The game industry was one of the earliest industries to adopt blockchain tech. And as the years go by, blockchain developers are discovering more frontiers for blockchain applications in the industry.
Blockchain offers a lot for the gaming community: better safety and security, a decentralized gaming environment, and no geographical barriers.
CocosBCX (CocosBlockchain Expedition) is one of the gaming solutions’ effort to emerge from the blockchain space. The platform provides a fairer, safer, and more interactive gaming environment for both developers and players. And players don’t just play – they too can make money from the experience.
In this article, we break down CocosBCX and how it hopes to vastly improve the gaming experience for gamers across the globe. We’ll also see its unique approach to the thorny ‘blockchain trilemma’ issue. And lastly, we’ll look closely at the platform’s token and its role in the picture.
Understanding CocosBCX
Launched in November 2017, CocosBCX is a blockchain endeavor to provide a decentralized, safer, and more dynamic environment for game developers. It features visualized development kits with which developers can create games graphically in a blockchain environment. And they get to do this without dealing with the technical part of the blockchain – which removes the barriers of entry for developers around the world.
CocosBCX says its mission is to “bring users a whole new gaming experience, unprecedented gaming status, and with all the assets obtained in the games being wholly owned by the users.”
The CocosBCX team envisions the following for game developers and players:
- a just, fair, and transparent environment without the unfair item drops prevalent in centralized game environments. Instead, players can save their assets permanently and securely
- Enable developers to make money through a fair economic model supported by the blockchain
- Provide developers with convenient and safer distribution channels for their games
- Help players gain more from the time and energy they spend on games. This time and energy can be assetized, stored, and commercialized
Key Elements of CocosBCX
To achieve these goals, CocosBCX relies on a stack of key elements, which are:
- Cocos Blockchain Expedition – It aims to create a full array of solutions for blockchain-based game development and game economy
- CocosChain – CocosBCX’s public blockchain, which uses the delegated proof of stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism to achieve consistency and fairness for all block witnesses
- NHAS-1808, an in-house token standard for both fungible and nonfungible tokens
Core Features
- CocosChain, which supports game-centric data, interoperability of various blockchains, and so on
- An environment supporting the compatibility and interoperability of various systems and blockchains
- A crypto exchange enabling transactions and traits of both homogeneous and non-homogeneous assets
- A cheat-proof mechanism complete with authentication systems that’s fair to all network players
How CocosBCX Solves the Blockchain Trilemma
CocosBCX attempts to solve the blockchain trilemma, or what it calls the ‘Impossible Triangle.’ In blockchain, the blockchain trilemma refers to the notion that a blockchain cannot support the features of decentralization, security, and scalability all at the same time. The idea is that for a blockchain to achieve two of these features, it has to sacrifice the third one.
CocosBCX admits the complexity of the blockchain trilemma but attempts to solve it nonetheless. The team says they have “made the ‘length’ of the impossible triangle as short as possible” through several design approaches. Let’s do a run-through of how – by looking at all the three elements.
#1. Decentralization
CocosBCX aims to achieve the highest levels of decentralization via several design principles – a DPoS mechanism, enabling a low risk for hard forks, and light nodes.
- A DPoS mechanism
CocosBCX utilizes an improved DPoS mechanism where all active witnesses equally participate in block generation and get equal rewards.
- Low forking risk
CocosBCX’s DPoS consensus layer removes the need for miners. Unlike in a mining network where a large group of miners can hijack a large share of computing power, increasing forking risk, DPoS increases decentralization, effectively reducing the probability of forking
- Light nodes
A light node is the opposite of a full node. Unlike a full node, a light node does not store the whole copy of the network’s data, just the most recent transaction information. A light node contributes to the network while consuming fewer resources than a full node. Such design is not only time-saving but also allows capacity for interaction with the network. Users can use a light node and get to interact with the CocosBCX blockchain.
#2. Security
The CocosBCX network tries to achieve the maximum possible security for players. Let’s see how:
- Assets operation by the player only
Things like in-game props are owned and can only be discarded by the player if they so wish
- Multi-step verification process
Apart from the verification needed for transactions, game developers will set up a 2-step authenticator involving a random code to provide an extra layer of security
- Modern cryptography
CocosBCX utilizes elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) to provide the highest level of security for player assets
- Iterative smart contracts
CocosBCX supports tech updates and regular bug fixes, so that smart contracts are not just secure but also timely.
#3. Scalability
CocosBCX’s upper-most layer is designed to handle an entire business ecosystem with support for decentralized gaming and a game economy. The layer consists of a game engine, a conducive game creation environment, and a blockchain-based game chain that takes it global.
DPoS Consensus Mechanism
As we’ve mentioned previously, Cocos-BCX utilizes a DPoS consensus mechanism for block generation and continuation of the network. Scheduled participants in the DPoS network are known as witnesses. At any time, a network requires a minimum of 11 active witnesses and a maximum of 101.
All active witnesses have the same block generation probability, and block generation rewards are consistent across the board. New blocks are generated every 3 seconds and are considered valid when 70% of active witnesses complete production.
If the scheduled witness does not produce blocks, no blocks will be minted for that time slot. The network will wait for the next scheduled witness to generate blocks. The voting of witnesses is done every 12 hours.
COCOS Token
COCOS is the native cryptocurrency of CocosBCX. It is an essential part of the network, playing the following roles:
- As payment for gas fee by developers
- For staking so as to take part in the DPoS consensus
- For staking to participate in the governance of the network
Distribution of COCOS
COCOS token was distributed as follows:
- 6.3% went to the first private sale
- 16.1% went to the second private sale
- 17.0% of went to the CocosBCX team
- 4.0% went to the project’s advisors
- 7.6% went to the user incentives program
- 10% went to Eco partner incentive
- 9% went to the treasury
- 30% will go to the DPoS reward mechanism
Key Metrics
As of September 3, 2020, COCOS traded at $0.000399 with a market cap of $15,690,510, which placed it at #398 in the market. The token has a 24-hour volume of $1,222,863, a circulating supply of 39, 326, 586, 220, and a total and maximum supply of 100 billion. Also, the coin’s highest and lowest ever price was $0.002425 (Aug 21, 2019) and 0.000194 (March 13, 2020).
Storing and Buying CocosBCX
If you’re interested in grabbing some COCOS, you can find it in a variety of exchanges, including Binance, MXC, HotBit, Gate.io, CoinDCX, Hoo, Citex, DragonEx, HitBTC, and Sistemkoin. The coin is listed as a pair of both Fiat and cryptocurrencies such as USDT, BTC, and BNB.
The CocosBCX team offers an official wallet available for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Explorer.
Final Thoughts
CocosBCX provides fresh blockchain-based solutions for gamers and game developers everywhere. Users can expect diligently designed solutions when it comes to decentralized, secure, and scalable gaming experience – thanks to the team’s methodical approach to the impossible triangle dilemma.