How web3 gives power back to the players with Alex Connolly CTO of Immutable X – CryptoSlateIRL #22

Speaking with CryptoSlate’s Akiba at the recent NFT.London event, CTO of Immutable X, Alex Connolly, spoke about the future of web3 gaming and the power it gives back to the players. Immutable X has taken the web3 industry by storm, growing to a $2.5 billion valuation in just two years.

Past investment rounds included the likes of Tencent and Animoca Brands. The company raised over $200 million as the start-up roared forward over the past few years to become one of the largest companies in the web3 gaming scene.

The Australian-based company was founded in 2018 by Alex Connolly, James Ferguson, and Robbie Ferguson. Connolly, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, studied law and computer science at the University of Sydney before pivoting to focus solely on Immutable X.

In his interview with Akiba, Connolly talked about his history of running trading bots and websites for CSGO items on Steam and his passion for facilitating true digital asset ownership through his work with Immutable.

The young co-founder spoke eloquently about gamers’ issues in the modern world and how the crypto industry can alleviate these problems. The ability to have full ownership over digital assets that are either dropped in-game or bought through microtransactions is something that Connolly views as essential to the ever-expanding digital world.

When Connolly first got into gaming, expensive in-game items such as the infamous Dragonlore AWP skin in CSGO were tradeable only on the centralized Steam Marketplace. However, third-party sites such as OPskin eventually came about using Steam’s in-built trading mechanisms.

However, in 2018 Steam banned such sites from using its platform, thus locking Steam-based skins back into its closed ecosystem. As a result, even digital items and skins in games such as Fortnite, League of Legends, or Dota 2 are either untradable or locked into a centralized marketplace.

Through the use of NFTs and other blockchain technology, web3 gaming gives the players the power to decide what they do with their hard-earned digital assets. In addition, the ability to trade in-game items through peer-to-peer transfers or using any number of marketplaces allows a real-world value to be assigned to any game item.

Immutable X runs its own layer-2 scaling solution for the Ethereum network, which is optimized for gaming, focusing on high scalability and performance while retaining the security of a robust layer-1. The company also facilitates a marketplace where items can be freely traded among gamers in a similar manner to how art and music NFTs are traded on OpenSea.

The interview also touches on other topics critical to the success of web3. For example, complex terminology, poor onboarding journeys, and a generally underwhelming user experience are issues that plague the entirety of the crypto industry, not just gaming.

However, as Connolly notes in the interview, the web3 gaming sector is leading the industry in its approach to solving such problems. Watch the full interview via the link above to hear what Connolly has to say on these and other web3 gaming topics.

Co-Host

Liam 'Akiba' Wright

Senior Editor at CryptoSlate

Also known as "Akiba," Liam is a reporter, editor and podcast producer at CryptoSlate. He believes that decentralized technology has the potential to make widespread positive change.

@akibablade LinkedIn Email Liam

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