There’s a new company on the block(chain) finally building something gamers have wanted for a long time: to get paid for playing video games. BUFF is the latest fintech project turning that vision into a reality with a new loyalty platform that “rewards gamers simply for playing.” The new concept focuses on the frustrating parts of the gaming industry that many gamers are already dealing with.

Right now, there’s no real way to be compensated for your gaming achievements unless you’re a professional competitive player or YouTuber. Like with professional sports, most of those gaming are not professional players. Additionally, any achievements earned in-game are limited to that specific ecosystem. BUFF believes that active gamers should be rewarded for their gaming loyalty and efforts, even if split amongst different games.

What Does the BUFF Platform Do?

The goal of the platform is to not only reward gamers for their efforts but to facilitate a larger gaming community too. Users earn BUFF coins by playing games in the network and performing well. Whether playing a game with different achievements, or competing against other players in an online match, users earn coins based on their skill, time spent playing, and wins. Effectively, the platform offers gamers the chance to “mine while you play” by earning coins as you game. There’s actually no “mining” involved with BUFF coins since the network is utilizing Delegated-Proof-of-Stake (DPoS), but playing is exactly how users earn coins.

Besides earning BUFF coins by gaming and winning, the network is bringing together a multitude of games to create one seamless ecosystem. One of the pain points in the gaming industry for players is game-specific ecosystems. Currencies, points, and achievements earned in one game often cannot transfer over to another game (unless it’s owned by the same company or another iteration in a franchise). Because of that, gamers often find themselves with an excess of rewards in one game that they’ve dedicated time to but have no options beyond the game for using the rewards. BUFF is fixing that by connecting games from all over the industry to create a unified economy and ecosystem. BUFF coins earned from playing one game can be used in an entirely different game if it’s on the BUFF network.

Lastly, the BUFF platform offers users an all-in-one economy to buy, sell, and trade items from all the games in the network. There’s no longer a need to seek out untrustworthy CS:GO skin selling/gambling websites because BUFF’s platform includes a secure marketplace for all those on the platform. Not only is the marketplace a much safer alternative, but gamers can use the coins they’ve earned with BUFF to purchase from others on the marketplace. The marketplace is a win-win for everyone because players are still transacting on a trusted platform and can use what they’ve already earned, rather than entering in any credit card information to earn a new skin or item for their favorite game. Who doesn’t want to earn cryptocurrencies while they game?

How Does BUFF Work?

Another important aspect of the new system is how the BUFF platform works. Since the blockchain is using Delegated-Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) as the consensus mechanism, player rewards are not dependent on the hardware of the machine they play on. Players are “mining” in name only when playing since they’re earning coins as they complete achievements and win games. Because the network is not relying on Proof-of-Work (PoW), players don’t need an expensive rig with thousands of dollars spent on graphics cards to earn BUFF coins.

All gamers must do to earn BUFF coins is run the BUFF software on their gaming platform of choice while they play. BUFF has teamed up with Overwolf, a powerful company that makes new features and data tracking easy for games using overlays. The software runs while you play without being process-intensive or detracting from your gaming experience as a player. While the software is running, it will record various achievements, stats, and your progress for different rewards.

The BUFF Difference

Like a frequent flyer program for the entire gaming industry, BUFF is bringing once-impossible aspirations to the market. Unlike other programs before it, BUFF combines gamers from across the industry together, on one large network. Because of BUFF’s partnership with Overwolf, the platform will have immediate access to an active monthly user base of over 15 million gamers across a variety of platforms and games.  Whether you play League of Legends, Minecraft, or Call of Duty, gamers from all over will be able to interact, play, earn, and trade under one roof.

By implementing blockchain technology and leveraging the agile advantages of DPoS for their platform, BUFF is offering the first real solution to previous loyalty program problems of the past. Rob Dyer, who is an adviser with the BUFF team as well as a gaming consultant and former executive at Tapjoy, Zynga, and Sony told VentureBeat that:

“We have tried to do loyalty programs in the past, but they didn’t work because of fraud and disruption in the game economies. When Elay [CEO of BUFF] proposed this, I thought it could work because of the blockchain. It should really help with retention and engagement, which is one of the biggest problems with games today.”