Cryptocurrency and Decentralized Business Models (Focus: Game Design)

If the cryptocurrencies continue to gain momentum, there is the potential for decentralization occurring in many different industries. One such example is the gaming industry. First, let's review what I mentioned in an earlier post about an apartment that was started as an initial coin offering. I might get some details wrong, as I am still developing my ideas.

First, those wishing to work and live in the apartment building could invest, then those in the immediate community, then the city, then the state, then the nation, then the world, until the funding goal was met. People who live there "pay rent" by buying the coin of that particular apartment building, however, they have to pay a fee set by votes based on % of coin owned, and that would cover things like the workers (who could be paid in dollars or the apartment coin), and utilities (which could also choose to be paid in coin or USD).

In addition, the people closest to the apartment building, such as those living there, get to invest first - and the value of the coin might go up simply as more and more investors are announced each round from expanding regions. They would not get more coins, just more value per coin. In addition to this, the people living there would earn whatever coins were left over in their rent after fees to represent earning a stake in the company by living there.

The more the locals were able to cover the needed expenses to build and maintain their apartment building, the more control they would have over their own living situation. Investors and renters and workers could chat on a server like Discord, and negotiate things like wages and fees. The investors would gain money by the value of the apartment complex going up, and it would increase if its reputation was good, which is based on things like maintenance, crime, parking, quality of the units -

In addition, anyone involved with the apartment could start a crowdfunding campaign to do something like installing a pool. People could donate as much as they wished to that fund using any currency they like, and then when the pool finished, everyone would enjoy the added value of their apartment complex.

Think of a model similar to this, but with a game designer. Someone starts an initial coin offering with a billion coins for a new RPG. They kickstart it, but this is Kickstarter on crack because everyone involved gets to own a portion of the company. After money has been made, the ico owners get to vote on their method of generating coins during the development phase to pay the developers.

For example, if $10 million was made in the ICO, each coin would be worth a penny. The next step is workers - who are going to work for this game company? That's easy, just mint new coins to pay for the game developers and hire them and set rates based on votes (which would be based on % share held).

Discussions of this nature would not need a board room, or a CEO, or even a building. They could happen on a Discord server.

So, as more coins are being minted to pay the developers, the value of the coins go down, but that is because their value is being transmuted into cultural value - of the game content. If the game content is good enough, the game will go on to sell copies.

Game Designers could be hired as independent contractors and advertise themselves and their resumes on social media platforms.

When the game starts selling, the money is poured directly into everyone's coins as dividends. The workers, who were paid minimum wage in the game's coin at market value, would also see dividends on their work, as would early fans.

Take this a step further - what if, instead of being paid by the hour, people were paid for the content and quality of their work? For example, they could get paid so much for designing a map, or a character's avatar. They could be required to make minimum wage for an hour's work, but work from home and set their own time.

When the game is released, people who buy the game simply add USD into the account of the coin without getting coins in return, inflating its value. It would continue to go up for some time until its value starts decreasing due to everyone trying to sell off their holdings to move onto the next hot thing.

Developers in the video game industry could jump from project to project based on weighing what's hot or not vs. how attached they are to the vision of their current project. They could even see an opportunity to vastly improve a game in some area, apply to work there to get paid in coins of that game or even invest in the ICO. Then they could work there, vastly improve the quality of the game and its performance, and make bank when the price of a coin doubles or triples! Just because of their reputation and particular work style and experience!

See, this is a fair redistribution of wealth. People are getting paid what they are worth. When you have an elite class that makes its money for its administrative duties, they get paid MUCH more than they are worth because they are abusing power to milk money for themselves.

However, take out the centralization, and the ruling class will suffocate. It will happen, maybe over the next 100 years. If the ruling class is not needed because we could administer ourselves, they would lose their power unless they tried to stop the decentralization process (this could lead to civil unrest).

Feel free to point out anything I may have missed or miscalculated. Open for discussion.

a reply to: darkbake

See, this is a fair redistribution of wealth. People are getting paid what they are worth. When you have an elite class that makes its money for its administrative duties, they get paid MUCH more than they are worth because they are abusing power to milk money for themselves. However, take out the centralization, and the ruling class will suffocate. It will happen, maybe over the next 100 years. If the ruling class is not needed because we could administer ourselves, they would lose their power unless they tried to stop the decentralization process (this could lead to civil unrest).

