Additional reporting and interview by Michael Mislos

• Blockdaemon specializes in blockchain access, staking for institutions, and NFT key management solutions, supporting around 60 different protocols.
• The firm emphasizes on flexible approach, focusing on ownership, tradeability, and in-game item marketplace.
• Vranjes predicts significant growth in blockchain gaming, particularly in Asia, with ownership of in-game items becoming the norm in the next five years.

Andrew Vranjes, the Vice President of Sales and General Manager for Asia Pacific (APAC) at Blockdaemon, shared details of the company’s operations, collaborations, and future plans during one of the special BitPinas Webcast interviews at the Yield Guild Games Web3 Games Summit (YGG W3GS).

He also shared his predictions for the future of the web3 gaming space in the years to come.

(This is part of our recap series for the YGG Web3 Games Summit.)

What does Blockdaemon Do

According to Vranjes, Blockdaemon is a six-year-old business-to-business (B2B) company. They have personnel in the Asia Pacific region, and we were primarily based in Singapore. He noted that the firm has a global investor base including SoftBank, Compass, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Sapphire Lyrica, and Tiger, along with various crypto funds.

The company specializes in three main areas: blockchain access, staking for institutions, and non-fungible token (NFT) key management solutions. They provide support for around 60 different protocols, offering various access methods such as APIs, single nodes, and constant systems. 

Vranjes added that Blockdaemon initially began by providing nodes to simplify the complicated process of running nodes for builders. With a focus on proof-of-stake (PoS) chains, it was an early adopter of institutional staking, serving crypto-native companies, digital native firms, and traditional enterprises entering the blockchain space. Its staking services include an API for Ethereum, allowing institutions and exchanges to delegate to a large number of validators with a single gas fee.

Additionally, Blockdaemon acquired a leading NFT key management technology, integrating it into their offerings for crypto-native firms and large banks. 

He also added that the firm supports various protocols, including Solana, Aptos, Avalanche, and others, by providing white-label infrastructure and running Solana infrastructure for trading shops. Notable examples include working with QCP, which utilizes a clustered Solana cluster for training. 

Blockdaemon Collaborations

Moreover, Vranjes noted that in Korea and Japan, Block Demon has engaged with major gaming companies, such as WeMade, a publicly listed game company with a 20-year history. 

He disclosed that the focus with these companies is on blockchain gaming’s future, emphasizing in-game item ownership and the potential for trading on a marketplace. Consequently, Blockdaemon assisted these companies in setting up blockchain infrastructure, token considerations, staking strategies, and establishing a healthy validator ecosystem. The company’s involvement in these projects led to further engagements in the blockchain gaming ecosystem.

In response to a question on whether the company they collaborate with can request certain blockchain features, he stated that Blockdaemon focuses on flexibility in supporting gaming companies’ choices regarding blockchain visibility in their products. He added that they work with both blockchain-native companies that prominently feature blockchain and more traditional entities where the blockchain serves as an enabler.

“What really matters is ownership, tradeability and the marketplace for the in-game item. The blockchain is the facilitator from our perspective. It’s really up to the individual gaming studio to make those decision on what works best and we’re here to make sure that the experience of the user is uncompromised,” he explained.

Vranjes highlighted that the company collaborated with gaming protocols that require high throughput, low latency, and reliable blockchain functionality, especially those scaling on complex blockchains.

“They can use APIs and call our key management and have a much higher level of enterprise-grade security in key management, but they (partner firm) own all the users, the unit user interface. In any of these scenarios, the end gamer never sees Blockdaemon. We are here to talk to the ecosystem, the builders, but we don’t we don’t do retail. We don’t really face the gaming and users directly. We’re just, you know, behind the scenes,” he stated.

Future Plans

Looking forward, Vranjes disclosed that Blockdaemon is exploring the development of a more tailored key management solution for the gaming market, focusing on the software development environment.

They are considering different ways in which games can integrate wallets, ensuring a higher level of enterprise-grade security in key management while maintaining a seamless user experience.

“We are working our way through the gaming Market as well and we really feel like we’re a very good partner for you know, the gaming chains building really real-time games that have high-end blockchain requirements. That’s a good fit for us the the real-time heavy read/write transaction to train to train and then we’ve got some other stuff coming as well, you know into next year,” he added.

Future Outlook in the Web3 Gaming Industry

In the context of the gaming market, he envisions significant growth for blockchain gaming, with Asia and the APAC region leading globally. He believes that gamers, particularly in the APAC region, desire ownership of in-game items, which is driving the potential success of blockchain gaming.

His prediction states that in the next five years, owning in-game items through blockchain will become the norm, and this market opportunity will be primarily driven by developments in Asia.

“It is just a market opportunity that will be led largely by Asia in my personal opinion. Yeah, so it’s gonna happen here, that mix of sort of like smaller in the kind of games coming out of Southeast Asia, the Korean ecosystem, the Japan ecosystem, the Vietnam ecosystem like. I think we’re pretty convicted that it’s going to be driven from Asia and then that will kind of like go backwards, so to say into the US and Europe over time,” he stated.

Recent Blockdaemon News

Last month, Blockdaemon and Ledger collaborated to provide tailored enterprise-grade staking solutions for institutional clients. The partnership combines Blockdaemon’s proficiency in blockchain infrastructure management with Ledger Enterprise’s security solutions. 

The goal is to establish a dependable staking infrastructure, minimizing downtime and optimizing rewards for participating organizations. Additionally, the collaboration aims to educate institutional investors about the advantages of staking as a method for generating rewards and participating in blockchain networks, emphasizing security and user-friendliness.

This article is published on BitPinas: [Interview] Blockdaemon on the Future of Web3 Gaming Industry

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