addressed to broaden the ecosystem's appeal and attract a wider audience.
3. Openfort: The Game-Changer of the Web3 Gaming Industry
To help the Web3 gaming industry overcome the chasm and enter the mainstream market, lowering technical barriers for both users and developers is essential. Simplifying the user journey and offering developers a familiar Web2-based development environment are key. Openfort addresses these challenges by offering thoughtful infrastructure services for the web3 gaming market, with a strong focus on wallet solutions, positioning itself to drive industry growth.
Their technology is notable for its versatility, extending beyond web3 games to a wide array of sectors. For instance, it can be effectively utilized in single app and gaming platforms, where Openfort offers a secure and user-friendly Embedded Wallet solution. This solution delivers a seamless user onboarding. The Embedded Wallets ensure a secure environment by storing private keys directly within the client, isolated from external threats. This approach confines the wallet's functionality to the app, thereby enhancing security even further.
Next, it can be applied to a broader range of app chains or L2/L3 chains. For this purpose, Openfort offers a Unified Wallet solution via the Ecosystem SDK. This solution is specifically optimized for environments where interoperability between multiple apps within the same ecosystem is crucial. The Unified Wallet allows for the creation and recreation of private keys at the subdomain level within an ecosystem, enhancing interoperability across different apps. This ensures that users experience a consistent and seamless interaction as they move between various applications.
3.1. Openfort Identity
More than just a wallet solution, Openfort offers a comprehensive service known as Openfort Identity. This service organizes on-chain identities into three core layers—Auth, Signer, and Account—providing a flexible, modular structure that developers can easily utilize. With a ‘plug-and-play’ approach, Openfort allows developers to assemble these components like Lego blocks, offering greater flexibility and enabling them to optimize the development process to meet the unique requirements of each project. This modularity not only enhances developer choice but also streamlines the integration of blockchain technology, making it more accessible and efficient.
As illustrated in the diagram above, the Openfort Identity can be utilized in various ways depending on the structure of your Web3 game and its target audience. At its most basic level, developers can use the plug-and-play approach to combine elements such as browser extension wallets, mobile wallets, and smart accounts, creating an optimized development environment tailored to the specific needs of each project.
On a deeper level, developers have a wide array of options to customize their setup further. The auth layer, which is responsible for verifying a user's identity, offers a diverse range of choices. These range from familiar options like email and social logins to widely-used third-party authentication services like Firebase, or even the developer’s own authentication server.
The signer layer in Openfort supports a variety of methods for authorizing on-chain transactions. Beyond existing options like browser extension wallets and mobile wallets such as Metamask, Openfort's abstracted accounts, known as ‘Embedded Wallets,’ offer enhanced convenience. By leveraging existing Web2 signature schemes, these wallets eliminate the need for users to remember a 24-word mnemonic seed phrase, simplifying the user experience.
At the account layer, Openfort's implementation of account abstraction is particularly noteworthy. By leveraging the ERC-4337 account abstraction standard, Openfort provides a flexible environment that allows users to engage with Web3 games in a manner similar to traditional Web2 games. This setup enables Web3 games to utilize gas sponsorships and session keys, allowing for seamless in-game transactions without the need for continuous signatures or verification. Furthermore, Openfort is actively exploring the implementation of new smart account technologies, including ERC-6551, the token-bound account standard, and ERC-7579, the modular smart account standard. These advancements are expected to offer the Web3 gaming ecosystem more diverse and efficient options, further enhancing the overall user experience.
3.2. Openfort Transaction Cloud
The Transaction Cloud is a backend server specifically designed to facilitate the development of scalable applications within an on-chain environment. These servers act as a robust interface for interacting with smart contracts, primarily through smart accounts or developer accounts. They are engineered for high performance, capable of handling up to 500 write transactions per second, making them exceptionally well-suited for the gaming industry.
What makes these services particularly attractive is the wide range of use cases supported by the APIs provided through the transaction cloud. For instance, they streamline the implementation of various functionalities such as airdrops, NFT issuance, native token swaps, cross-chain transactions, and gas payments using ERC-20 tokens like USDC.
Additionally, they enhance usability by offering developer-friendly tools such as webhooks and real-time analytics for monitoring specific activities or changes within wallets. This not only simplifies backend tasks for developers when building Web3 games but also makes real-time operations and game metadata management more efficient and effective.
3.3. Openfort’s next frontier: The Ecosystem SDK
The Ecosystem SDK addresses the limitations embedded wallet suffer. Embedded wallets are great on a per-app basis, but limit one of the web3’s most powerful features - interoperability. While embedded wallets excel on a per-app basis, they often restrict users to isolated ecosystems. The Ecosystem SDK brings the convenience of having a unified identity - similar to platforms like Steam and Epic Games - to the Web3 environment.
At the heart of the Ecosystem SDK is the concept of a unified wallet - an ecosystem wallet that can be used across multiple games and applications under the same subdomain. This approach eliminates the need for separate wallets for each game or app, serving users across an entire ecosystem and facilitating a seamless cross-app experience.
