I'm not too keen on Jagex getting in on the cryptocurrency market. The market is saturated with a plethora of such currencies and I doubt the average RS player would make any real profit off of a hypothetical Jagex cryptocurrency.
Now, let's say for the sake of argument that Jagex absolutely will be making their own cryptocurrency. To what extent would Jagex be backing it and how involved would they be with it? If they're not involved enough it could turn into another so-called "shytecoin" and we already have enough of those floating around. Too much involvement and it could become worthless because it is too closely tied to Jagex's future prospects as a company. Cryptocurrencies exist because they promise to decentralize the way our money is handled. I don't think many non-RS player investors would be willing to invest in it if they feel Jagex isn't doing a good job.
Then we also have the issue of how this cryptocurrency will be produced and what are the approved methods of doing so. Would we just passively accumulate them via our graphics cards or CPUs while playing the game? What do you think is going to happen if somebody develops an ASIC to mine the hell out of it at the expense of longtime players? ASICs are infamous for the way they influence any given cryptocurrency because they outperform other types of crypto mining rigs by a huge margin. In a roundabout way, an RS player with an ASIC would be the closest thing we'd get to a horrific pay-2-win scenario. (Just look at how expensive the most profitable ASICs are.)
Now, if Jagex's currency consolidation plans involves a well thought out launch of Runescape's own crypto I'd be onboard. Perhaps the Venezuelan playerbase could get much needed relief given how bad the situation in their country is. It'd be pretty sweet if I could even trade that crypto for things unrelated to Runescape itself. But for now I'd rather see Jagex launch what they promised to give us this year.
26-Feb-2021 23:35:39
