Author: Josiah Makori

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Blockchain Entrepreneurship Other Software

How blockchain is bringing gamification to every industry

Tiny people with gamepad playing video games on console. Male and female gamers gaming flat vector illustration. Entertainment, gamification concept for banner, website design or landing web page

Distributed ledger technology is not the most user friendly or easy to grasp. Blockchain gamification is one way to bridge this user gap. The gaming sector has plenty in store to enrich other industries on how to keep customers engaged. According to a recent study by Newzoo, the global gaming industry has over two billion gamers and is worth about $150 billion. Video game income has even surpassed other forms of entertainment, like movies and music, according to the study. The most famous pieces of art can create sales in millions of units and can sustain numerous concurrent users. 

Various industries are embracing gamification or the use of gaming and game design techniques to engage their users better. Marketing departments are now using gamification in their marketing activities to reduce customer churn. Instead of just providing coupons, renewable points, and discounts, businesses are now spicing up their marketing campaigns using cutting-edge technologies to realize engaging risk and reward mechanisms. Starbucks, for instance, has introduced a loyalty program that enables customers to receive better rewards the more they spend. Besides, the company has also deployed multiple tech-based strategies over the years, like mobile apps, QR codes, and segmented reality to engage their customers. 

The blockchain tech power to offer secure record-keeping and enable transactions through cryptocurrencies makes it suitable for such applications. Different services are already establishing new channels to exploit the potential of blockchain-based solutions and possibilities of gamification. Form of gamification may vary. Projects like Sandblock, for instance, use smart contracts to facilitate their loyalty program campaigns. The digital and decentralized games such as CryptoKitties also demonstrate how crypto tokens can represent ownership of digital assets effectively. These use cases also demonstrate how blockchain has brought back fairness and trust in the gaming industry. In this article, we shall see how blockchain tech is bringing the elements of gamification  not only to typical gaming space, but basically to every sector through loyalty programs, digital ownership, and trustworthy and fair practices.  

Loyalty programs for e-commerce

Critics often complain that loyalty programs concentrate on just maximizing profits for businesses. Participants are incentivized inadequately for their participation by loyalty points campaigns that contain biased rules. Though it is acceptable for a business only to carry out sustainable loyalty programs, they are still supposed to offer customers with satisfactory reward rates. 

The problems begin with outlining business objectives, considering that loyalty campaigns can create many benefits. The marketers then continue with designing the reward system, the composition of reward and producing incentives good enough to cause behavior change but mean to the point that they grind down margins. Besides, there are puzzles of customer psychology to consider, which can make two incentives of equal value stir different levels of consumption.  

Using blockchain for business that needs relevant loyalty programs can eliminate such unfair dealings through the transparency it delivers. Smart contracts can be applied to monitor the mechanisms of these campaigns. Through the openness of smart contracts, it is possible to notice if firms are providing irrational terms and conditions. On the other hand in case of public blockchain space, some unprincipled members may also attempt to participate and abuse the system. Determined scammers can also alter poorly designed gaming rules, and therefore, having transparent records shows the participants who are trying to misbehave clearly. 

Launching a successful blockchain loyalty program starts with the objectives of the campaign. Marketers can only engineer the right strategies and evaluate whether they are running their campaigns well only if they have set clear goals. In other words, true benefits of blockchain come to truly valuable and well planned loyalty programs.

The use of digital currencies and blockchain-based feature will give clients more flexibility with their loyalty points. Many loyalty programs restrict these points for specific purposes and redemption with their respective businesses. Contrary, cryptocurrencies are mutually interchangeable and can be transacted with other tokens or fiat money. If companies are not willing to create a universal digital loyalty token with other businesses, then they can settle on the use of interchangeable tokens. A study by Kaleido Insights shows that the interchangeability of these digital reward tokens is beneficial to both the companies running loyalty programs and the participants.  

The treatment of blockchain-based digital tokens as currency makes them far more flexible and interchangeable compared to loyalty points. Participants can easily exchange such a digital token with other cryptocurrencies or fiat money. That means real financial rewards. Such flexibility gives customers more choice on how they should use rewards, increasing the value of the loyalty campaign, and encouraging customers to shop more from the brand. Digital reward tokens can go even be used for such digital transactions as buying other products and paying for services from other companies because cryptocurrencies have value beyond the brand that issued them. The eventual result is a loyalty coin economy, which, when used more, increases in value. 

