As a rule, adaptation doesn’t occur until its reality is obvious.

And usually, the last barrier to fall is the intimidation it’s fomented in some form or another.

It’s now inevitable that the blockchain is going to be a major force for the rest of this century, and the sooner we as a society become acclimated to it, the better.

Right.

Fortunately, there’s an army out there who’s up to the task, and they’re doing it in the name of fun:

Video online gaming is only around 20 years old, and it’s grown into a $138billion industry with no ceiling in sight.

In America alone, the latest available statistics show an impressive 64% of the population plays video games of some sort. The average male gamer is currently 33 years old, and the average female is 37.

Clearly, this is a huge sampling of society, enough to infer that when the spark of change is lit, it’ll ignite far and wide.

via GIPHY

For the greater good, an exciting development occurred when video games and their players began monetizing themselves within the action.

Back when battleground games like Diablo and pastoral games like Second Life were all the rage, players created a secondary market for their virtual goods — eg- advanced weapons earned as a bonus — where they would sell them to other gamers for hard currency.

This practice made headlines when a Second Life player actually became a real-life millionaire by buying and selling the game’s virtual properties.

However, these transactions had glitches such as …

• Having to rely on the game’s developers to effect the exchange of value, which wasn’t always a high priority for the developer,
• The virtual exchange needing a separate exchange in the real world, where
• There was often no way of knowing if both sides would honor the exchange, increasing the risk of loss for one player or the other, or sometimes both.

Blockchain can now solve those issues when it’s the medium of exchange, because its transactions are:

• transparent,
• secure, and
• decentralized.

Gamers thus jumped all over this technology, which meant that at long last, the blockchain was taking center stage without being linked to Bitcoin:

Here’s an example of a pastoral game that’s incorporated the blockchain into its simulated life environment.

It’s called MegaCryptoPolis, and it utilizes Ethereum‘s popular ERC721 token for transactions:

Secondary markets are already forming for fun and profit, and some are simply using the game to orient themselves for what they clearly see is the future of documentation and exchange in the real world.

Of course, due in part to the bulk of data generated by gamers and their activities, blockchain has already established a beachhead on terra firma.

Swarm is an innovative application that brings more crowdsourcing options and investment opportunities to the mainstream in a more efficient and accountable way.

Its objective is based on the belief that you shouldn’t have to be a kajillionaire to invest in higher-end commodities like the sizzling sector of art:

Back in 1997, singer David Bowie went to Wall Street and raised $55million in bonds based on the future revenues of his catalog. It was an institutional, big-money play.

Now, thanks to the blockchain, Globaltalent has introduced a variation on the theme for the sporting world:

A number of countries — and even banks — have experimented with the blockchain in relation to digital tokens and transactions. Now, one has decided to go all-in on blockchain technology itself.

Malta is promoting itself as Blockchain Island:

It must be strongly noted, though, that blockchain technology is still very much a work in progress.

Scalability is the main issue, and one technique being researched is sharding. That’s a method of segmentation that allows smaller bits of data to be transmitted more expeditiously.

Private blockchains are another alternative, and they’re growing in number. One of the more advanced is Exonum:

What is it that makes gamers the ultimate beta testers for society’s future?

Basically, they’re a proactive hive of community activity.

• They’re quick to share tactics and strategies to exchange goods and services so that their mutual gaming experience is more enjoyable,
• They understand and embrace tokenization, and
• They’re well ahead of the curve in living more of their lives online.

The early adapters who become accustomed to the blockchain’s ways will be the authority figures to whom others will ultimately turn for advice and suggestions.

As the technology continues to refine and grow — of this, there is absolutely no doubt — their status will constantly gain in value, and not just that of the super-geeks, either. Extended groups and communities will seek out those who can simply explain from experience what to do and how to cope with the blockchain.

This will present an ideal opportunity for e-commerce entrepreneurs to expand their reach, because they’ll be a logical reference choice by definition.

So, pay close attention to what the gamers are doing and appreciate them for driving the future in your direction.