Awards

Inaugural Gam3 Awards to honor the best Web3 games of 2022

Following the announcement, a representative confirmed that the venture capital firm Bitkraft would also be joining as a partner and member of the jury.

The inaugural edition of the Gam3 Awards — a new Web3 gaming awards event hosted by Polkastarter Gaming — is set to take place on Dec. 15, according to an announcement provided to Cointelegraph on Nov. 14.

The awards ceremony intends to recognize this year’s best Web3 games, highlight the developers behind them, and showcase blockchain as a net plus to the gaming industry. In the announcement, the Gam3 Awards said it hopes to celebrate the future generation of Web3-gaming builders by inviting game studios to nominate and recognize their own employees, developers and professionals across specializations who represent the future of Web3 gaming.

The event is set to be simultaneously broadcast across Polkastarter Gaming’s Twitch, YouTube and Twitter channels and will feature a jury comprising over 30 gaming and Web3 thought leaders, ecosystem partners and media outlets. Winners of the first Gam3 Awards will receive a portion of the $300,000 worth of prizes from sponsors such as ImmutableX, Blockchain Game Alliance, Machinations, Naavik and Ultra.

The event is set to bring together industry leaders, ecosystems and media outlets to reward the top game developers and content creators within the Web3 gaming ecosystem. Speaking with Cointelegraph, a representative confirmed that the venture capital firm Bitkraft would also be joining as a partner and member of the jury.

Judges will weigh each game based on multiple criteria including core loop, graphics, accessibility, replayability factor, fun elements and overall playing experience. Winners will be awarded based on categories such as “action game,” “mobile game,” “adventure game,” “casual game,” “RPG,” “shooter game,” “graphics,” “strategy game,” “card game,” etc.

Related: Crypto gaming needs to be fun to be successful — Money doesn’t matter

Despite the continuing bear market, Web3 and blockchain-based games appear to be growing in popularity and doing quite well. According to the analytical service DappRadar, blockchain games and metaverse projects raised $1.3 billion in the third quarter of 2022. The company’s research revealed that “gaming activity accounted for almost half of all blockchain activity tracked by DappRadar across 50 networks, with 912,000 daily Unique Active Wallets (UAW) interacting with games’ smart contracts in September.”

That’s ‘Sir’ Crypto Dad: French order knights former CFTC chair Chris Giancarlo

The first of his name, king of the punks and the first regulators, protector of the seven tokens, the keeper of the great CBDC, the breaker of blockchains and father of crypto.

The French government has given former United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair Chris Giancarlo, also known as “Crypto Dad,” the equivalent of a knighthood.

In a Tuesday tweet from Giancarlo, the former CFTC head said France’s National Order of Merit awarded him a Chevalier — the equivalent of a knighthood — in a ceremony at the French ambassador’s residence in Washington D.C. Those attending included current and former CFTC commissioners Rostin Behnam, Brian Quintenz, Christy Goldsmith Romero, Kristin Johnson, Caroline Pham, as well as Hester Peirce of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The order announced Giancarlo’s appointment in May. Phillippe Etienne, France’s ambassador to the United States, said the award was due, in part, to the former CFTC chair’s “understanding of financial markets and the potentials of crypto finance.”

“[This award] recognizes the creation of well-regulated crypto trading markets and strengthening of overseas regulatory ties with the help of many fine public servants during my time of government service,” said Giancarlo at the time.

Giancarlo worked as the chair of the CFTC for five years before leaving in April 2019. During his time with the government agency, he oversaw the launch of regulated Bitcoin (BTC) futures and was alleged to have had a “do no harm” approach to blockchain regulation, earning him the nickname Crypto Dad.

Since leaving the CFTC, Giancarlo has gone on to join blockchain investment firm CoinFund as a strategic adviser, the board of directors for blockchain startup Digital Asset, and briefly, the board of crypto lending firm BlockFi. He currently works as a senior counsel at the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Related: Emmanuel Macron on crypto: ‘I don’t believe in a self-regulated financial sector’

Other individuals who have previously been knighted by their respective governments have joined the crypto space in various ways. Sir Richard Starkey, also known as Beatles member Ringo Starr, launched his own line of nonfungible tokens on June 13. Star Trek star William Shatner, who tokenized a series of trading cards in 2020, was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2019 — though many have said the honor is not equivalent to a knighthood.