Building a Solution to Scale and Create more Sophisticated Decentralized Games: Cartesi Provides the Required Alternative to Centralized Gaming

Helen Imah
4 min readApr 26, 2022

The origin of video games is traced back to the 1950s and 1960s when computer scientists designed a prototype of simple games on minicomputers. These games were exciting and had mental health benefits; hence they were met with a high level of adoption.

As time passed, the gaming industry grew and advanced to the level of Sega, PlayStation, Xbox One, etc. Gaming companies like EA, Activision, Hasbro, etc., produced an advanced level of gaming, year after year, to impress and retain their customers, but they couldn’t remove one thing: centralization.

For long, centralized mega corporations have dominated the gaming industry. They have controlled how the game is produced, sold, and played. Their primary focus has been their pockets; although they have strived to improve their game design and distribution, monopolization remains a problem.

As with humans and freedom-seeking, people began to question the monopolization of these gaming companies and decided to provide a better alternative.

Decentralized Gaming

Imagine a world of gaming whereby you are in total control of your in-game assets, you are assured of adequate rewards for your efforts in playing, and you are not living in fear of your account being monitored, suspended, or hacked. This is what decentralized gaming offers.

Decentralized gaming can be defined as any game built entirely or partially on blockchain technology. These games adopt Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) concept, where key decisions are made by the game players, as opposed to centralized gaming, where game companies are responsible for making every decision. The addition of blockchain technology enables security, transparency, and proof of ownership.

Decentralized gaming is transforming the way we approach gaming. Now, users are no longer forced to pay before they play. They can create or participate in already created games and are adequately rewarded for their efforts. These rewards come in governance tokens, created to serve as a utility in the particular gaming ecosystem. Anyone with these tokens can decide how the game is being operated upon.

In order to protect the interest of gamers/investors and the platform, eligibility to make decisions on how the platform is governed is dependent on the size of a user’s tokens. The more tokens you have, the more possible it is for you to be selected as a decision-maker. With this, abusers of the platform are minimized or eliminated as they will have to spend their assets or resources to get more tokens and would be at a loss if they abuse the platform.

Several platforms have put forth the decentralized gaming idea to gamers worldwide, but a particular platform stands out in this field. They offer a more ample opportunity for gamers and game developers to achieve a seamless blockchain gaming experience.

Cartesi

Cartesi is the first Layer-2 Blockchain Operating System (OS) that enables the development of decentralized applications (dApps) across several blockchains.

Erick de Moura, Colin Steil, Augusto Teixeira and Diego Nehab founded Cartesi in 2018. It began as a trustless artificial intelligence marketplace, but it has since transformed into a Layer 2 project, improving blockchain scalability and other limitations.

Cartesi incorporates a comprehensive and sophisticated Linux operating system to help the development of scalable DApps. It also enables the execution of complex computations off-chain, free of all Blockchain constraints and unnecessary charges, while retaining decentralization and optimal security. In summary, Cartesi can be used to create scalable and robust DApps.

Key Components of Cartesi

Cartesi uses a hybrid system of on-chain transactions and off-chain computations to bring standardized software development procedures to blockchain technology.

Off-chain computations include:

The Cartesi Machine

The Cartesi Machine is a virtual machine based on Linux infrastructure and is used by Cartesi nodes to execute dApp computations before broadcasting the results to the blockchain.

The Cartesi Machine emulates a RISC-V microprocessor and is capable of booting a real operating system. This enables Cartesi to fulfill its aim of providing a unique environment for dApp developers.

Noether

Noether is a sidechain of the Cartesi project and serves as a data availability oracle. Noether is responsible for recording and storing data that is temporarily needed and disposed of afterward. Disposing of temporarily needed data saves space and enhances productivity for the blockchain.

On-chain components include:

  • A cryptographic hash on the blockchain represents the Cartesi Machine’s state and its associated dApps. This hash contains all off-chain dApp operations, allowing the network to ensure transparency and honesty.
  • Cartesi Rollups: Cartesi Rollups consist of smart contracts designed to facilitate the relationship between off-chain components and other smart contracts. They are composed of several modules, each with separate responsibilities.

Conclusion

The components that make up the Cartesi network are broader than the abovementioned components. The most important aspect to note about the Cartesi network is that features are put in place that serves developers with the best platform and tools to develop decentralized applications.

Cartesi’s integration of Linux’s sophisticated tools is just the tip of the iceberg, as other limitations faced by dApp developers, like security, runtime, and transparency, are all rectified by the Cartesi ecosystem.

If you are a DApp developer who has been facing any limitations or demoralization in the field, get close to the features provided by Cartesi and enjoy a seamless developing experience.

For more information about the Cartesi project, you can check out the links below:

Cartesi Website: https://cartesi.io

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cartesiproject

Blog: https://medium.com/cartesi

Telegram Community: https://t.me/CartesiProject

Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/cartesiannouncements

Discord (Development Community): https://discordapp.com/invite/Pt2NrnS

GitHub: https://github.com/cartesi

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/cartesi/

Want to start staking your CTSI in a pool? Go to https://explorer.cartesi.io, it’s really easy to follow…

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Article Written by Helen IMAHCartesi Nigeria Ambassador

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Helen Imah

I’m a TECH Lover, Blockchain Enthusiast, Strategic Digital Marketer, Data Scientist, Crypto Investor & Trader…