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Crypto security can be a pain, but a few safeguards will go a long way
Crypto security can be a pain, but a few safeguards will go a long way
Securing your cryptocurrency might seem like a daunting task. For the uninitiated, the learning curve includes hot and cold wallets, online exchanges and private keys.
Digital security experts warn that you shouldn't skimp on your studies, particularly of the hardware and software wallets used to store data that proves ownership of cryptocurrencies. Unlike a stolen credit card number, which can be an inconvenient but surmountable problem, pilfered cryptocurrency is often simply lost because of the decentralized nature of many digital coins.
If you run into problems, you may have no one to turn to.
Hackers are attracted to cryptocurrency because it can be stolen over the internet, which means victims are often far away in different countries. Even if identified, hackers can be in countries -- think Russia -- that make extradition difficult, so the threat of punishment is low. And cryptocurrency is hard, though not impossible, to trace.
Cryptocurrency comes with security risks that other kinds of investments don't have, says Don Pezet, co-founder of the online IT training company ITProTV.
"If a hacker steals your funds, they're just gone," said Pezet, a longtime IT professional who also serves as chief technology officer of ITProTV's parent company, ACI Learning.
The best thing you can do, he says, is make sure your cryptocurrency is secured from the get-go, so you don't run into problems down the road.
Crypto exchanges, where investors can buy and swap one currency for another, are constantly under threat from cybercriminals looking to score big paydays by emptying the vaults.
One of the biggest thefts of all time occurred in August, when cybercriminals exploited a vulnerability in Poly Network, a platform that connects different blockchains, the online software ledgers that record cryptocurrency transactions. Once in, the hackers ransacked Poly for $600 million, though the funds were later recovered.
Read more: What to do if your bitcoin, ether or other cryptocurrency gets stolen
Not all hacks are headline catching. Cybercriminals are also looking to rob individual investor wallets, and they employ many of the same methods used to break in to any other online account. You risk being looted if you give up your credentials in a phishing scam or let your devices get infected with malware.
Though people may worry about being targeted by attackers, in reality they themselves may be the biggest threat to their cryptocurrency's security, says Andrew Gunn, senior threat-intelligence analyst at ZeroFox.
"We can't afford to forget about the human element," Gunn says.
Here's some advice from the experts on how to protect your digital assets.
Use a "cold" wallet for long-term storage. Cold wallets store the data proving ownership of cryptocurrency offline, making them much harder for cybercriminals to get to. Both Pezet and Gunn say cold wallets are the safest option available.
The private keys to your cold wallet can be stored on a device, like a USB drive. You can also print them out on paper and file them away. Either way, an attacker can't get at your cryptocurrency without them.
The downside of this storage method is that the responsibility for securing it falls solely on you. If you lose the USB drive or misplace your file, you can't get your cryptocurrency.
"There is a ridiculous amount of unclaimed crypto out there from these types of situations," Gunn said, adding that some people have sought password crackers to break into their accounts after they've forgotten their credentials.
Cold wallets also aren't as convenient as hot wallets, which are hosted online, often by a cryptocurrency exchange. It's fine to keep some of your funds in a hot wallet if you use cryptocurrency for day-to-day spending, Gunn says. But he urges everyone to properly secure those accounts to make them more difficult to crack.
It's also smart to keep as little cryptocurrency as possible in hot wallets. If your funds get stolen, there isn't much you can do to get them back.
Gunn advises using multiple cold and hot wallets, each protected by its own unique password. That way, if the worst does occur, you're limiting the fallout.
Use strong passwords and multifactor authentication. Securing your cryptocurrency with good passwords is absolutely mandatory, just like it is for all digital accounts. We're talking at least 12 random characters.
Two-factor authentication, which requires a second form of identification such as a fingerprint or a notification pushed to your smartphone, also helps secure accounts. It'll go a long way toward keeping you safe if your password is compromised.
Use only your own device to access your wallets. It may seem convenient, but don't access your cryptocurrency from a public computer, such as one at a library or in a hotel business center. There's no way to tell if they're infected with malware.
Similarly, make sure to take care of your devices. Keep your antivirus software and operating systems up to date. Always use a secure internet connection, preferably bolstered by a VPN, Gunn says.
Do your homework. Larger, more regulated exchanges are generally safer. Make sure the one you use is reputable, especially if you're going to use it for a hot wallet.
