Ubisoft is joining Google, IBM, Wipro, LG and others on Hedera’s governing council as it doubles down on crypto

• Ubisoft is doubling down on its crypto ambitions with a new partnership with the Hedera network.
• The company will be sitting alongside Google, IBM, Wipro, Tata Communications, LG, and Boeing as part of the Hedera Governing Council.
• The Hedera network’s native cryptocurrency is called HBAR but the platform does not use blockchain technology.

A person doesn’t normally put gaming giants in the same bucket as IT enterprise companies like IBM and Wipro, but Ubisoft is looking to buck the trend. The gaming giant is doubling down on crypto, despite backlash from gamers for its blockchain ambitions, by partnering with the Hedera network.

As a part of the deal between the two, the French gaming company will join Hedera’s Governing Council and operate a node on its network. The governing council already includes 25 other companies — including Google, Boeing, Tata Communications, Wipro and IBM — but Ubisoft will be the first from the gaming industry.

The council also includes one of India’s top engineering colleges, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

To be fair, Hedera isn’t exactly a ‘blockchain’. It uses hashgraph consensus mechanisms to secure and maintain its network, which are different from proof-of-work (PoW) and proof-of-stake (PoS) or even Solana’s proof-of-history (PoH).

However, the Hedera network does have its own native token called HBAR. And, with it, come use cases that would fall under the umbrella of Web3, touted to be the next generation of the internet.
Hashgraph versus blockchain
As compared to blockchain, hashgraph uses less computation power, and thus, less electricity. It also boasts of speeds and the capability of pushing through up to 500,000 transactions.

In comparison, most blockchains platforms are only capable of processing between 100 to 10,000 transactions per second.

While the Hedera network is public, the hashgraph technology is patented by a company called Swirlds. The Hedera network has all the features of the hashgraph consensus algorithm albeit with a few tweaks.

Nevertheless, maximalists argue that not being open-source defeats the underlying objective of decentralisation, which drives much of the crypto ecosystem.
Gamers aren’t on board with Ubisoft’s crypto plans
Ubisoft was the first major gaming company in the world to launch in-game non-fungible tokens (NFTs) when it announced its plans back in October. The company went on to launch its NFT platform, Ubisoft Quartz, with the game Ghost Recon in December last year.

These NFTs, or ‘digits’, are collectible in-game items like vehicles, weapons and pieces of equipment.They have been dubbed ‘limited edition’ items, since there will only be a particular amount of each available item.

However, gamers saw this as nothing more than a ploy by Ubisoft to make more money rather than add any value to overall gaming experience — a sentiment pointed out by The New York Times report as well.

“To me, this is a sign that the project is literally abusing the Ghost Recon franchise to make a quick buck while putting little effort into the actual game itself,” said one of the top video comments on Ubisoft’s YouTube preview of its NFT project.

Ubisoft has nevertheless decided to soldier on with its plans for crypto in the gaming sector unlike its competitor, Vauld, which has taken a hard stance against crypto games getting listed on its gaming platform, Steam.

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