by in
Crypto games is slowly becoming the center of attention in the crypto space but what is crypto gaming and how do play-to-earn crypto games work?
So you’ve heard about Axie Infinity, Cryptoblades, and Plants vs Undead or crypto projects where you can play to earn money. You want to dip your toes into this new era of the crypto space but don’t know where to begin. If this is your first time entering crypto then it may seem overwhelming and complicated. On the other hand, you may already have experience in the space thanks to trading. Although, you haven’t really explored what lies beyond.
In that case we’re here to help. We’ll show you the ropes plus all the things you need to do in order to enter the wild and highly lucrative world of crypto gaming. Read on to know how to enter Crypto Games.
Looking for Crypto Games to Enter
Now that you’ve decided to enter the wonderful world of crypto gaming, the next step is to look for a project that suits your interests. Of course, if you’ve already found one or want to jump in on existing ones read past this section.
Right, so how do you look for projects that may pique your interest? We use the following to look up already trending projects as well as up and coming ones:
- Play to Earn website – The Play to Earn website is a great repository of existing and under development crypto games projects. What’s great about their website is that they focus entirely on gaming. They have easy to use filters for you to play with as well as a “New” section which features recently listed projects.
- Dapp Radar – Dapp Radar is another great source of crypto projects. However, unlike Play to Earn they not only focus on just crypto game projects but the entire crypto space. Yet what we want to know here is gaming. So, head on over to their “Rankings” tab and hit the “Games” filter to check out which ones are trending. You can also see their recently listed projects by ticking their “New” filter button.
- Twitter – As wild as it may seem “crypto twitter”, as people in the space call it, is one of the best sources of crypto games. People tend to make a lot of noise retweeting and tagging their friends and followers when a big project is about to launch. It can also be projects they are just really excited about. Some could very well be hidden gems. In any case, use that search bar to your hearts content and pump it (pun intended) with hashtags as well as keywords to find what you’re looking for.
- Crypto Communities – This is probably one of the best sources of crypto games and even knowledge. Join Telegram groups, Facebook Groups, Facebook Group Chats, Discord servers and any other social media platform where people can openly and actively discuss what’s happening in the crypto space. Not only will you find trending or up and coming projects, you’ll also learn a ton from people’s insights.
Checking the Crypto Games Blockchain and Choosing a Crypto Wallet
Checking your Crypto Games Blockchain
Now that you have chosen a project on to the next step. What we need do next is to identify the blockchain network that houses it. It will be very hard to fully explain blockchains. So, you may refer to better sources on the internet, google is your friend, or from websites such as Binance Academy. However, in simpler terms, a blockchain is a decentralized public ledger, where each and every transaction is recorded, verified, and can easily be viewed or traced by anyone. Don’t panic, while transactions are open to be viewed by anyone they won’t be able to identify the wallet holder.
Then, it’s decentralized because no one entity has control over its management. Meaning the community or token holders have the power. You can then treat blockchain networks like countries. You can compare the local cuisines or tourist spots of a country to the crypto projects of a blockchain network. Additionally, blockchains also have their own currency, which you’ll spend mainly on transactions. Much like how the UK uses Euro and the US uses Dollars or how your own country has its own currency. As an example the Ethereum blockchain uses ETH as its currency, while the Binance Smart Chain uses BNB.
The quickest way to identify a crypto game’s network is by visiting their website and/or social media platforms. If it’s not there, then another method is to look for its whitepaper, basically a document detailing everything you need to know about the project. Dapp Radar and Play To Earn also shows the network of crypto games they’ve listed. If worse comes to worse and you still can’t find your project’s blockchain then your best bet is to join their social media channels and ask.
Research, research, research!
As one of the mantras in the crypto space and crypto games, always do extensive research on a project you wish to enter. Nothing will save you from a scam except yourself, so arm yourself with the necessary information. Take a deep dive into the project you want to enter, check the developers, their social media presence, their partners, etc. Once you have decided for yourself that it is legit and worth putting your money into, then it’s time to invest. We’ll talk more about our strategies in researching projects in a separate article. For now, carry on reading.
Choosing a Crypto Wallet
Once you’ve identified which blockchain houses your crypto games and done your research, the next thing we have to do is to find a compatible crypto wallet. Crypto wallets are generally browser extensions if you’re on desktop or mobile apps on mobile. These wallets will contain any and all tokens you will ever use on its supported blockchain. A wallet can support just one or multiple blockchains. The best example to this is Metamask and Trustwallet, which has support for most of the major blockchains, you need only to switch between them. More on those later though.
