There are over 55.2 million online gamers in the United States, with this number expected to grow another 3% by the end of 2020. Moreover, worldwide online gaming traffic accounts for over 915 petabytes of data per month, with this number expected to rise another 79%.
Despite this prevalence, one of online gaming's greatest issues persists: latency. Online gaming currently uses a predictive physics approach, using a client's hardware and software to predict how a server will respond. This is presented to a user immediately while the awaiting server confirmation. What does this look like from the user's perspective? A user's button press is reflected in gameplay without delay, providing a single-player reaction time during multiplayer interactions.
However, as videogames are increasing in their complexity and hardware demands, traditional methods cannot solve this problem. This is where blockchain technology can offer some assistance. IBM was recently issued a patent for game data offloading to a blockchain. By using a blockchain-based model, a significant portion of a game's processing is able to be offloaded to the client-side, reducing overall server strain.
This would solve numerous online gaming issues, preventing situations like the most recent Electronic Arts-sponsored FIFA 2020 e-sports qualifying event. Server issues led to professional players resorting to Rock, Paper, Scissors to determine the victor. It's 2020. Professional e-sports events should not have to settle matches using a game from 206 BC.