The Ecosystem SDK offers a development environment characterized by exceptional autonomy and flexibility. As a blockchain-agnostic solution, it can be deployed on any EVM-compatible chain, enabling developers to implement ‘unified wallet’ services on their network of choice without dependency on a specific blockchain infrastructure provider. Additionally, this technology functions as a white-label solution, allowing for optimization to meet the unique requirements of each ecosystem.
A critical aspect of the ecosystem product is the Ecosystem Dashboard - the central hub. This whitelabel offering from Openfort enables ecosystem teams to manage their partners efficiently, create and implement gas policies, feature specific assets or authentication methods, and monitor and analyze ecosystem performance.
The last piece of it is the integration with Wagmi and RainbowKit (widely-used wallet libraries). Developers can easily add the unified wallet branding into other apps, leveraging easier distribution and connectivity across wallet connectors.
Among the ecosystem's offerings, the standout feature is its exceptional flexibility and autonomy. Unlike most solutions that are tied to specific infrastructures or providers, the Ecosystem SDK emphasizes interoperability and enhances the user experience. As the number of rollups and chains continues to grow, interest in these technologies is anticipated to increase.
4. What Makes Openfort Attractive?
Although numerous protocols utilize account abstraction to enhance UI/UX for end users, Openfort distinguishes itself by offering more than just a technical solution. It continuously evolves and refines its offerings to deliver practical solutions tailored to the diverse challenges that projects encounter in varying environments.
First, Openfort leverages account abstraction technology to offer a range of valuable features tailored to Web3 environments. A notable feature is the 'Pay for gas' service, which enables developers to create an environment where users can easily engage with Web3 games without the need to pay for gas fees. Additionally, Openfort offers the flexibility to cover gas fees using a variety of ERC-20 tokens, not just Ethereum, further enhancing the adaptability and user-friendliness of the platform.
Openfort has also introduced a "one-click transaction" feature that simplifies complex, multi-step processes into a single click. This functionality is exemplified in Openfort's demo game, Lost Dungeon. When a user purchases an NFT item, they only need to click the 'buy' button, which handles payment, gas fees, signing, and other necessary steps in one seamless action. This innovation not only significantly enhances the user experience but also provides game developers with greater flexibility and creative opportunities in game design.
Second, Openfort enhances projects' autonomy and security with its Openfort Shield solution. This open-source tool allows projects to self-host their private key recovery mechanisms, alleviating the burden of implementing complex recovery processes. By enabling projects to manage their own recovery solutions, Openfort ensures that user keys are handled securely without tying projects to a specific private key provider. Additionally, with most of Openfort’s solutions being open source, developers gain a flexible development environment, enabling them to customize and optimize the tools for their specific needs.
Finally, Openfort stands out for its extensive support of various programming languages. Unlike most Web3 wallets that focus solely on JavaScript-based development environments, Openfort also supports Unity and Unreal Engine. This broad language support enables developers to integrate Web3 technologies within familiar environments, thereby reducing the barrier to entry and enhancing development efficiency.
Thanks to these competitive advantages, Openfort has made significant strides over the past two years. Currently, more than 10 games are live on the Openfort platform, with over 25 additional games in the pipeline for onboarding. The company is also seeing promising outcomes from its collaborations with Beam, a gaming-specific blockchain, and GFAL, a multi-game studio. In May 2023, Openfort secured nearly $3 million in seed funding, further underscoring the market's confidence in its vision and potential.
5. Closing Thoughts
In recent years, the Web3 development landscape has undergone a significant transformation with the rise of innovative technologies. Notably, advancements such as account abstraction, modular accounts, and chain abstraction are pioneering new approaches in game development and enhancing the user experience.
At the heart of this technological evolution lies a user-centric approach. Web3 games are now able to transcend simple token incentives, focusing instead on the inherent enjoyment of the game itself. Users can fully engage with these games without needing to understand the complexities of blockchain technology.
Openfort is at the forefront of this technological revolution, with its team of engineers creating a scalable and reliable Web3 gaming infrastructure. By fostering a developer-friendly ethos and offering an open-source, flexible development environment, Openfort is positioning itself as a key facilitator in driving the Web3 gaming industry toward mainstream adoption.
These efforts are not just transforming the gaming industry; their focus on UI/UX improvements for both users and developers is also helping popularize blockchain technology and expand the Web3 ecosystem as a whole. Openfort's ongoing initiatives and the broader development trajectory of the Web3 gaming industry are certainly worth close attention.
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This report was partially funded by Openfort. It was independently produced by our researchers using credible sources. The findings, recommendations, and opinions are based on information available at publication time and may change without notice. We disclaim liability for any losses from using this report or its contents and do not warrant its accuracy or completeness. The information may differ from others' views. This report is for informational purposes only and is not legal, business, investment, or tax advice. References to securities or digital assets are for illustration only, not investment advice or offers. This material is not intended for investors.
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