Be wary of emails that look like they're coming from the company that holds your cryptocurrency wallet. It could be a phishing email looking to steal your credentials and, ultimately, your funds.
As with emails that look like they're coming from your bank, it's always best to skip any included hyperlinks and to go straight to the company's website.
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SpaceX Fires Workers After Letter Calls Elon Musk an 'Embarrassment,' Report Says
SpaceX Fires Workers After Letter Calls Elon Musk an 'Embarrassment,' Report Says
SpaceX has fired the employees involved in writing and sending a letter to company executives that expressed concern about the behavior of CEO Elon Musk and called for improvements to workplace culture, The New York Times reported Friday.
The open letter was reportedly posted Wednesday to an internal Microsoft Teams channel and said Musk's "behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks." It urged executives to "make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values," according to a copy seen by The Verge.
By Thursday, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in an email that the rocket company had "terminated a number of employees involved" with the open letter, according to the Times. It's unclear how many employees were fired.
In the email, which was seen by the Times, Shotwell reportedly said that the "letter, solicitations and general process made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied," adding that "we have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism."
SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk, who's also the head of electric car company Tesla, is outspoken on Twitter and has more than 98 million followers. He has rankled people with tweets critics have called sexist and juvenile, among other things. The letter from SpaceX employees reportedly said that every tweet from Musk is seen as a "de facto public statement by the company."
In the letter, employees asked the company to hold leadership responsible for fostering an inclusive workplace and to clearly define and enforce workplace culture policies. They specifically asked leadership to condemn the CEO's Twitter behavior. Musk is also trying to buy Twitter.
The letter comes nearly a month after reports that the company allegedly paid a $250,000 settlement to a flight attendant who said Musk exposed himself to her. Musk denied the allegations on Twitter, calling them "utterly untrue." Shotwell also reportedly defended Musk in an email to employees, saying she'd worked "closely with him for 20 years and never seen nor heard anything resembling these allegations."
Multiple women last year made allegations of sexual harassment at SpaceX, including a former engineer who wrote in an essay that the company's culture was in a "state of disrepair and dysfunction so great that the only remedy, finally, was to leave."
Tesla has faced lawsuits over sexual harassment at one of its plants and was sued in February by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing for alleged racial discrimination and harassment. Tesla said in a blog post at the time that it "strongly opposes all forms of discrimination and harassment and has a dedicated Employee Relations team that responds to and investigates all complaints."
It's unclear how many SpaceX employees signed the letter to executives.
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Stock Market Secrets: My Smartest Investment Tips After 16 Years of Reporting
Stock Market Secrets: My Smartest Investment Tips After 16 Years of Reporting
This story is part of Recession Help Desk, CNET's coverage of how to make smart money moves in an uncertain economy.
If there's one thing I've learned in all my years of reporting, it's this: The stock market is moody.
In 2006, I began a new role as a financial correspondent reporting from the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. My job was to make sense of why the market was up or down each day. I'd start out each morning interviewing mostly older, white male brokers who were in charge of buying and selling shares on behalf of large institutional investors. (Also true: I was required to wear closed-toe shoes and a blazer. The dress code then was strict and a bit ridiculous.)
I learned if tech stocks slumped just after the market opened, it might have been due to lower-than-expected earnings the evening before from an industry giant like Apple. Any hint of turbulence in the tech sector induced panicked brokers to drop shares at the opening bell.
The market doesn't actually reflect reality. It measures the moods and attitudes of people like the brokers I used to interview.
"Today's stock prices aren't because of how businesses are performing today," said Matt Frankel, a certified financial planner and contributing analyst for The Motley Fool, in an email. "They are based on future expectations."
That's the problem: Current prices serve as a gauge of investor confidence, but stock market predictions are, at best, educated guesses. And to further complicate matters, "the markets are not always correct," according to Liz Young, head of investment strategy at SoFi.
Reporting from the floor of the NYSE during the May 2010 "flash crash," when major stock indices crashed and then partially rebounded within an hour.
Screenshot/CNET
Sound discouraging? I hear you, but it's still worth investing. Here's why.
While the stock market represents an elite class of investors (the wealthiest 10% of Americans hold 89% of stocks), it has proven over time to be a reliable way to grow your money for anyone with the tools and information to try. And technology has made it cheaper and easier to access. Now, a whole new generation has the chance to start investing and building wealth. If you can afford your basic needs and have some emergency savings set aside, there's no better time than now to invest -- even if it's just $20 a month.
