Yuriy Navadvorski, Chief Technical Officer of the IQeon project and one of the original developers of the Bankera cryptocurrency exchange shares his vision on the future of competitive gaming in an exclusive interview with BitCourier.
Yuriy Navadvorski, CTO of the IQeon project
BitCourier: What is the story behind IQeon? How did you come up with the idea?
Yuriy Navadvorski: IQeon was founded in 2017. In fact, we’ve merged two popular industries at that time – gaming and blockchain. The idea behind the project, although ambitious, is as simple as possible – we wanted to give players the opportunity to monetize their skills and success in games. Our philosophy we’ve reflected in the very IQeon name: our goal is to contribute to the development of the era of innovation, where intelligence will become the main driver of human progress.
BitCourier: What target user did you have in mind? Were you focused on game development studios, or individual gamers at first? What was historically the first game in your Game catalog?
Yuriy Navadvorski: With the advent of blockchain, we saw the emergence of something completely new – then gaming merged with the industry of decentralized solutions, forming a huge community of crypto enthusiasts who are interested in games. This very audience we are working with.
However, we can’t say that the IQeon project is confined to it. We also engage ordinary gamers and then introduce them to the technology, its potential and capabilities. With the help of IQeon.com, we are also trying to raise the level of crypto literacy among those Internet users who are still skeptical about the digital asset market. Blockchain games can become the crypto entry point for the general population.
As you can see, the audience of the project is diverse. The platform is open to everyone who wants to monetize their success.
BitCourier: What has interest/momentum been like recently? Did COVID-19 affect your business?
Yuriy Navadvorski: The global challenges of 2020 affected all digital platforms. We all saw their boom with the transition to online.
We also didn’t have to think about the project's survival in a tough time, because our gaming platform IQeon.com is already completely connected with the digital sphere. We simply prepared our product and team for the increasing inflow of users.
BitCourier: According to recent studies, 97+% of gamers do not have the ability to monetize their achievements in the gameplay. How do you plan to solve this problem in IQeon?
Yuriy Navadvorski: Indeed, the issue of monetization is very acute today. Fewer and fewer players are willing to spend time and undertake efforts to get nothing.
But this is not the case with our platform: gamers can show excellent results in any of 20 browser games of various genres and receive a reward in the form of an in-game IQN asset, which we integrated into the platform at the beginning of its creation.
On IQeon.com, players compete against each other in real-time mode, forming an IQN prize pool before the match. And the best and brightest win the prize. The mechanics is as simple as possible but very effective at the same time. Moreover, the transparency of the gameplay is ensured by smart contracts. They guarantee the payment of well-deserved prizes as well.
BitCourier: Let's face it – the most popular reason why the general audience is attracted to cryptocurrencies is earning money. How does earning cryptocurrency from gaming by IQeon works? Does a user have to be the champion to earn or is it possible to earn IQN by being just a loyal and active gamer?
Yuriy Navadvorski: Our platform offers opportunities for everyone. In some cases, the player really has to work hard to show the best result and win IQN. For example, we have a competition for the best player of the month, in which the user who takes the first line of the leaderboard with the most wins gets 10 IQN.
But there are also activities where the result is up to luck. For example, we often hold draws for the prize digital assets which are credited to the gaming account.
The most loyal users can get IQN for free in the bonus system, which can be found in the “My IQN” section on our website. To do this, registered users of the platform need to go through simple steps: complete the personal profile on IQeon.com or watch a video presentation about the project.
BitCourier: What is the main use case for IQN tokens today?
Yuriy Navadvorski: IQN is the internal currency of our ecosystem, so it can be used to participate in matches, as well as exchanged on popular trading platforms and subsequently withdrawn into fiat money, like any other digital asset.
BitCourier: What are the biggest challenges facing the gaming industry right now? Do you think we will see more blockchain-based gaming platforms in the near future?
Yuriy Navadvorski: The main scourge of the modern gaming industry is the corporations’ obsession with profits from the final product. Thus we see critical vulnerabilities in games due to a hasty release, frequent cases of cheating, the inability to exchange artifacts in the inter-game space, and much more.
Blockchain in games was the answer to such problems. The reward in the form of tokens encourages gamers to continue playing, and the opportunity to earn money from creating game content attracts developers, artists, and game designers.
So far, there are few games developed according to this scheme, but given the simplicity of the mechanics, transparency, and the possibility of earning money, it can be assumed that the game pool will overgrow with blockchain solutions.
However, it's worth noting that centralized and decentralized games are highly competitive today. World studios are trying to keep up with the trend by introducing incentive systems into their products. So, players can already receive real rewards in DotA, CS: GO, PUBG. But at the same time, the marketplaces of giant developers are shrouded in high commissions. Blockchain makes it possible to conduct P2P artifacts trading, where each of the parties benefits.
BitCourier: What kind of partnerships are you looking for (integrations, solutions, etc.)?
Yuriy Navadvorski: The modern gaming industry is hundreds of millions of gamers around the world, which is why we’ve taken a course to enter into partnerships with gaming and crypto portals in order to introduce more users to the platform and strengthen our influence in a promising niche.
BitCourier: Where can UK-based users purchase IQN tokens today?
Yuriy Navadvorski: Today IQN token is listed on the popular crypto exchanges HitBTC, BitForex, EXMO, and Exrates, where each user from the UK can exchange an asset for another cryptocurrencies or withdraw it to fiat.
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