In the popular esports first-person shooter game "Counter-Strike 2," a billion-dollar cosmetic market collapsed due to a mechanism update.
According to Esports News on October 8, the "Counter-Strike 2" skin market had reached a new high of nearly $5.78 billion. Another report from Eurogamer on Thursday noted that this update caused the market's value to evaporate by nearly $2 billion.
The game developer Valve changed the upgrade synthesis system, allowing players to combine five low-rarity (Restricted) skins into a knife or a pair of gloves, whereas these items were previously extremely rare. This move instantly increased the supply of knives and gloves, leading to a price drop, while the value of skins surged due to increased demand.
An adjustment by a video game company affected a large number of players, and it was one of the inspirations for Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to create blockchain.
Buterin stated that he had explained how he played "World of Warcraft" from 2007 to 2010 until the game company "removed the damage effect from my beloved Warlock's Life Drain skill." "That night I cried myself to sleep, and it was on that day that I realized the serious consequences of centralized services, so I quickly decided to quit," Buterin recalled.
Although blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) face widespread opposition in the gaming community, they may offer potential solutions to such issues. NFTs, often associated with tradable digital artworks, can be used for any digital goods, such as video game items.
By implementing smart contract-based digital items using NFTs, guarantees can be provided regarding what issuers can and cannot do. Smart contracts can limit the number of NFTs that can be issued in a series or set permanent rules for cross-series NFT conversions.
However, Martin Kupka, a general partner at Win Win Crypto Gaming Consulting, told Cointelegraph that simply using NFTs is not enough. "Even if every item is an NFT, the market will collapse in the same way because Valve retains complete control over the characteristics and uses of the items," he said, adding:
He suggested that once the game scales, establishing a community committee and making key decisions transparent would benefit all stakeholders.
While Kupka explained that NFTs cannot provide protection against such situations, he stated that smart contracts can. "This is the premise of 'fully on-chain' games: core game rules are immutably encoded on the blockchain, preventing unilateral sudden changes," he said.
Kori Leon, co-founder of crypto gaming infrastructure company Pixelverse, agreed, stating that "smart contracts can define clear rules from the start, making any changes predictable and transparent."
Catie Romero-Finger, CEO of the crypto service agency Babs, told Cointelegraph that the "Counter-Strike 2" skin collapse "is a harsh reminder that even billion-dollar economies can be entirely built on borrowed trust."
"What I see is centralization at work, changing the rules halfway through. Blockchain does not make the market less volatile; rather, it replaces unilateral control with transparent code," she said.
Nokkvi Dan Ellidason, CEO of crypto gaming infrastructure company Gaimin, told Cointelegraph that this collapse "exposed the fundamental flaws of a centralized digital economy." "This is not a real economy; this is a company's store," he said.
Ellidason stated that players are just "realizing in real-time that their 'assets' are merely privileges in Valve's private database that can be changed at any time."
Joana Barros, CMO of the crypto game My Neighbor Alice, told Cointelegraph that as the gaming economy continues to expand, transparency and immutability will be key. "As the gaming economy grows to compete with real-world markets, transparency and immutability are not just 'Web3 buzzwords'; they are fundamental consumer rights," she said.
Related: The French government will review the motion to "embrace Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies."
Original article: “Valve's 'Counter-Strike 2' Update Triggers $5.8 Billion Virtual Economy Collapse, Rekindling NFT Controversy”
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