By Alex Mizrahi, CTO of ChromaWay
Play-to-earn gaming (P2E) has changed the lives of millions of people around the world — and has the potential to change millions more. The scale of its success has proved something of a double-edged sword, however. A growing number of critics are coming to question how truly inclusive and equitable the blockchain gaming ecosystem really is, with some warning its growth may be fuelled by exploitative labor.
These concerns are indeed valid – a lack of regulation and effective enforcement has led to ambiguity regarding child labor laws, and left impoverished people who lost their jobs during the pandemic reliant on unregulated systems that may not be acting in their best interests.
Part of the problem is the major socioeconomic disconnect between those who create play-and-earn gaming ecosystems and those who play them. A similar divide between users and developers in the wider decentralized finance (DeFi) world was noted in 2019 by Primitive Crypto founder Dovey Wan, who wrote on Twitter: “So far, 90% of the teams I’ve met who are building DeFi for the unbanked never met a single unbanked [person] in their entire life.”
While it’s true that robust regulations may one day be introduced to safeguard P2E users from unethical labor practices, effective laws and enforcement mechanisms could take years to develop. Therefore, we need solutions that will work in the short-term – solutions that bridge the gaps between the people who build play-and-earn ecosystems and the communities that …
Full story available on Benzinga.com