I see this imploding. The whole thing is turning into one massive pile of #, a mess no one will be able to clean up after it's said and done.

a reply to: Blender5L

The financial crisis of 2008 gives a lot of credibility to the idea that the corporations especially might result in a situation where workers are only getting paid a fraction of what they are worth - if what they are worth is how much value they add to the company. This is because the rest of the profits go to those in control.

What I am trying to do is make the "stockholders" people who live in the apartments they rent, or people who work for the particular coin. Each coin would represent a cultural idea, for example, a video game title, or an apartment building. This means that the same person making decisions for worker conditions and customer satisfaction are the same people making decisions about spending or saving money. That makes things much fairer.

I suppose a team of administrators could work together to buy a 51% stake in a coin in order to try to administer the rest of the group by force, but I honestly think that would result in a poorer quality product.

I'm thinking of a company structure where discussions happen on Discord between workers, customers, and investors and people have a weighted say based on their coin ownership %.

However, you could also have certain policies that allow customers or residents some basic rights (maybe following city, state, and federal law) and I would prefer if the "investors" did not get new coins, for example, investors in an apartment building would not get any coins from the renters' rent, that would be reserved for legitimate fees and maintenance and paying workers and the like. The investor could buy more coins, however, or increase the value of the property through good governance. In the end, the investor might sell off shares (which would be bought by the renter automatically as he pays his rent) as the property matures, and then not be involved anymore once it is "old news" and move on to the next development.

This would still leave behind a developed apartment building, with a community that eventually earned the right to own it despite being renters.

a reply to: darkbake

I don't know, alls I know is that were in desperate need for a reset. How that goes down, couldn't say at this point but it's not going to be nice for anyone.

My browsers are slogging right now, slower than a 286, it took five minutes for this to load. I hope that bug didn't get my pc.

a reply to: Blender5L

I think that eventually, everything will have a coin associated with it, even each of us.

I think at some point, people will realize that there was not a "bitcoin bubble" but that the dollar was the bubble. I think at some point, it could become deadly obvious that the dollar is going to decrease in value as more people switch to digital currencies to hold their assets.

This will force the financial elite to make a decision: will they support and integrate the digital currencies? This would mean the eventual decline of banks and corporations. Will they try to make a stand? The fact that there is so much potential for the digital currency, even just the fact that it has a fast transaction time and is simpler to use.

Add to this the fact that you get to control your money and what you invest in instead of the bank. There will be no bank, or no bankers, anymore! And, investing in altcoins would be easier and faster for an investor than using the regular stock market.

Plus, they would see higher returns! If everything was decided on Discord chat through voting based on a percentage of coins per vote, there would be no need to pay someone to "be in charge" like a CEO or board of directors.

I am mapping out one extreme here, I'm sure we will end up with something in-between.

I can't see this being possible. I agree with the above responder. This would go bust before it even started. None of this is how 'cryptocurrency' works.

a reply to: StallionDuck

I think the feds will want to regulate icos and altcoins. What does everyone else think? Will there be a fed coin?

Reading through this I've got another idea, what about the possibility of rent-less apartment living? Let's say the apartment's cryptocurrency is APTcoin. In order to live in one of these apartments, a tenant needs to stake their APTcoin into the APT platform. This gives them voter's rights and responsibilities within the APT community. Outside investors maybe can invest in these apartments, but in this system I do believe the tenants combined should have a majority stake in order to prevent the volatility caused by rampant crypto speculation.

So basically what I'm getting at is tenants make a one time payment to purchase APTcoins to rent an apartment. They are now responsible not only for maintaining their apartment but also improving the community. If they are successful in improving the community and the coin increases in value, they will actually make money from the next tenant who comes in.

OK, so this will likely improve the community aspect of apartment living, one of the huge disappointments with today's apartments. It will have incredibly high demand due to the novel concept of rent-less living, and possibly even making money just by living there. But the big question you're probably asking is: who manages the apartments? Who maintains the blockchain? How do they get paid? Where do earnings come from?

I believe if these questions were easy to answer, these apartments would already exist
But I feel like this is certainly do-able.