What are BitCrystals?

Given its ICO was way back in the summer of 2015, BitCrystals (BCY) can lay claim to be one of the first blockchain gaming tokens.

Created by Swiss developer EverdreamSoft, BitCrystals’ initial use was within the studio’s debut release, mobile game Spells of Genesis, via its Book of Orbs exchange wallet.

BitCrystals can lay claim to be one of the first blockchain gaming tokens

Indeed, a recent reorganisation has seen the BitCrystals team taking ownership of the Book of Orbs wallet and its underlying blockchain.

As well as enabling EverdreamSoft to focus on game development – its second game is due to be announced soon – this allows the BitCrystals team to combine platform development with the commercial deployment of Book of Orbs for thirdparty games.

In fact, games such as Force of Will and Age of Rust already use Book of Orbs as their marketplace.

What’s next?

In terms of future development for the platform, key to this will be the move to issue ORBs, (which are games’ tokenized assets held in Book of Orbs), onto blockchains including Ethereum.

For example, EverdreamSoft’s new browser game will use ERC-20 tokens for its in-game assets but ORBs from existing games such as Force of Will are also compatible.

Eventually, through the use of atomic swaps and sidechains, it’s planned ORBs will be tradable across multiple blockchains.

BCY remains the currency underpinning all this activity, however, both in terms of what players use to buy and sell ORBs from whichever game, as well as the currency thirdparty developers use to publish on the BitCrystals platform.

Given its longevity, BCY also provides a good model of how the utility of a game-based token is reflected in its value.

Although BCY’s peak USD price of $1.73 in January 2018 was clearly driven by Bitcoin, its relative price against BTC has been less volatile, suggesting a level of utility beyond speculation.