Niantic and Fold have created an AR game where you earn Bitcoin

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Have you ever played Pokmon Go and thought, I wish this game let you earn small amounts of Bitcoin by engaging with internet finance memes and a cryptocurrency debit card system? If so, I don’t believe you, but I have some good news.

Fold AR is a new augmented reality game from Pokmon Go developer Niantic and financial company Fold. The game that a press release is dubbing Part of the Metaverse is very loosely modeled on Pokmon Go but cryptocurrency-themed. As explained by Fold CEO Will Reeves, it works with the Bitcoin mining metaphor. So instead of capturing cute monsters, the central mechanic is finding cubes of binary code and touching them like Minecraft blocks until they reveal a prize.

The prices include Bitcoin in the denomination of Satoshis, a very small unit currently worth around 1 / 20th of a cent. They also include bonuses for Fold, which already gamifies card purchases through an app that lets you spin a wheel and earn Bitcoin rewards.

Unlike Pokmon Go and other Niantic games, however, Fold AR (which is launched from the Fold app) is currently not set in a world full of virtual locations that correspond to real-world locations. Instead, the game generates a block between 1 and 50 feet from the player every 10 minutes, reflecting the actual mining rate of Bitcoin. The team hopes to launch other features early next year, including a geocaching-like multiplayer system that lets you hide Bitcoin so your friends can find it, as well as some form of non-fungible token system. or NFT, based on Bitcoin.

The app is supposed to make Bitcoin more tangible

Part of the goal, Reeves says, is to make a virtual currency feel real by creating an AR setting for it. The game is filled with cryptocurrencies and meme stock jokes, with mechanics with names like Diamond Hands. But it’s supposed to appeal to both newcomers and existing cryptocurrency fans. It’s a wonderful experience to share with people, says Reeves. It is also reminiscent of the financial gamification found in the Robinhood non-crypto investing app.

More broadly, Fold AR is part of a trend called play to win which offers players rewards in cryptocurrency instead of pure in-game currency. The NFT Axie Infinity-based winning game has spawned a complicated economy. in recent years, although it seems much less likely here.

Reeves suggested that Niantic could take inspiration from Fold AR’s features, including the gaming system to win. However, he said there was no official roadmap for something like adding financial functionality to an existing Niantic game. He also didn’t specifically reveal which parts of the game Niantic has developed.

In a statement, Niantics Megan Hughes said games always help us push the boundaries of technology and allow us to incubate some of our boldest thinking, but we are seeing incredible opportunities across multiple categories, including payouts. . This isn’t an entirely new turn for the studio Ingress has featured advertising partnerships with Duane Reade and JambaJuice, among other companies. But with Niantic also increasingly focused on AR glasses, this could offer a sign of what kind of experiences this might involve.

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