“Crypto Baseball” is a Blockchain-based game focusing on collectibles. Later this summer, Major League Baseball digital collectibles are coming to the Ethereum blockchain.
Major League Baseball (MLB), in association with Lucid Sight, released a new game for its fans which runs using blockchain technology. MLB made the announcement on July 13th.
The game is called “Crypto Baseball” and it is similar to CryptoKitties, which consists of buying, selling and raising virtual kittens, using cryptocurrencies like Ethereum.
CryptoKitties has been extremely popular among crypto fanatics. Users have spent $25 million worth of Ethereum on CryptoKitties to date, according to a report from Yahoo Finance.
“We were already talking to Lucid Sight around the time that CryptoKitties first came out. We talked a long time ago about Bitcoin and whether we should accept it as payment for MLB.tv and some of our other products, and we opted not to,”
said Kenny Gersh, MLB’s executive VP of Gaming and New Business Venture.
In order to play this decentralized game (or dApp) users must buy Ethereum and transfer it to MetaMask, one of the most popular purses of the Ethereum browser. After that, they can exchange digital avatars linked to specific moments in recent games. They could win prizes and collect stickers. On a blockchain, each digital item (or contract) is verified and tamper-proof. Ethereum carries out “smart contracts” which are automated agreements for an exchange of value.
“These will be things based on different events, those moments in sports that happen and we want to remember and value for a long time. We want to offer the feeling that the fanatic was there, even only digitally,”
said Gersh.
MLB has seen attendance at live games decrease this season. The professional baseball organization hopes that this digital game could attract a wider audience. Lucid Sight hopes to have an easy mobile app ready shortly after launch.
“We are not building this just for tech savvy people. I do think people will open up Coinbase accounts, buy Ethereum, and transfer it to MetaMask, in order to collect these things they’ll enjoy so much,”
said Lucid Sight’s co-founder, Octavio Herrera. Lucid Sight has experience building monetized games for big brands built on emerging technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, and of course, blockchain.
Later this summer, Major League Baseball digital collectibles are coming to the Ethereum Blockchain. An official website for the game is now live at MLBCryptoBaseball.com, and the site says that iOS and Android versions are coming soon.
The first version of “Crypto Baseball” will require knowledge of buying Ethereum and using MetaMask. However, subsequent versions will hopefully streamline this process making it more accessible to fans of the sport.
by Maria Victoria Rodríguez
