Enjin Coin (ENJ) – ICO review

What is Enjin Coin?

Enjin is a crypto-currency backed platform built on the Ethereum blockchain which will enable online gamers to ​trade ​their assets ​from ​game ​to ​game, ​community ​to community, ​growing ​their ​digital ​wallet with ​real ​value ​as ​they ​play.

How does Enjin work?

What makes the Enjin platform so interesting, is that previously the items earned in-game had no real-world value; you can’t exchange them for anything of any real value, and their in-game value is restricted to the confines of the game in which the item belongs.

Enjin changes all of that. Now, players will be able trade their items with other players or sell their items in a marketplace in exchange for Enjin Coins. And it gets better – players will be able to use an Enjin wallet to port the coins earned in one game across into an entirely different game or community to use there. Players will also be able to mint items in-game which can be exchanged for Enjin coins.

Real world utility

In addition to the value which Enjin coins will have within the gaming context, there is also the real-world value to consider: players will be able to exchange Enjin coins in cryptocurrency exchanges for BTC which can ultimately be used as real-world currency (or further exchanged into fiat currency).

This type of platform brings a whole new perspective to the world of online gaming. Slaying beasts, completing tasks, and ‘discovery’ are some of the many ways players can ‘earn’ items through gameplay. The psychological ingredient that makes this such a powerful mechanism for making gaming addictive is called the ‘Anticipation of Reward’.

So now gaming has a purpose beyond the point of gaming for pleasure; gaming could now become an income generating hobby.

Market Size

The ​global ​gaming ​market ​is ​experiencing ​explosive ​growth, ​reaching ​US$108.9BN ​in ​2017 and ​a projected ​US$128.5BN ​by ​2020. Enjin is already the largest platform for hosting online gaming communities, with over 18.7 million registered uses. It is reasonable to expect Enjin to grow commensurate with industry growth.””

How will the value of Enjin Coins increase?

There are two factors likely to influence the long term value of Enjin coins: growth of the Enjin gaming community, and the requirement/attractiveness of using Enjin Coin as the cryptocurrency of choice across the Enjin platofrm. Growth of the player community hinges on Enjin’s ability to become adopted as the platform of choice by new and existing gaming communities. If big game titles have no affiliation with Enjin, then there’s no need for their communities to adopt the Enjin platform. And if the Enjin platform allows players to transact using a multi-currency wallet, then the value of Enjin coins will be weaker than if it was mandatory to exchange other cryptocurrencies into Enjin coins to facilitate transactions.

Enjin Coin Team

Judging by their Linkedin profiles, the Enjin team appear to be suitably skilled and resourced to make Enjin Coin a success. As an existing business, they have already demonstrated their ability to grow a niche proposition and rise to a position of dominance in their market.

The adoption of blockchain technology and the innovation it brings is a natural evolution for Enjin. And it seems they have some powerful advisors on board with Anthony Diiorio co-founder of Ethereum, and Pat LaBine – producer and technical director at BioWare.

Enjin Coin Roadmap

Enjin are an established business with a product already in market. The introduction of Enjin coins, blockchain technology, smart contracts, cryptocurrency wallet, and all associated functionality is due for completion by the end of 2018. If the roadmap is to be believed, then it is possible that Enjin coin will become useful as early as Q4 2017 with the release of the Minecraft plugin.

Enjin Token Sale details

Only ​1 ​billion ​ENJ ​tokens ​will ​ever ​be ​created. ​The ​ENJ ​tokens ​are ​intended ​to ​be ​allocated. Backers joining the ICO in the early stages were able to buy Enjin Coins for approximately $0.03 each (includes bonus allocations). People buying during the latter part of the crowd sale are being offered 3000 Enjin Coins per Ether.

At the time of writing, this puts the price per Enjin Coin at $0.10. Other coins in similar niches such as MobileGo (MGO) are currently trading at $0.65 per MGO token. This suggests that early backers are likely to make a short term gain immediately following the end of the crowd sale, with long term potential looking reasonable.

Conclusion

The idea of giving real-world value to the time invested in online games is a powerful innovation. The market size is already huge and is predicted to continue growing. Enjin have a suitably skilled team, an existing product, and a roadmap that promises to put Enjin Coins in market as a working entity within 6 months after completion of the crowdsale. The starting price point for early stage backers is attractive, and long term value expectations are reasonable given current performance of comparable tokens.