Since December, video game-related currencies across the board have exploded in price and volume. Video games represent an industry prime for blockchain integration, and initial penetration is poised to take place as early as this year.

Gaming cryptocurrencies are growing on an industry-wide scale to new all-time highs every day. EnjinCoin (ENJ) has grown from under US$0.03 to over US$0.30. GameCredits (GAME) and its sister coin, MobileGO (MGO) have both more than tripled during this time frame, with GameCredits setting a new all-time high above US$6.00. Unikoin Gold (UKG) appreciated from under US$0.20 to an all-time high above US$2.00. Although of questionable legitimacy and value, Experience Points (XP) pumped over 300x to its peak price of US$0.00525 from US$0.000016. Even smaller projects like BitCrystals, Ammo Reloaded, PlayerCoin, and RarePepeParty have performed well.

Beyond price appreciation, the sentiment that “2018 is the year of game coins” is backed by huge developments slated for projects set to be released throughout the year, with the first major ones launching as early as next month. This view is further perpetuated by experienced traders, and even by blockchain leader Erik Voorhees, who tweeted about game coins earlier this month.

Despite all this progress, an even bigger potential for video game coins lies in a development separate from, and superior to, these existing video game currencies.

Introducing an immersive video gaming blockchain ecosystem

Chimaera (CHI), without a doubt, is the single most significant video game cryptocurrency development that will see mass adoption this year. Unlike existing game coins, which serve primarily as asset storage, Chimaera provides a complete gaming environment providing all the tools necessary for gamers and developers worldwide to connect to one another directly on top of the blockchain.

Chimaera is a custom blockchain derived from the team’s prototype project, Huntercoin (HUC), which strived to create a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game directly on the blockchain. Huntercoin has proved successful, and this technology is being expanded with Chimaera as an all-inclusive platform for online gaming.

With Chimaera, games are published directly on top of the blockchain. Through this method, each game is automatically administered and maintained, eliminating upkeep costs for the developer and drastically easing the burden of moderation. In this environment, assets and avatars are also stored and exchanged directly on the blockchain. As such, players have real and proven ownership of their virtual goods, which translates to a liquid nature of the virtual assets of gamers, something never currently experienced in the video gaming world.

Chimaera is currently in the pre-sale stage while the team finishes development of its custom blockchain. A public sale is slated to begin in February, with the main ICO taking place afterward. Funds from the ICO will be used to hire experienced game developers to create games directly on the Chimaera protocol. The team has stated the hard cap will likely be US$50 million, although the project only requires additional funding of US$3.5 million.