Abstract
We explore the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), such as blockchains, in mobile gaming, focusing on ecosystem expansion and diversification, customer attraction and retention, exploitation of context sensitive and personalized advertisements, and improved monetization of in-game assets. We evaluate the cost and transaction delay of DLTs in a location-based mobile game ecosystem using two types of blockchains (permissioned and permissionless or public), based on defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Our evaluation shows the advantages of using both types of blockchains as well as interledger technologies that combine them. Permissioned blockchains enable high performance, e.g., in terms of throughput and delay, and low cost, while permissionless (public) blockchains, through their transparency, immutability, and openness, support trust and facilitate interactions among unrelated parties. Finally, we show that the combination of IoT devices and DLTs in mobile gaming offers new business opportunities and enables innovative business models for both traditional mobile gaming companies and other participants in the ecosystem, e.g., game players, cafes, malls, and similar establishments, advertising companies, and independent programmers.
Highlights
Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), and blockchains in particular, constitute a significant baseline platform technology for many applications in various domains, as they have many benefits and intriguing properties
We explore different system architectures, combining various types of ledgers, in order to determine a suitable architecture for blockchain-based games, and investigate the relative trade-offs in combining public and private ledger technologies
We present and evaluate various aspects of a context-aware mobile game that has been developed for the Secure Open Federation for Internet Everywhere (SOFIE) project and utilizes both Internet of Things (IoT) devices and blockchains
Summary
Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), and blockchains in particular, constitute a significant baseline platform technology for many applications in various domains, as they have many benefits and intriguing properties. We investigate exploiting the IoT and DLTs in designing an expanding mobile gaming platform that can support an open mobile gaming ecosystem with improved in-game features (e.g., in-game assets), transparent transactions among the various entities (e.g., players, game developers, and advertisers), cross-game and game company assets and value transfers, and player interactions with the real world; We define Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for IoT-based, DLT-supported mobile gaming platforms; We illustrate the advantages of permissioned and permissionless blockchains in the mobile gaming context and demonstrate the benefits of interledger technology in combining both types of blockchains, creating hybrid environments; We evaluate a specific IoT and hybrid DLT mobile gaming platform we designed through a combination of emulation of gaming functions and actual implementations of DLT functionality (e.g., smart contracts) with different combinations of an Ethereum public blockchain [15], a private instance of Ethereum, and a Hyperledger Fabric permissioned blockchain [17].
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