What does Loom bring to Blockchain gaming?

Today almost all Zombie stories put these green creatures to the ranks of villains. And what if today, I told you that a certain family of zombies allowed you to have fun and to learn how to develop your own smart contract on Ethereum?

This is what the team of the Loom Network proposed since early 2018 and we wanted to retrace a little history of this actor who managed to facilitate the adoption of games using NFT!

Presentation of Basechain

So, what is the Loom Network exactly?

According to the Collins dictionary, Loom = “A loom is a machine that is used for weaving thread into cloth.” There are others, but you will understand this choice later.

More technically, we can talk about an overlay of the Ethereum blockchain. Imagine a network of multiple dependent blockchains, set up to create decentralized applications (Dapp) without impacting the flow of the main network.

In order to avoid the scalability problems caused by excessive requests from the applications, Loom refers to software called DappChain Generator. This generator has a very simple function: create a “sidechain” for each project.

To secure the network, the team chose to use a DPoS system. this means that you’ll have to stake and vote for delegates to secure the Loom Network blockchain. And you are rewarded for that.

Do not hesitate to take a look at the sources if you are looking for more detailed explanations of the technical terms used.

Sources:

• Scalability of Loom

The projects from the team

At the very beginning, this project started with an educational project to facilitate the writing of DApp on Ethereum using Solidity: Cryptozombies. The goal is very simple, build an army of zombies! Each course guides you step by step and it will eventually become possible to face the zombies of other players. If you are a developer or have the feeling to be one of them, do not hesitate to give it a try on their site!

At the same time, a Kickstarter was launched in order to develop Zombies Battleground, a Trading Card Game that is now available on mobile and PC. The cards you earn in the game can be sold on the Marketplace!

This game, entirely created by the team, runs at 100% on the Loom blockchain!

Finally, the project Delegate Call is a social network where anyone interacting with the community is rewarded. The goal was to demonstrate that it was possible to create something other than games with this blockchain.

But the team was not going to stop in such a good way! The next step in their journey was to use the DeFI (Decentralized FInance) and implement the Loom on other blockchains: Tron, EOS, Maker, Binance Chain, Libra and even… Bitcoin.

The goal is to develop a solution to create a link between each of these blockchains: this can be used for example to exchange an ERC-20 token in BNB, a TRC-20 in BTC …

The other projects

Of course, there are external projects that have chosen this solution for the many actions that can clog the main blockchain : 

• Plasma Bear: A “Collectible” game, the goal is to improve his bears to send them on an adventure
• Neon District: An adventure game / RPG with stunning graphics 
• Battle Racers : A racing game deployed in Decentraland
• Axie Infinity : A “Collectible” game, the goal is to send his monsters in an arena to make them gain level. A whole Land system is under construction
• Cryptowars : A management/strategy game, the goal is to create an army and improve its base quickly to win the tournament
• Coin & Steel : An action / RPG game, the goal is to evolve on areas according to your level. The project is currently stopped due to a lack of funding.
• Sorare : a football simulation game
• Shipchain: a supply chain monitoring service
• Hey: a social network based on the blockchain

You will notice that there are mostly games in this list, and they all have one thing in common: all actions are stored on the Loom Network. Once you are identified with your wallet, the Ethereum blockchain is no longer used when you send your troops or retrieve a weapon in the game.

Inconvenience of the Loom Network

The ambitions of the Loom Network have attracted a growing number of serious projects but to be sure that it works, it was necessary to carry out some crash tests… and it’s the project of Experimental that took care of it. Since the beginning of 2019, many tournaments have been organized by the Experimental team, for fun or with prices of up to $3750 in DAI and other cryptocurrencies!

It was not without trouble: the first tournaments were so chaotic because of the number of units created at the same time that it was impossible to perform actions unless you constantly refresh the page. It was such a terrible inconvenience so that the team even preferred to laugh!

We just announced we're giving an NFT badge to all users playing the "it's definitely gonna break" #CryptoWars tournament. Everyone will know you helped us balance and fix this awesome strategy game! More info via email after tourney ends. #BlockchainGaming

— Experimental (@e11io) January 9, 2019

Hundreds of players creating hundreds or even thousands of units at the same time blocking the network, it remind us of what happened with CryptoKitties! Except that the difference is that the Ethereum blockchain has not been impacted by this massive activity.

One of the big drawbacks for us today is not being able to know the number of transactions performed for this project. Indeed, we are always curious about the raw data of NFT projects based on the blockchain but a 100% transparent way to explore the Loom Network does not exist (yet).

What is the role of the Loom Network?

As its name suggests, the role of the Loom Network is to create links between all the actors of the sector. By offering the necessary tools to develop Dapps on sidechains, they bring complementary elements to any project wanting to use the blockchain.

Their ambition to create a decentralized network continues using its course and we must salute the originality of the projects that develop on it. The example of Cryptowars showed us one of the limits of the Loom Network but stress tests are essential during technological innovations.

We believe that the use of overlay in projects using Non-Fungible Token will continue to evolve and although there are other projects offering solutions“Layer 2”, we can say that Loom has managed to position itself as a pioneer and leader of the field!

Sources:

• Loom and Battle Racer
• Loom arrival’s announcement
• Staking of Loom : Plasmachain