The headlines scream of opportunity: a UAE-based gaming platform, Rise of Fearless, is injecting $700K into Africa's burgeoning gaming scene, promising a Web3 revolution that will empower players and unlock financial freedom. At first glance, that seems like an amazing story. Now picture that digital silk road, spiced up with NFTs and play-to-earn mechanics. This road represents the bright economic future that’s possible for a continent teeming with young, dynamic potential! Before we uncork the champagne, let's ask ourselves: is this truly a gift, or a gilded cage?
Whose Digital Assets Are They?
The promise of Web3 is decentralized ownership. Players being able to truly own their in-game assets, freeing themselves from the control of centralized game developers. Let's be real. Who controls the Rise of Fearless platform? They determine who controls the rules of the game, what the tokens are worth, and who gets to play in their marketplace. The answer, inevitably, is the UAE-based entity.
Think of it like this: imagine a farmer being offered a new "decentralized" irrigation system, funded by a foreign corporation. The farmer will eventually own his share of the water rights, maybe indicated by a smart contract token. The company still holds the dam, the pipelines, and therefore eventually controls the flow of water. Is the farmer actually more empowered, or just attached to a different, more complicated web of dependency?
Yet this region continues to lack services for the 80 million unbanked adults. Many of these people depend on cash payments for their ag products. These are people who, due to circumstances beyond their control, live beyond the reach of the regular banking world. Are we really giving them the tools they need by ushering them into the chaotic realm of cryptocurrency and NFTs? Or are we just creating a new class of vulnerable users that may be easily taken advantage of?
- The Allure: Financial inclusion, ownership of digital assets, new earning opportunities.
- The Reality: Potential for exploitation, regulatory uncertainty, dependence on a foreign entity.
Data Privacy or Data Colonialism?
Web3 is built on data. Each trade, each purchase, each in-game move — completely transparent and accountable on the blockchain. Proponents of counts explain the transparency and security of this system. It rakes in shoals of data that track a player’s habits, preferences, and financial status.
Who owns this data? Where is it stored? How is it being used? These are important questions that must be answered before we toast the arrival of Web3 gaming in Africa. Because after all, data is the new oil, right? And history is full of examples of foreign powers pillaging resources from Africa, leaving devastation in their wake. Are we on the verge of a new kind of digital colonialism? At the same time, foreign corporations keep on profiting from African gamers’ data and monetizing the data of African gamers, while local communities gain nothing.
A cultural gaming platform inspired by the Ethiopian Battle of Adwa victory celebrates cultural identity. Now, it is on the receiving end of funding from a country with an immeasurably more different cultural and political environment. What assurances will there be to ensure that the game doesn’t stray too far from its original form? How do we make sure that it remains free from the more insidious influence of investor agendas?
Job Creation or Value Extraction?
Fearless implementation will spark a new era of job creation across the African continent. What sort of jobs are we referring to? The real question is, are we enabling African developers, artists, and entrepreneurs to create their own Web3 ecosystems? Or are we just producing a labor market for TikTok owned by the Chinese?
Joint report released last week on the MENA region’s venture capital activity. Flat6Labs’ collaboration with Tamwilcom in Morocco, and Sadq from Saudi Arabia winning their way through to funding, are examples of burgeoning investment interest across the region. Is this investment truly moving the needle on innovation and entrepreneurship? Or is such a notion merely a guise to squeeze out value and centralize power to themselves?
We should beware of solutions that promise long-term benefits while they raid the fund for short-term solutions. An African designed, developed, and operated Web3 gaming ecosystem that empowers Africans would look markedly different than one created outside of the continent. It takes commitment to long term investments in education, infrastructure and fostering a local talent base. It needs a careful regulatory framework that keeps players and their data safe while promoting innovation. That doesn’t mean jettisoning healthy dose of skepticism towards any “too good to be true” promises from foreign investors.
The future of Web3 gaming in Africa is incredibly bright. So before we jump on this bandwagon, let’s be careful. We just need to be sure that we’re not blindly inviting in a Trojan Horse that does more damage to the communities it purports to serve. Let's be clear eyed. Let's be diligent. The future of African gaming rests on it.