Of course, the stock market feels particularly risky right now and it's natural to want to safeguard your money when the economy is volatile. If you're on the fence about investing because you're worried about a recession, or you just don't feel comfortable taking financial risks right now, you're not alone. Over 40% of Americans surveyed earlier this spring said that the bear-market downswing made them too scared to invest.
But waiting to invest is an even bigger risk. Here's what I know for sure about how to overcome worry and invest for success.
The 'Right Time' to Invest Is Right Now
Yes, the market is risky. Yes, there will be more crashes. But there's a high probability that the market will recover, just like it bounced back (and then some) a few years after the 2007-09 global financial crisis.
"Things will get better again. They always do," as my friend David Bach, author of the New York Times bestselling book The Automatic Millionaire told me on my podcast So Money.
Sure, it's better to buy at a low price so that you can cash in later from as much appreciation, or compound interest, as possible. But since it's very hard to predict where prices will go, the "right time" to strike is often something we only realize in hindsight. Waiting to invest until the time feels right, when you think stocks have hit a "bottom," can set you up for more failure than success.
Your time in the market is more important than timing the market. Lying low until stocks rebound just means you're going to pay more. Instead, invest consistently and continuously, and let compounding interest build. You'll buy the dips and the highs, but ultimately, over the years, you'll come out ahead. "If you're in your 30s, or your 40s, or your 50s, and you're not retiring in the next year or two, guess what? Everything's on sale," Bach said.
For example, had your parents invested $1,000 in the year 1960, it would be worth close to $400,000 today. That's after a presidential assassination, multiple wars, a global pandemic and many recessions, including the Great Recession. If the past is any indicator of the future, it's proven that markets will eventually recuperate from a downturn, and that they have greater periods of growth than decline.
Read more: Investing for Beginners
Diversification is your best tool against volatility and market tumbles. Investors who are more cautious could try US bonds, which are considered "safe haven" investments because they are backed by the Treasury and offer a predictable return.
Right now, with inflation at 8.5%, Americans are flocking toward Series I Savings Bonds, a government-issued investment that's protected against inflation. I bonds have both a fixed rate and an inflation rate that's adjusted every six months. Right now, I bonds will deliver a 9.62% annualized interest rate, which means they'll get you higher guaranteed returns than any other federally backed bank account.
Technology Makes Investing Cheaper and More Accessible
Investing can be unnecessarily complicated and exclusionary, and the financial industry as a whole can do a lot more to break down barriers to entry. Guests on my podcast So Money, especially women, people of color and young adults, have shared how they wish they'd learned about investing sooner.
My advice? Lean on technology, as well as the proliferation of social media and podcasts, to gain better access and education. At CNET, we are big fans of robo-advisors, such as Wealthfront and Betterment, that provide low-cost portfolio management. There's no need to wait until you have $1 million in the bank, which is what some professional investment advisors require before working with clients. You can start with just a little cash.
And whether you're a fan of TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, there are some reputable experts there offering free education. One cautionary tip: Be sure to check their backgrounds and ensure whomever you're following is not a salesperson disguised as an investment educator!
Read more: Investing Doesn't Have to Be Intimidating. Pros and Cons to Robo-Advisors
Once you're investing, embrace automation so you never go astray. Automating our savings or retirement contributions is a smart move that, honestly, saves us from ourselves. With money in our hands, it's much easier to spend than it is to save, but technology can automatically move that money into an account. We're more likely to save for our future if we're already enrolled in a company retirement plan as opposed to choosing to opt in with each paycheck. Start your contribution with the maximum employer-match rate and try to increase your contribution to 10% or even 15%. That could net you thousands of dollars more each year.
Pro-tip: If you're saving for retirement, see if your plan provider will automatically increase your savings rate each year (60% of employers offer this feature, according to the American Benefits Council).
For all other types of long-term investments such as a brokerage account or Roth IRA, create a calendar reminder at the beginning of the year or on your birthday to increase your contributions.
Read more: Need to Save for Retirement? This Is the Easiest Way
You may also be able to set your portfolio to auto-rebalance so that it adjusts and automatically scoops up more stocks after a down period in the market, which can give you the right balance of stocks and bonds in your portfolio.
