Minecraft players to get in-game crypto items soon

Two crypto firms have teamed up to offer blockchain-based items to Minecraft players 

With the help of Japanese exchange Coincheck and blockchain company Enjin, Minecraft is the latest video game to hop on the cryptocurrency bandwagon.

Players of Minecraft will soon be able to use in-game items that are imported from non-fungible Ethereum tokens. This new feature will be launched using a third-party plugin from Enjin.

An announcement made by Coincheck revealed the collaboration, promising that the new feature would be available to players sometime in 2020.

“Under this cooperation, the NFT that can be used in the popular game “Minecraft” issued through Enjin’s blockchain asset issuance tool “Enjin Platform” will be launched within 2020. We aim to handle it in the marketplace,” the announcement stated.

The tokens used for purchasing can be imported into the game through Enjin’s EnjinCraft plugin, with each token corresponding to a separate item.

The companies have yet to clarify whether Coincheck will be issuing its own series of Minecraft-specific tokens, or if it would only be supporting Enjin’s existing line of non-fungible tokens (NFT).

“We have started studying the NFT marketplace business in August 2020, and are looking for companies to participate in the NFT marketplace with the aim of launching services within 2020. By deploying “NFT Marketplace” on our cryptocurrency trading service “Coincheck”, we will provide an environment where customers can trade more easily and safely to marketplaces such as NFT issuing companies,” it continued.

Enjin’s tokens are available for use in other games as well. The company’s Multiverse standard means that several other games also support their NFT.

“Currently, in the game industry, there are many games called “blockchain games” that can exchange NFTs of characters and items with crypto assets, as well as movables (contents, artworks, automobiles) and real estate using NFTs,” the announcement explained.

This is not the first time that tech entities have worked on integrating the use of cryptocurrency into the Minecraft game. Some dedicated players have set up unofficial servers that support Bitcoin payments, like BitQuest, MinecraftCC, PlayMC and SatoshiQuest. These servers give rewards to players based on their activity or on their capacity to find items.

Other third-party developers have also looked into creating clones of the game, such as Cryptovoxels and Craft.cash, both of which record land ownership on the Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash blockchains respectively.

While Minecraft itself has yet to provide any official support for cryptocurrencies, its fans have worked to fill the gap in their own creative ways.