Surviving and Thriving in Minecraft's Latest Virtual Bitcoin Economy

Gaming has long been seen as a potential use case environment for bitcoin and other digital currencies, given that the online entertainment sector is an established testing ground for new payment mechanisms and models.

Incorporating the Xapo API and the game's broad capabilities for developers, the BitQuest team has created an environment in which bitcoin functions as its base currency in an organic, easy-to-understand way.

Gonzáles told CoinDesk that ultimately, the goal is to keep the in-game currency truly decentralized in the gaming environment by keeping the door open to new and interesting ways to generate bitcoin natively.

While still in beta, he says BitQuest is proving that bitcoin has a role to play in virtual gaming ecosystems.

"Any popular game that works with money like Candy Crush, Diablo, League of Legends works like this: You give them real money and they give you"game money" to spend within the game, and soon you're locked-in the game economy.

We chose to use the reverse model so we can have a totally open game economy truly owned by the players and not a game company.

The game's endlessly-expanding landscape and sandbox-style gameplay has made it a hit with child and adult players worldwide and ultimately led to a buyout of Minecraft maker Mojang Games by Microsoft for $2.5 billion.

BitQuest players can earn bitcoin through the accumulation of emeralds, one of the many resources that one can collect through their adventures.

"Bitcoin is the best candidate to be the official currency of virtual worlds and BitQuest, making it beyond gambling, using it to fuel virtual societies for fun and connecting people together, is a leap forward in the direction we want to see Bitcoin in gaming."

Shops can be created and programmed by players in the game, and while sparsely populated at the time of this writing, the marketplace could become the home of a bit-based economy if more players get involved.