With many thousands of cryptocurrencies available on the open market and new ones coming to market each day, it should come as no surprise that most appeal only to very niche audiences.
Today there seems to be a cryptocurrency for every ecosystem you can think of, and some you can barely imagine, all of them making a living – or trying to – by piggybacking on the success of larger blockchain projects.
FUNToken (formerly “Funfair”) is one of the more specific types of cryptocurrency, and oddly enough, one of the projects that could see enough use given time, to justify its own existence.
Rather than having its own blockchain, FUNToken leverages on the capabilities of the Ethereum blockchain. This ties its functioning and upgrades to the ETH network itself, bringing most of its benefits directly to FUNToken and giving the cryptocurrency the credibility that the Ethereum network confers. The concept behind FUNToken is simple: For decades, humans have used tokens symbolically as currencies on fairs, video game arcades, and casinos. The FUN Coin is an attempt to bring this model to the blockchain, thus creating a cryptocurrency that exists for the sole purpose of driving transactions within dApps and the virtual gaming world. While it might sound like a very small goal for a cryptocurrency, this specificity, along with its direct tie to internet gaming and gambling, is what makes FUNToken a relatively logical choice for a cryptocurrency. In an era where internet video games thrive and large casinos have ample virtual presence, the token is a relatively safe bet in the unpredictable crypto market.
FUNToken was created by Jez San, Oliver Hopton, and Jeremy Longley. All three of them have an extensive background in gaming design and development. This alone puts the cryptocurrency in the relatively small group of tokens created by people with actual experience in their target market. FunFair Technologies rebranded to “FUNToken” several years ago and they are headquartered in Singapore with more offices in London, Malta, Gibraltar, and Guernsey – an unusually large spread for a smaller, relatively niche crypto startup.
FUNToken does seem to have more pros than cons, at least on a technical level. The market for online gaming and gambling has surged over recent years, so there’s clearly enough space for it. More importantly, the transparency offered by cryptocurrencies can be a great tool when assessing a game’s claims and fairness, particularly when dealing with casino games. There’s also the chance that FUNToken might grow to become one of the de facto coins used for blockchain gaming, particularly among casino and gambling games. While this hasn’t yet happened, the cryptocurrency has been slowly gathering momentum, although the dApp gaming scene is still rather nascent at this stage. On the technical aspect, FUNToken offers Fate Channels – an off-chain solution that allows users to play or bet as many times as they want without requiring potentially dozens or hundreds of transactions, logging those on the blockchain only at the start and end of each play session. As an investment, FUNToken has some potentials. This is fitting, considering the very purpose of the currency. The market for the token is growing, and so is the number of users. Though it is still early days yet for the dApps and blockchain gaming markets, it’s difficult to predict where it might go, and whether its price will appreciate, depreciate, or remain static over the long haul.
When looking at niche cryptocurrencies, one could do much worse than FUNToken. Unlike many ill-advised crypto projects whose whole logic behind seems to be just “let’s put crypto on this,” FUNToken’s existence feels natural – and in fact, one might wonder why it took so long for somebody to make such a proposal. While the coin isn’t one of the main crypto tokens, and it isn’t likely to become one in the near future, it is quite likely to remain, or perhaps even find its standing in the blockchain gaming community. As such, it’s hard to see a grim future for the currency – it’s already established, it has a market, and its market is expected to grow steadily over time. FUNToken might not be the best investment token, but it offers a glimmer of hope that the horde of capital appreciation enthusiasts can grab right away.