Auto-rebalancing is a feature many banks and brokerages offer to ensure your portfolio's allocation doesn't fall off-kilter, says David Sekera, chief US market strategist for MorningStar. For example, let's say you set up your portfolio to have an equal mix of stocks and bonds. A bear market like the one we're in now may reduce the weight of stocks and be too heavy with bonds. But an auto-rebalance can fix that by buying more stocks when prices are low again, according to Sekera.
I've seen first-hand how market volatility is creating a lot of uncertainty, and I know why it's hard to feel confident about investing. But history shows that staying on the sidelines as an investor can be riskier than participating in the market and riding out the dips and highs.
Getting into the market sooner rather than later can be one of the smartest decisions on the road to building personal wealth and economic security. Along the way, be mindful of your risk tolerance, stay diversified and rely on automation to help you stay the course.
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What happened when my M1 Max MacBook Pro met a $60,000 camera
What happened when my M1 Max MacBook Pro met a $60,000 camera
When Apple launched its latest line of MacBook Pros with the new M1 Max chips, I was excited, as a professional photographer, by the upgrades and what that could mean for working creatives. The 16-inch model with an M1 Max CPU impressed CNET's Dan Ackerman so much it earned a coveted Editors' Choice award.
So when I got one in my hands, I wanted to see how well it copes with a demanding professional photoshoot workload.
I put the top-end 16-inch Pro with the M1 Max chip with 64GB of RAM to the test in a studio photoshoot with probably the world's best -- and most demanding -- camera. It's the Phase One XFIQ4, a commercial-standard medium format camera that churns out whopping 150-megapixel images and costs somewhere north of $60,000. This beast is in the hands of elite professional commercial photographers the world over, and its stunning, detailed images would be a great test for the M1 Max chip.
The finished image I created was eventually made up of 28 individual full-resolution images composited together into what you see here.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
I put together an ambitious product photoshoot of a "technology stir fry" showing a variety of tech products being tossed in oil in a wok above roaring flames. It involved shooting all the different elements individually, then piecing together numerous images from the camera into the single, finished shot seen above. This kind of compositing work can be demanding on a system, especially when working with multiple high-resolution layers.
The finished image was made of 28 full-resolution images, loaded into a single document in Photoshop, each one with its own masking, adjustments and other effects. In short, it's a behemoth of a Photoshop document, clocking in at almost 11GB in size.
Anecdotally, working on the MacBook Pro felt swift. The camera was tethered over USB-C and the images were taken, imported and initially adjusted in Phase One's own Capture One Pro software, which has been optimized for Apple's M1 chips. It was zippy, with no noticeable lag when making adjustments to the images or when flicking between the shots I'd taken, despite their size. This alone was a relief, as some of my product photoshoots can involve taking hundreds upon hundreds of images and any slowdown from the machine can be frustrating.
Shooting the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in the wok. These complex composites take time and are demanding on both photographer and computer, but they're common in the industry and any way to increase the speed of the workflow is welcome.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
I initially exported 45 full-resolution images (in Phase One's .IIQ format), which I loaded into an image stack in Photoshop. On the M1 Max MacBook it took 2 minutes, 44 seconds to load the images into the document. I did the same thing using the older 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro (a 2020 model with 16GB of RAM) and it struggled, crashing multiple times before eventually taking almost exactly 5 minutes to load the stack.
Time taken to load 45-image stack in Photoshop
16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max (2021)
13-inch MacBook Pro M1 (2020)
16-inch MacBook Pro (Intel Core i9, 2019)
Note:
Shorter bars equals better performance
I then tried the same import test with a 2019 16-inch, Intel Core i9 MacBook Pro with 64GB of RAM, which took 4 minutes, 43 seconds. It should be noted that this MacBook is my work-provided one, and as such has a variety of security applications running in the background that could affect its performance.
Time taken to auto-align 45 images in Photoshop
16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max (2021)
13-inch MacBook Pro M1 (2020)
16-inch MacBook Pro (Intel Core i9, 2019)
Note:
Shorter bars equals better performance
Once loaded, I selected the layers and used the Auto-Align tool to ensure all the images lined up with each other. It's a demanding process but one that I use regularly for product photography, so efficient performance here is essential for my workflow. The M1 Max model took 6 minutes, 24 seconds to align the layers, the 16-inch Intel model took 7 minutes, 15 seconds while the 13-inch M1 model took a whopping 18 minutes, 20 seconds to complete the same task.
