According to industry insiders, the blockchain space has been locked in a race to the bottom for years. What started as a promising new way to take the tech space to new heights has, in many instances, devolved into a competition to win market share, with innovation and advancement taking a back seat to marketing and expansion.
For example, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has long maintained that the future of blockchain will be multi-chain, not cross-chain, due to security issues, sovereignty concerns, and a lack of cohesiveness and integration across different chains and protocols. At the same time, others have maintained that blockchain will move toward a more cross-chain reality, with no single chain maintaining dominance in any single field.
Unfortunately, many growing industries, including Web3 gaming, have suffered due to this lack of cohesiveness and interoperability. As a result, we have seen the rise of competing chains and platforms, each trying to establish itself as the next Google or Amazon within a specific niche. While this may serve to pad corporate bottom lines in the short run, it is detrimental to the long-term viability of the budding Web3 gaming space.
The GR1D Hub
Toward that end, 1KIN Labs is building the GR1D, a modular gaming network engineered specifically to power the multi-chain, mass-market Web3 gaming ecosystem of the future. The product suite connects gamers with the world’s best community-focused titles, providing exclusive access to in-game content, rewards, digital asset management tools, and more – all with a single, secure, unified, and globally accepted sign-on.
With a unified discovery and management hub for discovering and using exclusive content across multiple blockchain networks and platforms, along with an innovative subscription service available through Amazon, the GR1D is pushing the envelope and is helping Web3 gaming make meaningful strides forward.
How it Works
The GR1D Network is the modular Layer-2 (L2) gaming-focused blockchain network that runs GR1D TERM1NAL – a comprehensive hub that helps gamers discover, collect, and manage exclusive rewards across the ever-expanding Web3 multiverse. This all-in-one hub simplifies user experiences across the highly fragmented Web3 gaming landscape and, perhaps more importantly, brings about never-before-seen levels of interoperability and features across titles and offerings running on competing networks and blockchains.
A closed beta test of the system with over 25,000 participants proved to be exceptionally successful, and the public release will continue to build on the beta’s momentum by offering players access to an ever-expanding library of successful Web3 titles across multiple networks, from Solana and Avalanche to Polygon and more. The network has already signed over 100 games and studios and allows players to collect and trade a host of collectibles across global hits including Blocklords, My Angry Yakuza Girlfriend, Aurory, Aavegotchi, Legends of Venari, and more. The initial release will be accessible to all users, providing them with an inside peek at the system’s capabilities, with access to richer features and functionalities available by creating a user account.
GR1D TERM1NAL Credit Packs on Amazon
As it was just announced, GR1D TERM1NAL Credit Packs are now available on Amazon, via a digital storefront. These credit packs unlock exclusive content, early access opportunities and discounts. This can be thought of as a Web3 equivalent to Xbox Game Pass or Amazon Prime Gaming; it allows users to choose unique sets of in-game assets that they like and access other exclusive content every month. Such access through a digital storefront on Amazon is a first of its kind for Web3 gaming subscription services on the global platform. In this way, GR1D TERM1NAL seamlessly connects Web3 games and other features to Amazon’s massive global user base and an effective on-ramp for gamers looking to engage with the Web3 world.
Jack O’Neill, the founder of 1KIN Labs, said that GR1D TERM1NAL is a major step toward building a more cohesive and user-friendly Web3 gaming ecosystem, with one access point that bridges the many gaps that exist in Web3 gaming and blockchain networks.
The end goal, according to Mr. O’Neill, is to bring the ease and convenience that gamers have become accustomed to on traditional, Web2 platforms such as Xbox Game Pass to the blockchain gaming space, making Web3 more accessible and enjoyable for everyone in the process.
By building performant yet modular underlying technology needed to make the system run and abstracting it away from the user, GR1D Network is setting itself up to become a leading services provider in the Web3 gaming landscape. With unified and enriched experiences made possible via GR1D TERM1NAL, distribution on Amazon, and the creation of value via seamless and cost-effective interaction between gamers, assets, titles, and platforms, GR1D is righting many longstanding industry wrongs – a development that will be to the sound of cheering from the world’s Web3 gaming userbase.
