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This is only one Possible Model Minecraft Marketplace is an online store that lets users purchase game skins, texture packs, mods, mini games, and other user-created game content for Minecraft. To buy content on this market, users must first exchange their fiat dollars to virtual tokens known as Minecoins. Minecoins are non-refundable and non-transferable, and can be purchased through App Stores or Microsoft account.  Monetizing user-generated content is one of the more profitable areas of Minecraft's business model, generating more than $500 million in revenue in the years since it has launched. Exactly how much of the Minecoin and Marketplace revenue is split with content creators is not publicly known, but-after accounting for 30% take-rates on App Stores-the remainder is assumed to be in the range of 50% shared with content creators.  Minecraft recently announced they will not allow blockchain-based purchases on their platform. Minecraft suggests this decision was taken to mitigate profiteering and ensure a safe experience for users. But this was also a logical business choice-allowing users to create unregulated and uncontrolled crypto markets on their platform could eaisly divert funds and profits away from Microsoft and their App Store partners.  an alternative model  I'd like to briefly propose an alternative model. This is unlikely to ever feature in Minecraft, but may used by experimental indie game publishers who are interested in decentralized networks.  1. A game publisher runs a zero-knowledge rollup on top of a decentralized blockchain like Ethereum. This allows for higher transaction throughput, lower fees, and privacy preservation. Because the rollup sequencer is centralized, they also maintain some control over the network activity-such as regulating payments so that revenue is not being diverted away from the publisher, complying with financial audits, and limiting the kinds of contracts that users can deploy.  2. When a user purchases the game with fiat or crypto, they (perhaps unknowingly) register a new account on the rollup through a transaction on Ethereum mainnet. The purchase fee covers the Ethereum gas, and can optionally be a source of consistent revenue for the game publisher.  3. Once registered, a user can use fiat or crypto to purchase Gold Pieces (GP) which is an ERC-20 that denominates some amount of USDC or DAI stablecoin tokens. For example 100 GP is always redemable for 1 USDC on Ethereum. This is the de-facto virtual currency for the game. Under the hood, it may also be used as the gas token for network fees, if necessary.  4. The publisher can include an in-game marketplace that sells expansion packs, textures, skins, game items, and so on in exchange for Gold Pieces. Content released here may be from the publisher, or from select content creators that the publisher has allowed. These assets are defined as ERC-721 tokens and may or may not involve scarcity (for example: a game expansion pack would have no supply limit, but a Rare Great Sword may be limited to a total supply of 100). Once purchased, these items are assigned to your account.  5. The publisher can optionally include a secondary marketplace. If you want to sell or swap some of your purchased assets, you can trade on this marketplace. "Secondhand" items may be treated differently by the game server and client, such as a different appearance or reduced attributes. This could, if desired, be less moderated than the primary marketplaces, such as allowing user-generated content from a wider range of creators.  semi-centralization  What I've described above could feel, for most users, functionally equivalent to how Minecraft and Minecoins works now. Many users would not be aware they are interacting with a blockchain. Non-crypto users can transact with Stripe and their debit card, and user-generated content could create revenue for creators.  However, there are some benefits:  - The developer is able to leverage open source software and the EVM for in-game purchases, marketplaces, records of ownership, and fraud-proof settlement, rather than relying only on corporate services (Stripe, Apple) and having to maintain their own vulnerable private databases for asset ownership. The rollup and its transactions will inherit the security of the base chain.  - Users can optionally choose to fund accounts and purchase in-game items through crypto to avoid intermediaries taking a 2-30% cut on each transaction (Stripe, Apple, Google), benefitting both the user and publisher Minecraft .  - Users can optionally register and interact with the game using a decentralized and non-custodial identity mechanism (such as EIP-4361), rather than setting up an online account that may require sharing personal data with the game publisher and/or its third-party payment and App Store partners. This allows for a single decentralized account than spans many games, rather than the typical centralized App Store monopolies.  - Crypto payment settlement for the publisher and its content creators can be in the order of minutes, rather than days or weeks (by contrast, Apple App Store payouts take about 45 days after an in-app purchase).  - Once you are finished with the game, or if you are a content creator earning revenue, you can redeem your Gold Pieces for USDC or DAI on Ethereum. This can be done in a permissionless way with an L1 escape hatch, so that the game publisher cannot block withdrawals (for example: if the publisher goes offline or becomes insolvent).  - If desired, users can also withdraw ERC-721 game items through this L1 escape hatch. This may be for sentimental value, or to grow a collection of verifiable achievements, high-scores, and keepsakes from your past gameplays.  - Purchases are recorded on a single, globally shared ledger across all devices and platforms. This is different than how Minecraft currently works, where certain in-store purchases are specific to that device, and the game license itself must be re-purchased through each different App Store.  Many current NFT/Web3 games are aiming to be fully decentralized, but it may be that centralized rollup sequencers will be a more suitable model for game publishers to ensure they can moderate and regulate some aspects of their in-game markets. Although the sequencer itself is centralized, I consider this a broadly "semi-centralized" system because there always exists a trustless L1 escape hatch that allows users to withdraw assets from the publisher's control back into a decentralized network.  One of the few games that is beginning to encompass some of these ideas is Dark Forest and due to its open source nature, anybody can use its code and contracts to build new content for the game (see Nightmarket).  This is just one possible model, with many potential considerations and pitfalls. There is no silver bullet, but enabling trustless withdrawals on purchased game tokens and reducing the 30% corporate take-rates would be good goals for gamers and game publishers to strive for.

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