Besides, blockchain gamification boosts the outcomes of loyalty programs and minimizes expenses including lowering of the transaction costs. With blockchain technology, a business can provide loyalty campaigns that are transparent and trusted by participants. The transparency brought by blockchain solutions is essential in loyalty programs. 

Blockchain technology will also bring a more streamlined experience in loyalty campaigns. When businesses carry out over one loyalty campaign, it can be challenging to manage both the company and the clients. Lack of a streamlined client loyalty campaign causes missed opportunities, wasted points, and frustration. 

Decentralized systems

Forbes explored the possibility of using a blockchain-based method using a single cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, across several brands or businesses. This decentralized finance method makes the loyalty campaign easier to run and track, saving time, and adding more value to the participants. 

A decentralized network will further ensure that participants enjoy more flexibility and choice, which inspires them to spend more. The method is best suited for bigger businesses, multinationals (such as the Banana Republic, Gap, and Old Navy), or businesses that are willing to partner with those from a complementing sector (like an airline firm, and a hotel chain).

A decentralized approach represents the future and present of digital transformation to some customer loyalty campaigns. For instance, Singapore Airlines and Delta Airlines have launched a blockchain loyalty campaign, substituting their air miles with digital tokens that used for retail purposes.    

Digital ownership through blockchain gamification

Rewards from certain games and gamified campaigns create virtual assets. For video games, for example, items can be acquired by successfully finishing assignments or by conquering rivals. These digital items can be made accessible to a participant or tied to particular accounts. Nevertheless, “ownership” is determined mostly by developers’ rules. 

Because virtual items carry some form of utility in the games, most people are willing to pay for these items. The value of digital items is around $15 billion. Trading of these items has become a significant activity for many developers. Most of them forbid the exchange of virtual items for cryptocurrencies as they term it as a violation of their terms of service. 

Gamification features and blockchain technology are the main ingredients for marketplaces for the trading of virtual assets. This way, blockchain can enable virtual ownership.

Solutions that act as secure markets for trading digital items can enhance the virtual item industry and connect it with other sectors. Blockchain solutions can boost the market capitalization of this industry. 

Blockchain is redefining the ownership of virtual items and transform them into a kind of financial rewards for users. The technology is a means of creating distinctive identifiers for virtual items market. Developers and publishers hardly offer tools that would permit the safe and secure trade of virtual items in their marketplaces. These platforms employ blockchain and smart contracts that allow gamers to trade among themselves safely. 

Trustworthy and fair mechanisms

Gamification is all about engaging customers through new rules, risks, and reward systems. Unluckily, centralized authorities tend to come up with rules that are only beneficial to them. Blockchain technology compels businesses to design and follow the set rules and create equitable risk and reward mechanisms. Decentralized derivatives are some examples of this. CloseCross, one of Espeo’s clients is part of this trend. The use of cryptocurrencies even allows for gifts, like those from loyalty programs, to carry more financial utility for users. The concept of digital ownership also brings more value to customers’ rewards. Users can be confident that through such methods, all parties will benefit from gamified campaigns. 

According to a PwC survey, almost 70% of customers pull out from loyalty programs when it asks for personal details. This is logical, especially with the increasing cases of online identity theft. Blockchain can reduce such risks. Since anonymity is one of the primary features of digital currencies, participants might not have to provide their personal information. Or, if the need arises, blockchain can keep their details more secure.

Blockchain records are fully transparent and trackable, making it even hard for the execution of unauthorized transactions. The PwC study further established that more than 72% of loyalty campaigns are victims of scams and counterfeit sales to acquire loyalty points for purchases they never made. Using blockchain technology to customer loyalty campaigns would enable brands to track loyalty points in real-time and deliver incentives to their clients more effectively. 

Conclusion 

Blockchain gamification in other industries is possible with applications designed to borrow aspects behind the success of the gaming industry. With blockchain technology, other areas can exploit the winning traits of the gaming sector. As blockchain technology continues to disrupt every element of business and daily life, gamification is ripe to follow suit. Carrying out faster, smarter, and more flexible loyalty campaigns can create and retain happy customers. 

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Blockchain Public

Blockchain in multi-domain command and control targeting

Template logo for blockchain technology. Rhombus with connected lines for brand, logo, logotype of smart contract block symbol. Design for decentralized transactions. Vector Illustration

To effectively plan and accomplish today’s complex military activities in defense of a country’s best interest calls for timely, reliable, trusted, and clear communications across a lengthy chain-of-command covering multi-national forces.