Forty-five full-resolution layers might not sound like a lot, but keep in mind that these are from a 150-megapixel medium format camera, so each individual image is huge and packed with detail.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
The M1 Max MacBook handled the rest of the edit without any issue, allowing me to zoom in and out without lag or showing any real signs of slowing down. I ended up deleting some layers to get down to the 28 that made up the final image, yet even with every layer having its own masks and effects, the machine coped admirably with the edit process.
My next test involved a focus stack of an image of an iPhone I shot with the Phase One camera. Focus stacking involves taking separate images of an object at different focus points before merging those shots to achieve pin-sharp focus from front to back. As with layer aligning, it's a demanding task for the processor. You can see the full breakdown below of times it took each MacBook to load the 12 individual 303MB DNG (Adobe Digital Negative raw) files into an image stack, align the images and then focus stack in Photoshop, but the M1 Max was way ahead of the others on every single test, with the focus stacking tool in particular seeming to benefit from the M1 optimizations in Photoshop.
MacBook Pro performance comparisons
16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max (2021)
13-inch MacBook Pro M1 (2020)
16-inch MacBook Pro (Intel Core i9, 2019)
Legend:
Time taken to load 12 DNG files into Photoshop stack
Time taken to align 12 DNG files in Photoshop
Time taken to focus stack 12 DNG files
Note:
Shorter bars equals better performance
Arguably that should come as no surprise, given that it's the latest model and it's running Apple's top-performing processor with the highest amount of RAM you can get it with. But pro photographers are a demanding bunch and time is money in a busy studio, so it's good to know the extra investment for the M1 Max will indeed result in faster and more efficient work.
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Lenovo's nifty Google-powered Smart Clock is back down to $35
Lenovo's nifty Google-powered Smart Clock is back down to $35
A full-on smart display is overkill as a nightstand alarm clock replacement for most people. But that's why Lenovo's Smart Clock is great option: The 4-inch color display gives the basics (time, weather), and the unit doubles as a fairly capable Google Assistant and Bluetooth speaker, too. There's no camera, which makes a lot of folks more comfortable bringing it into the bedroom. And right now, theLenovo Smart Clock is on sale at Best Buy for $35. That's the lowest price we've seen for this model.
Yes, there's a second-generation Smart Clock that includes a wireless charging pad. But that will cost you $90. This model, meanwhile, still gets you a USB port in the back, so you can connect your phone directly (or bring your own wireless charging plate for good measure). And at $35, that's just $5 more than the step-down Smart Clock Essential -- with a black-and-white screen -- that's selling at Best Buy today.
Read more: Best alarm clock of 2021
Still on the fence? Read our review of the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential -- but note that we evaluated it at the original $80 price.
This story was posted earlier. It's been updated to reflect that the discounted price is available again.
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'House of the Dragon' Small Council: What Do Those Stone Balls Mean?
'House of the Dragon' Small Council: What Do Those Stone Balls Mean?
House of the Dragon is underway on HBO, painting a satisfyingly rich portrait of another chapter in Game of Thrones' long history. One of the new intriguing details the prequel series presents is those stone balls at the Small Council's meetings.
When King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) consults his Small Council on matters of the realm, each member places a small colored stone ball in a marble dish at the meeting table. A larger dish sits in the middle of the table. We didn't see any stone balls when councils took place in Game of Thrones.
What significance do they have?
"Everybody shows up for work and they 'punch in,'" co-showrunner Ryan Condal told The Hollywood Reporter. "I thought it was really cool. It's a way of visualizing the set formality of the small council chamber. It's enjoyable; we should have things that we like in this world."
In other words, the formality doesn't really have any special meaning outside being a symbolic gesture. It allows the members of the council to show their loyalty. It goes the other way too: Whenever Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) is absent from meetings, his dark ball stands out in the center of the table, alone in the larger dish. After that first episode, it symbolizes Daemon, the black sheep, being cast out from the council as well as the race for becoming Viserys' heir.
Episode 2 of House of the Dragon hits HBO on Sunday at 9 p.m. PT.
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Beyond Axie Infinity: 'Web3 Games' Hope to Convert Crypto Skeptics
Beyond Axie Infinity: 'Web3 Games' Hope to Convert Crypto Skeptics
The moment Chris saw Axie Infinity, he was hooked. He was once an avid gamer, playing hours of League of Legends every day, but stopped after deciding he was sinking too much time into an unproductive hobby. Axie Infinity promised something different. Inspired by Pokemon, it's a video game about training and battling monsters. That sounds like hundreds of other games, but one element distinguishes Axie Infinity. It's built on the blockchain.
