AERGO: is a gaming chain?

One of the main tasks of the Gaming Chain media project is the Analytics of technologies used to create cryptocurrency games. Naturally, the most important component in the technical aspect of such games is a blockchain in which they are created and function.

At the moment there is no network that would definitely be the best for cryptocurrency games. Despite the fact that there is the clear leader - Ethereum, in which the vast majority of crypto-games are created, it is hard to call this blockchain a suitable place for them. Ethereum has become home to crypto kitties and their followers for the reason that there are practically no alternatives (this opinion is shared by the founder of the Studio 0xGames - Sergey Kopov, an interview with whom can be read here).

In this article we will try to understand if the AERGO blockchain can become a platform for new crypto-games, naturally, offering a more efficient operating environment than Ethereum in terms of gaming (we will leave other areas of application behind the brackets).

History of AERGO

Before delving into the technical features of the future AERGO blockchain, let's briefly denote what the origins of this project.

The AERGO Blockchain is developed on the basis of the third generation blockchain COINSTACK by the company Blocko which is a leading blockchain technology developer with offices in the US, South Korea and Hong Kong.

According to the website and statements of Phil Zamani (Chairman of the AERGO FOUNDATION Board  and the Blocko COO), the COINSTACK blockchain is used by companies such as Samsung, Microsoft Azure, Cisco, IBM, Hyundai-Kia Motors, Amazon and many others. It is also stated that the number of active users per day reaches 2 million.

In essence, the AERGO blockchain is a logical continuation of existing and used technologies, and its development will be fully supported by Blocko.

Gaming blockchain requirements

Let us afford one more important digression before moving on to the question of the applicability of AERGO as a game blockchain. We want to outline our vision of what features a blockchain should have to be very suitable for creating crypto-games and players:

• First of all, the perfect blockchain for gaming should be damn fast. New blocks must be generated at least once per second.
• No transaction fees or very, very cheap transaction fees. Players have to spend cryptocurrency on almost every action in the game. And the need to pay for the transaction itself makes crypto games completely unattractive in the eyes of the mass players. The ideal in this situation is the subscription payment, when the player pays on monthly basis for access to the platform's features. This economic model, by the way, is scheduled for implementation in the project Chromapolis.

• Supports the sidechains. This is very important for the performance of the blockchain game. And by the way, some games already create sidechain to Ethereum to get rid of one of the main drawbacks of the network - congestion. For example, Warriors.
• Part of operations should be private. There are so many actions, the essence of which should not be known to other players until a certain moment. Otherwise, they can choose a winning response based on your actions. For example, if you are in Nachomen and you are striking first, the enemy will find out what is exactly your move, thanks to the openness of the blockchain, and will choose an action that will counter you. To avoid game of chicken, when you both wait for the last moment before sending your action to the network, such actions must be encrypted. But a lot of actions that can (and probably should) remain public: for example, buying an item or character.
• An ability to modify a code. In fact, it is not that clear. On the one hand, one of the main advantages of blockchain games is that the developer can not affect the already implemented mechanics of the game, in fact, after the release to the main network, the game ceases to belong to the developer, who is limited in changes only through pre - set parameters. However, in reality, any software, and especially a game, is very difficult to immediately make such that it does not require changes and additions. Otherwise, how to fix bugs, adjust the balance of the game, add new mechanics, etc.?

Key features of AERGO

So, we have determined what qualities a blockchain should have in order to be the most suitable for creating games. Now, let's run through the stack of technologies planned for implementation in AERGO:

1. Very fast and efficient blockchain protocol;
2. new SQL-based language;
3. engine for creating smart contracts;
4. advanced API capabilities integrated for IT ;
5. intuitive development tools.

The first point covers one of the requirements for the blockchain. The presence of smart contracts, of course, is also mandatory, but their implementation is in fact an axiom of blockchain development.

Programming languages

Unlike Ethereum, which has its own programming language for smart contracts - Solidity, in Aergo will be used popular classic languages like C++, Golang, JavaScript, Python, etc.It will significantly reduce the threshold for entering the market of game studios that have not previously created games on a blockchain and do not have programmers with knowledge of Solidity.

However, some blockchain developers believe that smart contracts should be written in languages that are created specifically for the blockchain. In response to this call, AERGO will still use a specially created programming language based on the SQL query language. This adds flexibility and stability to the AERGO blockchain in dapp development.

The platform for creating smart contracts in the AERGO Chain will also include an Ethereum virtual machine, which will greatly facilitate the process of transferring existing games to the new blockchain!

Performance

Developers will be able to create their own sidechains in the AERGO blockchain. Earlier, we have already said that this in itself is necessary for blockchain games. And it's not only the speed that provides such a solution, but a sidechain also solve the problem of the transaction costs. The developer can deploy the sidechain and bear all the costs of its support. So, we can say that the blockchain AERGO has already gained 3 points out of 5 on the scale of requirements for the game blockchain.

Whitepaper of the AERGO project says that the use of a smart contract platform based on new SQL will allow the AERGO Chain blockchain Protocol to process millions of transactions per second. If this is so, then it will be possible to create a very dynamic game on the AERGO blockchain!

Performance should also be provided by DPoS consensus algorithm (like in EOS), parallelism of transactions and block creation.

Changeability

In AERGO Chain repositories will be implemented, similar to GitHub, they will provide joint development of dapps, version control and rights management.

Most likely, this is not exactly what we had in mind when we said that games should be modifiable. The closest thing to the idea of code changeability in this sense is the ideas inherent in Nebulas, although it is not implemented at the moment.

However, repositories greatly simplify the process of creating dApp and, in particular, crypto games. Therefore, we still give half a point for the ability to modify the source code.

Is AERGO a privacy?

Unfortunately, the AERGO blockchain does not imply a zero-knowledge environment. That is, to hide our actions in the game will not work if they are recorded in a public network.

However, AERGO has the ability to create private blockchains, access to which is governed by the developers. Most likely, it will be possible to configure it so that the player can send and see their transactions, interact with smart contracts, but would not be able to see the transactions of other players for some time.

Of course, this approach has its drawbacks, including reduced confidence in a game and opens up opportunities for manipulation. But formally the problem of privacy is solved. So we'll add up another half of a point.

Conclusion

In total, the ideas put in the AERGO gain 4 points out of 5, as an ideal place for decentralized games. A very good result! We hope that the team of AERGO will succeed. If Ethereum continues to exist in its current form, then AERGO can easily take away not only the corporate sector from Ethereum, but also the gaming industry, especially since it will not be difficult to transfer projects from Ethereum to AERGO Chain.

And we can only wait and the expectation will be short-lived: the AERGO team promises to release main-net in the first quarter of 2019.