The best way to determine which wallet to use for your blockchain is to visit the main site of your blockchain. They will normally feature wallets that support their chain there. Tou can also browse through the “how to start” instructions of your project. These instructions are typically on their whitepaper or website. In most cases, they will indicate what wallets support their game. Alternatively, you can press on a “connect wallet” button found on a project’s website or browser app. This will open a pop-up of the project’s supported wallets.
Setting up your Crypto Wallet
Now that you have a wallet it’s time to set it up. Upon installing a wallet, you will receive a “seed phrase”. This combination of words are the wallet’s main password. It’s what you’ll need when migrating or recovering said wallet. A seed phrase is different from the password you set-up as a login on your browser or mobile. That password is simply for logging-in to the wallet on the device used. Meaning a wallet can have a different password on your browser and on your mobile. However, the contents, meaning your tokens, will remain the same on both devices.
After set-up you’ll notice a wallet address (the one with the many numbers and letters), this is what you’ll use to send and receive tokens from different entities. Wallets also support multiple accounts, so you can have more than one wallet address. It’s usually smart to create a burner wallet and a main wallet. Your burner will be the ones you can use to enter projects, putting in only minimal amounts of tokens. Your main one will be the wallet housing your token bags, keep this disconnected from websites.
Fair warning, make sure to store your seed phrase offline as anyone with access to it will be able to open your wallet and move your assets. We recommend offline storage to prevent online hacks. Also never ever ever ever and we mean EVER input your seed phrase on any website. Unless you are migrating or recovering your wallet on a different device. Any person or entity that asks for your seed phrase is definitely a scammer. Any website that requires you to enter a seed phrase is most definitely a scam. So please take care of your seed phrase.
Now, if your wallet is one that supports multiple blockchains it will require some navigation. If it’s a dedicated wallet for that blockchain then operation is pretty straightforward, move on to the next section.
We’ll use Metamask here as our example for a wallet with multi-chain support. Since that’s the one we are most familiar with. Metamask is connected to the Ethereum Mainnet on default, so we’re going to have to add the blockchain our project is in to our network list. This is done through the following steps:
- Click on the networks button on Metamask, located on the top center of the browser extension.
- Click on “Custom RPC”.
- Enter the details of the network you wish to add, google is your friend. For example, here’s the details on how to add the Binance Smart Chain to Metamask.
- You will automatically connect to this network.
- If you wish to change networks, just head on over to the networks tab and click on your desired network.
That’s it, quick, simple, and easy right? For other wallets, we recommend you read a detailed explanation on how they work. Apologies, Metamask was our go to, perhaps in another article we’ll explain how to use other wallets.
Purchasing and withdrawing the Token of your Blockchain
Centralized Exchanges
Once you have your wallet all set-up, the next thing you’ll need is the token of your blockchain. Remember when we mentioned that blockchains have their own currency? That’s what we’ll have to grab. Now, what you’ll have to do here is head on over to a Centralized Exchange (CEX) that supports the token of your blockchain. For example, Binance is a centralized exchange that supports most of the major tokens. Such as Ether, BNB, Solana, ADA, and many others. Centralized Exchanges requires customers to conduct KYCs or Know Your Customer registrations.
This is a form of protection for financial institutions. Saving them from fraud, corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing. As the name suggests, this requires the customer to verify their identity by providing documents and pictures. It takes around an hour to about a day for Central Exchanges to process KYC. Do take note of your country’s laws regarding cryptocurrencies. Some Central Exchanges, such as Binance, do not allow KYCs from individuals who’s country has restrictions on cryptocurrency.
Here’s a list of well-know centralized exchanges, each has their own way of how to purchase tokens. The websites will guide you accordingly, so please do read their instructions:
Purchasing the Token
Right, for this section we’ll be using Binance as an example, since that’s the CEX we are most familiar with. Apologies for those of you who can’t access Binance, we’ll look into creating guides for other exchanges. Again, as a gentle reminder, you will not be able to transfer and purchase tokens reliably until you finish KYC with Binance. If you have, then the next step is buying the token that you need. Binance has a few options:
- Buying directly using your Card, Bank, and other supported online payments.
- Buying through a 3rd Party merchant also known as Peer-to-Peer trading (P2P).
P2P is a lot more flexible allowing multiple payment options. However, please be advised to trade only with verified merchants who have high completion rates. Then again, do purchase with caution, Binance is not responsible for any money you lose from P2P trades.
Withdrawing the Token
Once you purchase your desired token it will reflect on your CEX wallet. For Binance, if you purchased directly it will show under your “Fiat & Spot” wallet. If you purchased using P2P, it will show under your “Funding” wallet. However, you need to transfer tokens on your “Funding” wallet to your “Fiat & Spot”. To do so, just click the transfer button beside your token.