Axies are the Pokemon of Axie Infinity, but they're owned as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. A cryptocurrency called Smooth Love Potion is earned by battling these Axies. Players can also breed Axies, then either sell or battle with them. Chris, who declined to give his real name and goes only by the pseudonym Cryptobarbarian, felt he could justify playing video games again -- as long as it paid.
"It was fun for the first few weeks, but it gets boring really fast," the 28-year-old said. From there, he said, Axie Infinity became purely about making money.
Axie Infinity is a browser game. Accessing it is free, but you need to buy a team of three Axies to play. At its peak of popularity, bottom-tier Axies cost around $350 each, meaning playing the game once required a four-figure investment. The game allows Axie owners to lease out their monsters to other players, however. A longtime crypto investor, Cryptobarbarian told me he bought $30,000 worth of Axies and loaned them out in return for 40% to 70% of the profits. (CNET wasn't able to verify his purchases.)
The strategy paid off at first. Axie Infinity was a hot ticket in CryptoTown, generating over $15 million a day last August. But thanks to a combination of poor in-game economics, inflation threatening the real world's economy and a $600 million hack reportedly caused by a fake job posting, the price of Axies and the game's Smooth Love Potion cryptocurrency collapsed. The same monsters that cost hundreds of dollars last year now fetch under $10.
"I got around 100 players playing for me with high-end Axies," Cryptobarbarian said to me over Twitter, "which overall cost around $100,000 at the height and are now worth nothing."
To gamers, stories like this provide ample reason to reject "Web3 gaming," a term referring to the integration of NFTs and cryptocurrency into games. The significant carbon footprint of ethereum and bitcoin adds to the resentment. Be it Ubisoft bringing NFTs into Ghost Recon or Square Enix launching Final Fantasy 7 NFTs, gamers have fiercely resisted the blockchain coming anywhere near their industry.
Three Axies in Axie Infinity.
Sky Mavis
The fear is that crypto and NFTs will deform gaming into a side hustle, transforming its purpose from entertainment to moneymaking. Play-to-earn titles such as Axie Infinity prove the point; they're not games as much as they are financial speculation with the veneer of a game.
"I've never met anyone that played it just for fun," Cryptobarbarian said of Axie Infinity, "only to make money."
But Axie Infinity doesn't represent the future that many Web3 developers envision for gaming. Video game firms, both small and large, are developing titles they hope will clean the slate of Web3 gaming. All are on carbon-neutral blockchains such as polygon or solana, which are far more efficient than ethereum. (Whether they're as secure is an open question.) The goal isn't to make titles that entertain crypto speculators, but rather to make games fun enough that people can justify playing them regardless of whether they earn crypto.
"I've long been a believer that gaming is one of the consumer internet categories that is most likely to bring on mainstream adoption of crypto," said Amy Wu, head of gaming at FTX Ventures, the investment arm of the FTX crypto exchange. "But I also believe when you have a hit game with Web3 elements, it's very likely that the majority of players will never actually trade those tokens. They're just playing the game."
Free to play, play to own
The upcoming wave of Web3 games will range from free-to-play mobile titles to big-budget AAA games for PC and console. On the simpler end of the scale is Shatterpoint. With an art style inspired by Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it's an action RPG for Android and iOS that, on paper, looks like many top App Store games. There's a single-player campaign plus a PvP multiplayer mode. You earn new weapons and gear as you progress and, much like Fortnite and Call of Duty, the multiplayer is broken up into different "seasons."
But these seasons, segmented by "the shattering" in the game, is where the blockchain comes in. Players will be given a certain list of goals each season. If they complete one -- say, being one of the first 100 players to reach level 50, or staying atop of the PvP leaderboard for a certain amount of time -- their character will be converted into an NFT. Only a limited amount of NFTs will be minted per season.
There are two reasons why players might want to bother scoring an NFT. The shattering acts as an in-game reset, so any gear you've collected will vanish. NFT characters, of which there will be a limited amount each season, are permanent. However your character looks when it's minted into an NFT, with whatever combination of gear equipped, that's how it'll look in perpetuity. The second benefit is that these NFTs can be sold on a marketplace -- if there's a market for them.
