Online gaming has become more exciting than ever. It’s not just about playing the latest interactive games or the mouthwatering bonuses players get to receive from using a betting platform. Still, they stand to gain rewards when they use the new world money called “cryptocurrency.”
More than 13,000 cryptocurrencies exist today, with the ever-popular Bitcoin leading the way. Digital currencies built on the blockchain come with many benefits like privacy, anonymity, security, investment opportunities, payment solutions, and faster transaction processing time. No wonder an increasing number of gaming platforms today choose to adopt crypto as betting options.
But while most digital currencies exist for different reasons, only a few coins have been developed to cater to the gaming industry and the unbanked population at the same time. One such cryptocurrency is the Atari token developed by the Atari Group.
What is Atari Group?
Atari Group is a U.S.-based video game development company on a crusade to help many gamers get paid while giving access to financial services to nearly two billion unbanked people globally.
The company was established in 1972, but it has taken proactive steps to remain relevant by delivering into the cryptocurrency industry and creating crypto-related solutions.
Atari hopes to accomplish its vision of helping gamers get monetary rewards for their game time by replacing in-game assets like coins with real money through its native cryptocurrency dubbed the Atari token (ATRI). The company is also focused on making efforts to see its native cryptocurrency be used for global payments.
Problems Affecting the Gaming & Financial Industries
As part of its quest to get the best offerings for video game players and all participants in the financial space, Atari identified two unrelated problems associated with these sectors that it believes it could solve with one solution.
Lack of Monetization for Gamers
The gaming sector, which is expected to grow to over $2.2 trillion by the end of the year, has little to no way players can get paid while playing their favorite games.
For instance, in today’s gaming industry, only a few gamers monetize their game time, which is made possible by the inception of blockchain games.
Although this has not been a major topic of discussion since gamers are still having fun with the excitement that comes with playing these games, Atari believes players’ engagement with the games can be bolstered if they are given the opportunity to earn money playing.
Financial Exclusion
To date, most adults living in developing countries do not have access to basic financial services, such as loans, savings accounts, etc.
According to a report by the World Bank, over 1.7 billion adults, primarily women, poor households, and people who are out of the workforce, lack access to banking services.
The World Bank report further suggests that putting more effort into granting these underbanked adults access to basic financial services will help reduce extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity.
Unfortunately, despite the growing list of traditional financial institutions, several adults still don’t have access to financial services.
Atari Solutions
With these issues in mind, Atari uses its native cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to provide solutions that aim to solve these problems, among others. Through the Atari solution:
- Gamers can now convert their in-game assets like game coins into ATRI, which can be sold for real money across major cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Underbanked and unbanked individuals can participate in world economies by adopting the ATRI token, which gives them access to a secure payment system.
- Online cryptocurrency bettors can explore the Atari casino by wagering on the more than 200 games listed on the platform.
- Cryptocurrency investors can also securely store their coins and tokens, as well as fiat currencies using the Atari smart wallet.
- Users can swap selected crypto-to-crypto pairs via the wallet’s in-built cryptocurrency trading platform.
Components of Atari Group
In April, Atari announced a rebranding initiative that saw the company split into two major parts: Atari Gaming and Atari Blockchain.
Atari Gaming
The rationale behind the development of this division is to focus exclusively on gaming, which Atari believes will contribute immensely to its balance sheet.
Although Atari has been a significant gaming pioneer for five decades, the company has made tremendous efforts to ensure it acquires twenty-first-century relevance by launching a gaming console called the VCS, powered by blockchain.
The console is one of the major parts of the Atari crypto-focused ecosystem, which features over 200 games, such as Pong, Asteroids, and Centipede Recharged.
As mentioned earlier, players can conveniently convert the assets earned during gameplay to real money.
Atari Blockchain
With the creation of Atari Blockchain, all products and services related to the company’s blockchain business, including the ATRI token, the smart wallet, and a decentralized exchange, are grouped under this arm.
The blockchain division, which is under the management of Frédéric Chesnais, the former CEO of Atari Group, will focus on the opportunities associated with crypto and blockchain-based games.
Chesnais was made head of the division because he was responsible for pushing the company into adopting blockchain and cryptocurrency.
The move helped turn Atari’s fortune from almost going bankrupt into being positioned for long-term growth.
The Team
The Atari Group is headed by Wade J. Rosen, who took over from Chesnais earlier this year. Jean-Marcel Nicolai is the COO of Games and Partnerships, while Manfred Mantschev is appointed as the Head of Strategy.
The firm also has other professionals with vast knowledge in the crypto, gaming, and online gambling industries.
Atari Partnerships
Since the company’s launch, it has partnered with notable firms, including Enjin, Animoca Brands, Litecoin Foundation, Game Taco, Native Gaming, Blockchain Game Alliance, etc.
Atari Products and Services
It is worth noting that the entire Atari ecosystem has five core offerings, which include the smart wallet, decentralized exchange, online cryptocurrency casino, credit card, and the Atari token.
Let’s explain each of these products.
Atari Smart Wallet
The wallet is a solution developed for the secure storage of the ATRI token. Although the $ATRI token is why Atari chose to launch the wallet in the first place, the company has made it possible to help you store, send, and receive five other cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Binance Coin, Ethereum, and USDT.
Not only will the Atari Smart Wallet act as a storage solution for your crypto assets, but you can also perform basic cryptocurrency exchange operations at zero cost.