Once you have your tokens in your “Fiat & Spot” wallet you can then proceed to withdraw. Withdrawing means sending the tokens from your CEX wallet to your crypto wallet. Remember that wallet address you have? That’s what we’ll use to send your token. Now, for this step be sure to double check the network you’ll be sending your token to. For example, if we’re sending BNB to our wallet, we’ll select the Binance Smart Chain Network. Often times, Binance will automatically detect your network for you when sending tokens once you paste your address. After this, you’ll now proceed to withdraw your token. Binance will prompt multiple messages to you asking for permission to send.
They’ll also ask a multitude of authentications such as mobile phone and email codes. Once you submit all of this you’ve passed the point of no return. If you made withdrawal error this way, sad to say, your tokens are lost. So again, please, make sure to double check. One strategy we use is to send a minimal amount to the wallet address. Then check if our token balance increased, if it did then we are sure we got the correct wallet address.
Gas Fees
Make sure to always keep a few extra tokens in your wallet and not just exchange the exact amount you’ll use to buy into a project. Remember how blockchains record every transaction? That’s the reason why you have to pay transaction fee. This transaction fee is also known as “Gas Fee‘. Now gas fees vary depending on the network and you pay using that network’s currency. For example, you pay gas fees in Ethereum using ETH and gas fees in the Binance Smart Chain using BNB.
These can be as low as just a few cents to as high as a few hundred dollars. Just a friendly reminder, all actions on a blockchain will require gas fees. This includes swapping tokens, claiming rewards, buying characters, buying items, etc. Anything you do that the blockchain records will require gas. Keep that in mind so it won’t shock you every time there is a gas prompt.
Obtaining your Crypto Games Token
Token Contract Address
Alright, now that you have the token of your blockchain the next thing we do is grabbing your project’s token. Your first step is to look for the token’s address. You must be very very careful when doing this, especially if a project is fresh as a lot of scam addresses will pop out here and there. Your best bet is to check official channels, such as the project’s website, whitepaper, and social media accounts. Copy this address then add it to your wallet. If you’re using Metamask, it will easily be visible once you open the wallet.
Swapping using Decentralized Exchanges
Next up is swapping for your project’s token. For this we’re now going to use a Decentralized Exchange or DEX. These work differently from CEXs as they are also projects living inside the blockchain. Their main purpose is to provide a platform for users to swap a token for another token. You can easily identify most DEXs by their favorite moniker, adding “swap” at the end of their name. Some examples of DEXs are Uniswap, Pancakeswap, Apeswap, and Quickswap. Each blockchain has different DEXs but all of them work in a similar manner.
Now that you have selected a DEX the next thing we have to do is copy the contract address of your project’s token. Most of the time a DEX won’t list the token of a project they are not official partners with. In this case a prompt will appear warning you that you are importing a token. Again, make sure you got the right contract address before proceeding to swap.
Since this is probably your first time using the services of your DEX, you must first enable their contract for swapping. This will cost you some gas, after which you can proceed to swap the tokens. Again, this procedure will cost gas. As we’ve said earlier, everything the blockchain records requires gas. So again, make sure you have extra tokens for gas fees. After the swap you’re all set to use the tokens to dive into your crypto gaming project, enjoy!
Final Reminders
Before we let you all go on your own as you adventure into the crypto wild, here are a few final reminders:
- Always do your own research – We’ll repeat ourselves, do your own research when you want to enter crypto games. Never, and again we mean never, let yourself get swept by the hype train. Charging in blindly just because a project is talked about consistently by tons of people will definitely lose you money. Take the time to dive deep into a project and get to know everything you need to know about it.
- Invest only on what you can afford to lose – Please, for the love of all that is good, only invest money you can afford to lose. Do not take out money from your retirement fund, your wedding fund, or your children’s college fund. If you cannot afford to lose the money you’ll use, then just don’t enter a project. Even the most promising game from a respected dev can crash and burn in an instant. So, if you are not prepared to lose that dough, just keep it tucked in.
- Diversify your Portfolio – Never go all in on just one project. It’s always good to diversify your Crypto portfolio. Try your best to join multiple good stable earning games. At least in the event that one sleeps or enters a bump in the road, you still have other projects to earn from.
- Crypto is Volatile – Prepare yourself for a truly wild ride. Crypto prices can change in a split second, it can either drastically fly or come crashing down. So, it’s best to always keep an eye on your investments constantly.
- Know when to take profit – If you are happy with your profits, take them. It’s always better to have profits than waiting and hoping for the token’s price to pump. If it does, well and good you can still earn from your game. If it falls, at least you already have your money’s worth.
And that is it from us, goodluck with your crypto ventures and please do take care of your money. As a last parting note, pump it Jonathan!
