Recently I came across a game that seemed to have an interesting concept, they pay you in Bitcoin to keep playing their game. You have the option to supply your Bitcoin wallet address to the app and after you’ve played the game long enough, you get a small amount sent to your wallet (for me it was 100 bits). Over the course of a few days, playing the game off and on, I received about 1,500 bits in total – and then it stopped. The game supposedly only pays out based off of how many bits are in the community pot, and it had run dry. There was a wallet address that you are able to send bits to in order to keep the game able to pay out other plays as well. The question is, should the plays of the game be required to keep the pot filled with bits, or should the game creator do so?
The game I was playing is available on the iPhone platform and is called SaruTobi. If you remember playing internet games in the new millenium you may remember a game called “Kitten Cannon” and this game is basically that. You have a monkey on a vine that swings around and until you release. The monkey flies through the air and you collect coins (labeled as Bitcoin) that you can then use to purchase power-ups. The coins you collect have no weight on whether or not you will receive any Bitcoin.
The game itself is rather fun and does help pass time, but the questions it brings up now is do you think that this is a good way to spread the word of Bitcoins usefulness? Also, the game did have an advertisement on the top right of the screen, but if you earn coins in the game you can disable the advertisement. If there is an advertisement, do you think the owner should provide a portion of that revenue back into the community pot that supplies players with bits of Bitcoin? How do you think that Bitcoin will alter the way games are played in the future? There are a few games available for Android users as well that pay you to play.
In the past there have been apps available to users that will supply them with small amounts of money (usually under $1 US) for viewing advertisements. These apps usually require a minimum level to be reached prior to paying and then pay via Paypal. Do you think we will begin to see an increase in apps that pay in Bitcoin? How do you feel about apps like these? Leave your opinion in the comment section below.