Unlike traditional guard solutions that are accompanied by several drawbacks, such as lack of trusted end-to-end data provenance, blockchain technology can facilitate and accelerate these multi-domain command and control targeting activities by offering reliable, cross-domain virtual identities and policy-based information distribution channels for the target design process.    

The problem: siloed targeting people, processes, systems, and data

Targeting is the process of choosing and ranking targets and assigning the appropriate measures to them. It is often a multi-disciplinary process, calling for collaboration from various joint force staff aspects and mechanisms aided by multiple non-military organizations to:

  • Decide which target to engage
  • Decide the best way to engage them to attain the desired impact within political, technical, and operational limits. 
  • Discover their current hideout with adequate confidence. 
  • Achieve the right effects. 
  • Evaluate the impacts of the engagement. 

data siloing greatly hinders command targeting essential to its different members. These are contributors from different countries, different operational domains (air, space, sea, and cyber), using multiple automated systems running on different networks with distinct classification, authorization levels and security policies trying to produce, distribute, plan, and execute prioritized target information. 

Coalition-based networks and computing power are set up to enable communication between co-located joint targeting squad members. Appropriately categorized information is channeled through these collective infrastructures in a regulated way through traditional cross-domain guards linked to each member’s non-shared national networks.

However, as we discuss in this article concerning cross-domain security, traditional guard methods are affected by numerous downsides, like lack of trusted end-to-end information origin for the information shared. Confidential background information and decision attribution are essential for mission sensitive targeting processes.

The challenge of providing confidential identities for the workforce- person and non-person- interacting across various domains causes lack of trust. Trusted virtual identity is the hub of all verification and approval decisions, and facilitates other integral security operations (non-repudiation, reliability, and encryption).

Traditional centralized public key infrastructure (PKI) methods with their domain-based certification authorities (CA) fail to lend themselves well to cross-domain bridging applications.        

More issues arise from the necessity to guard sensitive identity information across security domains- the subject identifying information contained in CA-generated certificates circulated to top-secret networks can also be classified and hence be shared in other security domains. 

These drawbacks disappoint and limit solid, synchronized targeting information production, collection, and circulation, inhibiting the creation of a confidential joint operational display of a target and restricting situational awareness of the targeting process itself. All these increase the probability of creating sub-standard targeting methods that could make the mission impossible. 

Blockchain-based MDC2 targeting solution

Blockchain technology, coupled with W3C verifiable credentials, offer a trustable solution that is better than siloed multi-domain command and control targeting procedures and participants. Blockchain-based MDC2 targeting solution comprises of three key aspects:

Unclassified multi-domain targeting blockchain consortium

A permissioned, private, random leveling consortium blockchain engaging all contributing security personnel offers a trusted common operational picture (COP) for the targets and situational awareness (SA) of the targeting activity itself. All proposed changes to targets are validated and circulated with the help of this targeting blockchain network. Targeting procedures and strategies, like target selection standards (TSS), are implemented through smart contracts and endorsement programs.   

For instance, a target suggested to be incorporated into the high-payoff list would first be recommended according to the endorsement rule. The recommenders would implement smart contracts with the help of confidential input argument values and requests to systems of record to confirm that the TSS had been fulfilled and create a random ledger transaction read/write set of consent and other uncategorized metadata. The uncategorized information would be dedicated to the targeting consortium blockchain nodes found in each domain to act as an immutable attribution of the policy.  

Classified verifiable credentials and unclassified verifiable presentations

Classified targeting data is confidentially and selectively distributed through digitally signed W3C Verifiable Credentials distributed to every target entity’s virtual identity to affirm its targeting-process assembled traits. A target can be defined as an entity that executes a defined role for the opponent considered for a potential engagement. The MDC2 Targeting procedure gradually creates a logical illustration of a target entity, populating appropriate features using multiple schemes and artifacts. 

These certifiable badges would act as the basis of creating presentations and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) to circulate suitably confidential data within and across security domains selectively. For instance, uncategorized certifiable presentations obtained from classified badges affirming high payoff target lists, selection criteria, and the commander’s goals could be distributed to every security domain network. 

Unclassified multi-domain self-sovereign identity network  

A permissioned, public, unstipulated blockchain identity network involves all contributing entities and provides random confidential digital badges and public key enablement (PKE) for all involved parties. Using blockchain-powered self-sovereign identity (SSI, or decentralized PKI), a random W3C Decentralized Identifier (DID) is allocated to each domain, immutably linked to its public key and other uncategorized metadata in its DID document, and circulated through a blockchain network to all identity network nodes found across all involved security entities without the need of third-party CAs.   

