- Enjin announced a Minecraft plugin that allows ETH/ENJ token holders to utilise the tokens within the game
- Google is to be a Theta node validator, with potential avenues for collaboration further down the road
- Both projects are more evidence of blockchain adoption among household names
Blockchain adoption received a twin boost yesterday as two big deals were announced, with Enjin launching a Minecraft plugin and Theta signing up Google Cloud as a network validator. The twin announcements offer further examples of the willingness of household names to involve themselves with blockchain projects, with the partnerships helping smooth the road to wider blockchain adoption.
Enjin Announces Minecraft Plugin
Enjin kicked off the good news day with the announcement of EnjinCraft, a plugin for Minecraft, which allows users to integrate blockchain game items into their servers:
As a company, we’ve evolved in tandem with @Minecraft, and we’re proud to take the next step in this parallel evolution.
EnjinCraft, our blockchain #Minecraft plugin, is live!
Now, you can integrate, use, and trade blockchain game items in your server: https://t.co/LAITY7UyaO pic.twitter.com/MVLdGtihrG
— Enjin (@enjin) May 27, 2020
Since being purchased by Microsoft in 2014, Minecraft has recorded over 200 million sales and hosts 126 million players every month, and now crypto-holding players can integrate the technology into their gaming.
As explained in the blog describing the plugin, EnjinCraft allows players to utilize blockchain technology in a number of exciting ways, including providing players with special items and permissions, sending blockchain assets to players across secure peer-to-peer transactions, and more. The plugin is open source and can be adapted to meet the needs and specifications of all players, which fits perfectly with the Minecraft ethos.
While EnjinCraft will likely be a niche concept to begin with, it could really help introduce the power of blockchain technology to a younger audience in a safe and fun manner. Enjin seems to have paved the way for this deal when it signed a partnership with Microsoft last year, which resulted in a 60% pump at the time.
Google Cloud Joins Theta as Node Validator
Just an hour after Enjin’s announcement came some more good news on the blockchain adoption front, with decentralized video distributor Theta announcing that Google Cloud had signed up to be a node validator on their newly launched mainnet:
Get ready for Theta Mainnet 2.0 launch today! We’re thrilled to announce @googlecloud as our Mainnet 2.0 launch partner and the latest Enterprise Validator Node on Theta Network:https://t.co/LKQOLj3sEDhttps://t.co/cGfpbNTH8T pic.twitter.com/Kx5vfH2y1j
— Theta Network (@Theta_Network) May 27, 2020
Binance and Blockchain Ventures are among the companies already acting as external node validators, but the addition of Google Cloud takes the project out of the blockchain sphere and into the wider technology space. These external enterprise validators will validate new blocks on the Theta blockchain, with the company aiming to have 31 external enterprise validators in place eventually, although Google will not be staking any of their own money in the venture. Instead, Theta Labs will front 5 million THETA tokens on Google’s behalf.
Theta Labs hopes to work with Google on various aspects of the project, particularly around Google’s artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning initiatives. With Google also owning YouTube, this throws up the intriguing possibility of decentralized video streaming on a minastream platform.
Blockchain Adoption Keeps Growing
Ever since its creation, getting blockchain adopted in the wider world has been the true test of its abilities. Since the blockchain and cryptocurrency bubble of 2017, real strides have been made in terms of blockchain adoption, with some of the world’s biggest institutions and companies either working on their own in-house projects or trialing the solutions of third parties.
With every household name that gets involved in a blockchain project, blockchain adoption increases a fraction. This has the knock on effect of helping reframe the public’s perception of cryptocurrencies from mysterious, volatile internet money to critical aspects of blockchain systems.
