The title says it all. Will it be an awesome game where people can earn bitcoin by competing? Will it be the lightning network allowing transactions to happen painlessly and without restrictions? A Library of content?
So much work is being done, but it still feels like we don't even have bitcoin wallets with nice GUIs and I know I'm not helping, it's not like I'm creating anything either. Is there something I'm missing?
This is a huge space and everyone is innovating, perhaps bitcoin is doomed to end up as digital gold, a safe place to hold and transact value and all the fun/frivolous things happening with alts. I hate all the restrictions placed on online gambling and all of that nonsense.
I wish I could play a competitive battle royale game where everyone bets some sats and everytime you kill someone you get a slice and the winner takes a big pot. I wanna bet on certain outcomes like what bitbet.us used to be. I wish I could buy stocks in a bitcoin stock exchange.
I mean, I have a lot of patience with bitcoin and big things are happening, with this past halving, our annual inflation rate is below the USD FED inflation target rate and I like that. I just can't wait for what's next to come.
I like the interface of Electrum (which is similar to core with enhancements), of course the PC version, the mobile version is dumbed down and misses some features. What do you want with a wallet interface anyway? To me a wallet must absolutely let you pick a transaction fee (so i can use 1sat/B, copy paste addresses and show / read qrcodes.
As for bets, I'm sure there are betting sites for esports and such. Or do you want the betting to occur in game? Most game developers avoid this because legislation would prevent their games from being released in many countries. This is not bitcoin's fault, its just that gambling is not seen the same worldwide. Of course, you could entice the Casino's or betting sites to develop their own games, but to them its cheaper and easier to simply let players bet on existing games. I doubt this situation will change much, and this is unrelated to Bitcoin.
To this i would add my own pet peeve: Why no MMO is using bitcoin or some altcoin directly at least? They all use some sort of virtual money that resides in a server, and many make you to buy fake money with real money for virtual items (not unlike plastic tokens in a casino i guess?). Some MMOs have very interesting economies going on, you can literally trade in their "auction house, or shop, whatever" depending on game even without you directly getting involved in the extraction or transportation (tho that can be done too). Of course this would be a way of allowing real money in those games.
I guess most of the problem lies in legislation. If you forfeit the US, EU and minors, you can probably have those games developed in some nice Caribbean country or such. Do you have the capital to start such endeavor?
Digital gold is not a problem, once you understand Austrian economics, which has always pushed for the use of gold (not a gold backed coin) as money. A century after those proposals, we have digital gold which is even better. When the world decides to adopt Austrian economics, current fiats and most altcoins will be a thing of the past. If the USD finally collapses (thanks to indiscriminate printing), this will probably get in motion since there is Bitcoin now.