Gaming Startup Lepricon Seeks to Drive Mass Adoption of Blockchain Technology

The token economy is exploding, as is decentralized finance. But no matter how brilliant these new ways of controlling and building wealth may be, they are not penetrating the mainstream market the way that they should. Joshua Galloway, Founder, and CEO at Lepricon.io, a community-driven hyper-casual games platform, believes he knows why.

Attacking the Mainstream Audience’s Real-Life Activities

“People need to hear about blockchain as it relates to an activity that means something to them. For example, Gamers understand in-game currencies, in-app purchases, and special game items and power-ups. If these are delivered on-chain, they become tokens, swaps, and NFTs.”

Galloway says that the next generation of token-financed companies must start attacking the mainstream audience’s real-life activities. He believes that gaming is the low-hanging fruit that can do this most quickly.

What is Lepricon?

Lepricon is a community-driven gaming platform specializing in hyper-casual prediction games that are fast and easy to play. It will launch with its first game, KQJ, at the end of March. KQJ is a simple card prediction game that enables you to obtain discounted bitcoin with a series of wins. Bitpool will follow the next quarter, where you win by predicting whether Bitcoin will increase or decrease in price in the next 60 seconds. The next quarter, they will release FansPredict, enabling people to stake on real-world events and esports.

On the other side of the coin, Lepricon offers DeFi features such as staking, yield farming, and swapping with additional tokens. The common oil in the machine is Lepricon’s operating token, L3P.

“The gaming and DeFi platforms are intrinsically linked, but participants on the DeFi side need not be participants in the games, and vice versa. The value of L3P will, in the end, be primarily driven by the vibrancy of the gaming platform.”

What led Galloway to found Lepricon?

“I’m originally from the games industry, where I spent twenty years working on AAA titles, mobile and social casino games. I moved into crypto about four years ago as a VP for a blockchain-focused VC.” He continues, “As long as five years ago, I could see that gaming and blockchain would eventually collide, creating a total disruption for the gaming industry and a massive on-ramp for the blockchain industry.”

Galloway sees a seismic shift in the ownership players will feel in the games they play when in-game currencies are on-chain.

“Game money has always been stored on a database and existed only inside the game. It had no other value and could be wiped out by the publisher or even in a server crash. But, you put that in-game currency on the blockchain, then it has real value. The player now has skin in the game, which transforms his or her relationship with the entire gaming experience.”

Does Lepricon have plans with NFTs?

“Yes!” says Galloway emphatically. “Non-fungible tokens will permeate every corner of the Lepricon ecosystem. There will be NFTs that are collectible as sets, some that offer advantages or power-ups in the games, and some that offer advantages to participants stalking on our DeFi platform. There will also be NFTs that act as proof of status in our reputation protocol, Shamrock.”

What are Lepricon’s most significant challenges?

Galloway says, “There are two important areas for us, one is on-chain speed, which is technology related, and the other is the user experience.”

When it comes to technology, Galloway refers to Ethereum’s known trouble with doing anything remotely quickly. To solve this, they are looking at L2 solutions, the first of which lies in their partnership with RioDefi, developing a Polkadot parachain called RioChain.

“We will be able to process more than 3000 transactions per second and with substantially reduced transaction fees through RioChain. Our players can jump in, and if they win, jump straight back out with their new L3P.”

As to gamers’ experience on Lepricon, this is where Galloway is clear that he views Lepricon as a gaming company, not a blockchain company. The use of blockchain technology is an enabler to improve the experience for gamers. He says, “Our user experience must match the expectations of a new player who expects to be able to get into a game with little or no instruction, be entertained, and then be able to put their phone down after just a few minutes, satisfied.”

What next for Lepricon?

“Lepricon’s operating token is about to go live on Uniswap on the 17th, so we are gearing up for that,” explains Galloway. “Once that is complete, the real work starts. Building out our platform, getting into the rhythm of at least one game launched per quarter, and continuing to add utility to L3P.”

“The future is community-driven and player-owned gaming economies.”