You can download the app on your Android or IOS device.
Aside from using the wallet to store, send, receive, and exchange crypto, some other features of Atari Smart Wallet include:
- Supports fiat storage, such as USD, Euro, and GBP.
- Payment via email, chat, and SMS.
- Fiat-to-crypto exchange and vice versa.
- Paying for goods using supported cryptocurrencies via the Atari credit card.
- Human readable addresses.
Atari Decentralized Exchange
Atari runs a mini decentralized exchange known as the Atarichange. The trading platform allows users to swap among three cryptocurrencies: ETH, ATRI, and Fantom (FTM). According to the company, it plans on adding more cryptocurrencies in the future.
In order to use the decentralized exchange to perform any operation on your PC, you will be required to connect your Metamask wallet add-on to the DEX.
However, if you plan to access the exchange via your mobile device, you can only do so from the smart wallet application.
Atari Casino
The Atari casino was launched in March 2021, following a partnership with Decentral Games, a popular 3D metaverse game developer.
The platform is featured on a virtual 20-parcel casino estate located in the casino quarters of Vegas City in Decentraland, with plans on the way by Atari to launch in real Vegas in the first half of 2022.
The casino features Atari-themed games, and players can earn DG, the native token of Decentral Games. DG can be earned while playing a game with any of the selected cryptocurrencies such as ATRI, DAI stablecoin, and MANA, the cryptocurrency used to pay for items on Decentraland.
Atari Credit Card
With the Atari credit card, users can make payments for goods and services using cryptocurrencies. Even though the vendor accepts only fiat, the credit cards will convert the cryptocurrency to its cash equivalent, and the value will be deposited into the vendor’s bank account.
It is important to note that the credit card can only be used in combination with the Omni smart wallet, as you would be required to authorize the transaction from the app for safety reasons.
This assures you that even if you misplaced the card, your funds would still be safe.
The Atari Token - ATRI
The token is the main product of Atari. It is built on the Ethereum blockchain with the intention of solving more than just one problem.
In October 2020, Atari announced the public sale of their ATRI token and partnered with Bitcoin.com exchange to conduct the token sale, with an initial price of $0.25 at the time of the ICO. The company raised $1 million during the public sale. ATRI has a max supply of 7.7 billion tokens, with a market cap of over $44.1 million, according to data by CoinGecko.
The initial value proposition of $ATRI is for the token to replace non-valuable in-game coins with real-world money. According to the project’s whitepaper, gamers will have the opportunity to earn money via the token.
Aside from the token’s initial mission to help gamers, Atari considers making its token a global means of payment, which will be adopted for different purposes and across various platforms. The token will also provide financial services to the unbanked and underbanked populace across multiple parts of the world.
At the time of writing this line, the Atari token is one of the selected cryptocurrencies used in its casino, an online betting platform the company launched in collaboration with Decentral Games.
The Technology Behind ATRI
As mentioned earlier, ATRI lives on the Ethereum blockchain and other networks. According to the team, since the token is developed using the ERC-20 standard, it will enable simple token transfer, easy integration with Ethereum-based wallets, and decentralized applications (dApps).
Despite launching its token on the Ethereum network, the team noted that it is poised to increase its transaction per second (TPS) volume by adopting the famous Ethereum-based layer 2 scaling solution, Polygon alongside other scalable networks including Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Fantom.
This will help the token perform transactions off the Ethereum mainnet (layer 1), thus reducing fees and processing transactions faster.
Benefits of Atari Token
Secure: Since ATRI is developed on the Ethereum blockchain, users don’t have to worry about a possible manipulation on the path of the developers. This manipulation may sometimes involve the transaction history being tampered with or the addition of new tokens to the max supply, which could cause a sudden decrease in its value.
Easy Integration: Although Atari Group will first integrate its native cryptocurrency into various video games in order to help gamers earn money when playing their favorite games, the company is also planning to facilitate the token’s integration to different platforms.
Atari has made this possible by ensuring that different game developers can easily integrate the ATRI token into their games and other blockchain apps.
Liquidity: Users can exchange ATRI for other cryptocurrencies, such as BTC, USDT, ETH, and DAI, across various trading platforms. Aside from its decentralized exchange, the token is listed on Uniswap DEX, Quickswap, and Hotbit.
Atari is still working round the clock to ensure a possible listing of the cryptocurrency on major centralized trading platforms like Binance, KuCoin, Gate.io, etc.
Casino Game Access: With ATRI, you will be given unrestricted access to numerous online cryptocurrency casino games, including those currently available in the Atari casino.
This is one of the profitable ways to increase your ATRI holdings, as you may be lucky with your wager.
However, you should note that nothing is guaranteed in the online gambling space as there is a likelihood that you may record significant losses or lose all your funds. Based on this, you should only gamble with what you can afford to lose.
Player-to-Player Bets: Atari is currently developing games that will enable players to wager among themselves on the outcome of specific events using the token.
This form of betting could require some specialized skill before you can outsmart the other players in winning the prize money.
Final Thought
Atari offers more than just monetizing video games to allow gamers to convert in-game assets with real-world money. The interactive gaming company also offers unbanked individuals access to basic financial services via the ATRI token.
Users can pay for goods and services using the company’s credit card, as well as play their favorite casino games via the betting site.
In addition, you can also perform basic cryptocurrency exchange services and utilize the smart wallet to store the ATRI token and other cryptocurrencies.