A screenshot from Shatterpoint.
Estoty Games
There are three crucial elements that make this model sustainable, says Shatterpoint developer Benas Baltramiejunas. First, the game is free to play -- unlike P2E games like Axie Infinity, which requires the upfront cost of three Axie NFTs. Second, none of the items retained as an NFT can resemble "pay to win" mechanics. There can only be cosmetic benefits to owning it, not a competitive edge. Last, and most important, the game is designed with the assumption that most people playing won't be interested in minting their character as an NFT. It has to be fun for them too.
"We're using the NFT approach to create a bit of competitiveness, to incentivize players to play," he said. Shatterpoint is monetized by traditional microtransactions and from taking a small cut of NFT sales -- 2.5% is the traditional cut creators take. Baltramiejunas hopes that focusing on NFTs will result in both better game design and fairer prices. If developers can create a compelling game, revenue can theoretically be sorted out organically through whatever the player base sets as the value of the NFTs.
"In free-to-play games you have whales which account for 10% of the player base but 90% of the revenue," Baltramiejunas said. "If you only have those microtransactions for monetization, you are only focusing on those whales during the content creation, and you're leaving everybody behind. However, with NFT integration, you don't need to monetize that aggressively. The market decides."
NFT brands expand into gaming
While Shatterpoint is a mobile game that produces NFTs, the coming years will see many examples of the reverse: NFT collections turning into games. NFT drops, such as the famed Bored Ape Yacht Club, are doubling as crowdfunding platforms that produce games. Creators earn millions in royalties from sales, and use that money to expand the brand, theoretically boosting NFT prices in the process. Some brands are expanding into TV and film. Many are dabbling in gaming.
One such example is My Pet Hooligan. It's a product of AMGI Studios, an animation studio where former Pixar animator Colin Brady serves as chief creative and technology officer. The studio sees Unreal Engine 5 and blockchain technology as the next technologies that will drive entertainment, Brady told me at the recent NFT.NYC conference.
AMGI Studios' goal of 2021 was to use Unreal Engine 5 to create an animated film for Netflix at half of the traditional cost. While the film was being greenlit, Brady explained, AMGI technical lead Kevin Mack approached him about starting an NFT collection.
The result was My Pet Hooligan, a set of 8,888 3D rabbits. "We sold out in less than a minute, and all of a sudden people started saying, 'hey, when movie? When TV show? When video game?'" Brady said. The studio, filled with Unreal Engine programmers, already had a game in the works.
The result is Rabbit Hole, a sandbox game that looks like a mix of Grand Theft Auto and Ratchet and Clank. Rabbit Hole is currently in closed alpha, available only for My Pet Hooligan NFT holders with only one map functional. The build of the game I saw at NFT.NYC was intriguing. It was certainly incomplete, with noticeable frame-rate issues, but had the clear foundation of a fun sandbox game.
My Pet Hooligan NFTs on the OpenSea marketplace.
AMGI Studios/OpenSea
Rabbit Hole will eventually be available for PC and console. Brady says the goal is to reach 1 million players by the end of the year. To encourage the type of in-game socialization seen among players of Fortnite and Roblox, the studio developed a companion facial-recognition app for phones. If you perch your phone where a webcam typically is on a computer, it'll track your face and replicate all facial movements on your on-screen Hooligan.
Unlike Shatterpoint, which will integrate just NFTs, Rabbit Hole will use both NFTs and crypto. It will have a play-to-earn mechanic -- or play and earn, as technical lead Kevin Mack prefers to say -- in the form of in-game currency Karrots. These will be used to buy clothing, dances and more for the Hooligan avatars, but it doubles as a cryptocurrency that can be exchanged for ether or bitcoin. You can earn money playing Rabbit Hole, but Brady said it's not going to be life-changing cash.
Then there's the NFT element. This is primed towards holders of the 8,888 My Pet Hooligan NFTs. While players who download the game will start with a generic Hooligan, My Pet Hooligan owners will be able to use their NFT as an avatar in the game.
If the game gets popular enough, Mack said, there will be a certain prestige to owning one of these avatars. But he recognizes that to make that happen, the team has to make a game that people actually want to play.
"Superman No. 1 is valuable because Superman was a great comic," he said. "I think the NFT space for a while started to get that a little backward, where they thought the things were valuable just because they were collectable."
To infinity...
