Web3 Gaming Takes Center Stage at GeckoCon 2024 – Yurika.R

GeckoCon’s 2024 event happened on 11th November in Bangkok at True Icon Hall, ICONSIAM. This was the first-ever in-person conference hosted by CoinGecko. The event, which invited more than 30 speakers to cover a wide range of topics in web3 Gaming Space and explored the latest industry trends also showed live gameplay demos and immersed audiences in interactive showcases. In addition to the in-person event, everything attendees witnessed at the event could also be experienced online. 

Extensive Coverage of web3 Games

GeckoCon 2024 was themed “Web3 Games Unleashed,” and a lot of things in the event covered everything related to web3 games. Some of the most important things that happened at GeckoCon:

• VerseOS: A blockchain-agnostic web3 ecosystem designed by Verse Labs, is an interface and an operating system to run all things related to crypto gaming. As everything runs in one spot, users can play all crypto web3 games and install all apps. 
   
• Keynote Speeches: Renowned speakers and industry experts like Alena Shmalko of TON Foundation, Beryl Li of Yield Guild Games, and John Linden of Mythical Games were among those who went on stage to discuss tokenomics, in-game economies, and blockchain scalability. 

In addition to these speakers, Michael Wagner (Star Atlas) had an interesting take on how people will get into web3 without the support or interest in web2 gaming. It was clear from the discussion on the stage that as web2’s influence diminishes, users will switch to web3 gaming. 

Wagner highlighted that “We’re not going to need web 2 influence, we’re going to see people come into web3 and discover games as a result of that and especially when people are successful with whatever endeavor they have in crypto. It might be trading. That’s how a lot of people get into it: speculative trading on different assets, maybe memes, but when somebody experiences a 1,000x on a meme coin, and they turned, you know, $1,000 into a million dollar, they are looking at reinvesting that capital into more crypto assets.” 

In other words, success in one of the endeavors creates a cycle that takes a user deeper into the web3 space, leading to better adoption and gaming experiences.

Highlights of the Keynote Presentation

Zhong Yang Chan delivered the keynote presentation focusing on the pivotal trends in the web3 space. Talking about the evolution of the gaming sector, Mr. Chan also emphasized the role of decentralized technologies and NFTs in reshaping user experiences and ownership models in gaming.

A noteworthy statement by the Head of Research at CoinGecko was, “People often question whether Web3 gaming is dead. Yet, looking at the on-chain data, we’re seeing numbers that surpass 2021’s peak.”

According to Zhong, the number of active players has climbed up to respectable levels. During the speech, the keynote speaker shared that new and anticipated titles are coming back to the web3 space that the community has longed for. Looking at active wallet statistics in 2024, five million active web3 players were at peak values. 

In addition to this, Zhong emphasized the fact that early web3 games were largely pet-themed or collection-based. But now there are different kinds of web3 games, ranging from Telegram mini-games to shooters and RPGs. 

Bright Minds Coming Together on a Single Platform

GeckoCon had an interesting lineup of speakers for the 2024 event. The discussions among the speaker panels revolved around some of the biggest obstacles in the crypto industry. 

Tyler Durden from Animoca Brands discussed how Mocaverse is able to acquire new users and ensure high quality without compromising on user quality. Mocaverse is using an Account, Identity, and Reputation stack management system to ensure only high-quality users come on board the Moca Network. 

Discussions were also held on how Southeast Asia is gaining prominence in the web3 gaming industry. Even during the sharp decline in the cryptocurrency market, a significant volume of traffic for web3 gaming came from Southeast Asia. 

Since this was the first time CoinGecko took things forward with their maiden in-person event, it’s expected from the founders to host more such events and bring together the brightest and most successful minds in crypto and web3 gaming onto a single platform. 

As the web3 gaming space continues to evolve, don’t miss the opportunity to celebrate its pioneers at the PlayToEarn Blockchain Game Awards 2024, with voting open from December 5th to 19th and a prize pool exceeding $2M.