Ethereum’s Hearthstone Rival Sets Volume Record After Blizzard Scandal

Ethereum (ETH) based trading card game Gods Unchained has far outstripped CryptoKitties by volume after a censorship scandal involving game-developer Blizzard.

As blockchain research platform Coin Metrics noted on Nov. 12, the past month has seen activity explode for the game, with interest dwarfing that of CryptoKitties at its 2017 peak.

Data: Gods Unchained volume five times higher

In terms of daily transfers of its non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Gods Unchained was recording almost 500,000 such transfers per day at the end of last week.

By contrast, even at the height of the CryptoKitties craze in late 2017, transfers there totaled less than 100,000.

The data underscores the backlash against Blizzard, the developer behind titles such as World of Warcraft, which last month became embroiled in a PR disaster involving China.

As Cointelegraph reported, the company rescinded prize money from the top player of its Hearthstone game, Chung Ng Wai (aka Blitzchung), after the latter voiced support for the Hong Kong protest movement.

Gods Unchained capitalized on the event, offering replacement winnings and other perks to Chung in a tweet which has now received over 33,000 retweets.

Price of control

As Coin Metrics notes, like Hearthstone, CryptoKitties players had considerably less control of their assets due to centralization.

“...Unlike Hearthstone, Gods Unchained is built on the Ethereum blockchain, and each one of its cards is represented by an ERC-721 token. This means that users truly own their cards and can trade them freely on the open market, similar to any other cryptocurrency,” it summarizes.

Somewhat ironically, Chinese authorities themselves subsequently went public with an endorsement of blockchain technology. 

At the end of last month, a raft of headlines emerged, among which was advice not to speak badly of blockchain or mistake the support for a shift in policy regarding cryptocurrencies.