Of all the NFT brands expanding into games, Bored Ape Yacht Club is the biggest. BAYC creators Yuga Labs are developing Otherside, a "metaverse" MMORPG. The term "metaverse" is nebulous, but in this case it refers to an open world where items are owned as NFTs and in-game currency is crypto that can be exchanged for dollars. Details on Otherside are scant, but Yuga has a huge warchest for it. The game's map will be made up of 200,000 plots of land, which players can buy and own. Over $350 million was raised from selling land back in May.
Otherside may be the Web3 game with the highest budget, but perhaps the most ambitious is Star Atlas.
In development since 2020, the Eve Online-inspired Star Atlas is crafted like a traditional AAA game. Michael Wagner, CEO of Star Atlas development studio ATMTA, told me there are around 200 developers working on the game. It's scheduled for release in 2026.
Like Eve Online, Star Atlas is half game, half space simulator. Players ride spacecraft through the galaxy, socializing and battling with each other, exploring exoplanets, mining lands and meteors for resources and so on.
Games like Eve Online are giant, big enough for players to lose themselves in for years. Star Atlas hopes to mimic that feat. On the way to doing so, it uses almost every new tool Web3 offers.
It starts with funding. Wagner said $185 million in revenue was raised in 2021, through the sale of an Atlas token and NFT ships, with a "substantial margin" of that funding development. In the game, ships, items and land will be owned as NFTs. There will be a comprehensive crypto economy built atop the game, which Wagner says will allow for not just a market, but a labor economy too. The economy isn't just in the game; part of Star Atlas will be built on the blockchain, meaning elements will be open source. People will be able to develop apps on top of this data, for things like spacecraft maintenance or resource management.
Part of Star Atlas' economy will involve taxation. Just like in real life, a certain percentage of all sales will go to a treasury. There will be a DAO, or decentralized autonomous organization, in which token holders can vote on how these funds are used, be it to fund a new marketing campaign or a user engagement campaign. Then there will be another DAO specifically for the game itself, where token holders can vote on changes to the game, like additional features or ways to balance combat.
"We've structured the economics of the DAO such that we don't lose control in the near term," Wagner said. "But in the future, it would even be possible for them to vote us out as the principal developer of the game and bring in somebody new if they think they could deliver the product in a superior fashion to us."
Risks and rewards
The potential of Web3 gaming is tremendous, but its challenges are enormous. An examination of Star Atlas alone highlights many issues Web3 developers are likely to face.
First and foremost, making video games is hard. Making high-quality AAA games is harder still, even for veteran game studios, and the Star Atlas game alone is audacious in its ambition. The Web3 components offer additional opportunity for failure: An imbalanced economy, for instance, has the potential to completely break the game. Then there's security and regulation. Crypto has been a digital Wild West for years, with scams endemic. Regulators are slowly changing that. It's an open question whether Web3 gaming can survive in a regulated environment.
"In many countries, consumer protection is the No. 1 driver of regulations. Given gaming is so mainstream, it will be a topic," said FTX Ventures' Wu. "100%, these assets are going to be regulated."
The final issue is the very commodity that fuels crypto tokens and NFT projects: hype. Games are often promised on NFT project road maps before a single second of development has been undertaken. As Brady noted, it took less than a day for My Pet Hooligan holders to demand the announcement of a game, movie or TV show to sustain hype and lift the NFT value. Vaporware is sure to be common.
Games will need to be developed in a way that insulates players from the crypto-rich speculators. Speculators outbidding each other can artificially raise the value of in-game items, which blocks players who actually want to play the game from accessing them. Recall the speculative bubble that caused the cost of entry to Axie Infinity to inflate to over $1,000.
"I'm personally not interested in someone who's paying $100,000 for an NFT," said Brady. "That's a certain echelon. That's not normal society. I'm only interested if this helps every person."
Of all the developers I spoke to, a recurring theme was mistrust of any games company that promises a regular income, or dangles the possibility of earning enough money to quit the rat race. "Play-to-earn is not sustainable and is going to die off," said Baltramiejunas. Instead, the goal is for Web3 games to be more engaging than the games you play today, with the benefit of some pocket money on the side.
"If the game was good I would be satisfied with a little money as long as it's not totally a time waste," said Cryptobarbarian, reflecting on how much money he'd need to earn to justify playing games again.
"If I could earn some lunch money with it, that would be nice. But I think that will take at least a few more years before it happens."