Since DID and DID documents are meant to carry only random data, they may be freely spread across all security domains through the blockchain identity network hence offering a mutual all-domain source of trust for digital identity and PKE. DID forms stipulate a DID’s certification and approval methods and also facilitate innovation and collaboration with an entity through its blockchain printed service portals. Service portals found in every network domain act as a means of accessing an entity’s conforming organization of certifiable permits, presentations, and other useful data. 

For instance, a target entity can contain a service portal positioned on both an uncategorized network and a categorized network. Uncategorized information regarding the target can be retrieved from its Uncategorized Service Portal on the uncategorized system. Uncategorized certifiable presentations of a categorized target feature can be shared through the cross-domain guard and accessed on the uncategorized domain through the uncategorized service portal. 

The diagram below shows how a smart contract on the targeting blockchain implements target selection criteria for a suggested target/weapon system arrangement:     

  • A target squad participant hands a transaction suggestion for a target (recognized by its DID) to be considered suitable for a mission using a particular weapon system (recognized by the weapon system’s DID) to approving nodes of the targeting blockchain network. 
  • The targeting blockchain network’s chain-code employs the two DID opinions to question the target’s and the weapon system’s service portals for the specific data necessary to apply the TSS strategy. 
  • The service portals return supportable presentations of mandatory characteristics sharing only the minimum contentions needed by the chain code.
multi-domain command and control targeting
Source: Blockchain Pulse: IBM Blockchain Blog

Not demonstrated in the diagram, the chain-node authenticates the provable presentation signatures using public keys from the identity ledger inputted to the DIDs, utilizes the attribute information to authorize target suitability using the chain node’s business rationality, produces a random ledger read/write set with the determination, and regenerates a signed recommendation. Then, also not illustrated, the signed recommendations are gathered and send to the blockchain orderer for circulation throughout the cross-domain, targeting blockchain nodes for commit.

  • The targeting blockchain network peer nodes give reports upon commit. 
  • After getting a commit report, the target squad member gives a certifiable credential declaring that the target is suitable for attack by that weapon system. The declaration comprises the authorizing blockchain transaction ID and other extra information for thorough provenance. The target domain retains this supportable record plus all other permits that have been dispensed to it, affirming the other attributes. Uncategorized provable presentations of this categorized certifiable credential may be formed and disseminated to uncategorized domain service portals. 

The U.S. Air Force’s senior commander has made multi-domain command and control targeting one of his top priorities. Further reports suggest that now he aspires to see it become the Pentagon’s first development initiative.

How Blockchain technology can be used to coordinate other industries

Blockchain can also be used to co-ordinate the supply chain process in the pharmaceutical industry. All transactions, from the sourcing of drugs to the actual sale can be transparently documented and kept without the likelihood of ex-post information meddling. Once a transaction is initiated, it is kept on the blockchain and is unchangeable. As a result, pharmaceutical firms will be able to prevent human errors, logistical delays, and minimize expenses. 

The technology can also be used to coordinate the energy sector. A confidential blockchain alliance chain offers an energy distributed ledger and energy trading smart contract services. Energy internet comprises of energy resources, energy transmission, energy distribution, energy consumption, energy storage, and other distributed resources, and supports coordinated control and market trading.  

The value of blockchain-powered MDC2 targeting

Blockchain-powered multi-domain command and control targeting can facilitate, speed up, and secure MDC2 targeting operations by offering reliable, trusted identity and permits for all targeting domains throughout their lifecycle. Smart contracts execute targeting strategies on a cross-domain targeting consortium blockchain. This in turn, shares targeting information selectively across domains through certifiable badges and confirmable presentations.  

A distinct cross-domain blockchain identity network acts as a source of trust for digital identities to PKE and all involved members (person and non-person) in the targeting course who issue, keep, present, and authenticate credentials and their presentations without leakage of confidential identifying information. 

When combined, these solution features offer the targeting squad and their supported operation officers with a dependable, provable end-to-end attribution for all target-based data and policy-related resolutions within and across different security domains. This blockchain-powered solution offers cross-domain, cross-national, cross-functional, cross-organizational targeteers and users of targeting intelligence with a confidential joint operational image of each target and its features, precise situational awareness of the targeting process itself, and guaranteed execution of targeting and security strategies. The ultimate result is an enhanced process with more accurate multi-domain command and con trol targeting. 

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