Greetings, creatures of the night. 

Please gather around and make yourselves comfortable on the dusty tabourets that I scattered across this magnificently gloomy catacomb. Don’t worry about being socially distant from me – I’ve acquired my immunity during the third wave of the Bubonic plague, when I drank two buckets of saiga antelope blood.

Oh, they’re extinct nowadays?

I might have contributed to that, but all of you mortals who bear decaying brains will most likely forget about it and pay a bunch of scientists to make up a story about your role in the extinction of these otherwise majestic steppe mammals.

Please leave your LED panels at the entrance and grab a candle – that’s the only kind of light that we find acceptable in this part of the citadel. And please be careful with the spider webs, you definitely wouldn’t want to burn them. I’ve seen our room mate Atticus devour horses and feast on their flesh faster than IKEA can make meatballs out of them.

One of them is Bitcoin Bounce, a game so addictive that you would probably be playing it right now if I didn’t make you leave your phones at the entrance. But next time you see an update and it adds music, you should know that it was your favorite tenebrous catacomb vampire who wrote and recorded that. The other game is called Turbo 84 and I may just spend part of my eternity using it to stack sats.

Without further ado, let’s see what this mortal brought us when he descended from the luminescent temple of the Bitcoin gods – the place where a vampire like me could never thread.

Vlad: Bitcoin Bounce is one of the most successful Lightning Network apps and is responsible for thousands of daily transactions. What are the latest numbers and how does it feel to be the developer of such a successful project?

Jack: Wow, thanks for the kind words! It doesn’t feel like that to me. To date it’s been downloaded nearly 60,000 times and sent over 150,000 transactions.  I feel like the is a great start but still just a drop in the ocean with what can be achieved with games and bitcoin adoption.

Vlad: In recent months, the enthusiasm for Lightning Network has hit a plateau and we've seen fewer nodes and channels being opened every day. Has Bitcoin Bounce been affected by this, or is your growth uncorrelated to the network expansion?

Jack: I feel that it’s uncorrelated. More Bitcoin Bounce players use custodial Lightning wallets and are people searching for games to win bitcoin. From my point of view, I am seeing a lot of users who are curious of Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.

Vlad: How can Bitcoin Bounce remain sustainable over time, if you're giving away thousands of satoshis in prizes on a daily basis?

Jack: Within the game there are advertisements. So the model is sustained by giving away a percentage of those profits to players as prizes. It’s kind of like satsback for playing free games. I try to not have too many ads in the game, though. Otherwise it will ruin the enjoyment.

Vlad: Which big video game studio do you think might become the first one to replace proprietary virtual currencies with bitcoins?

Jack: I am not sure there is a desire replace virtual currencies with bitcoin. The purpose of virtual currency is to abstract the perceived value from the user and make the virtual currency more spendable. Replacing it with something of real value has the opposite effect of what the game developer is trying to achieve.

However bitcoin can complement an existing virtual currency in situations where the game designer wants an action or object to appear more desirable and valuable.

If I had to guess a company though, it would be Epic.

Vlad: For the longest time, video games have been regarded as a hobby which makes you lose money. They're a pretty costly investment. Do you think that in the future we can see situations in which playing is less about fun and more about financial incentives?

Jack: I don’t think so. There are already a lot of games in which you can win cash. The “play to earn” model has been around a long time.  It might become more popular though with Bitcoin, as it enables micro prizes which might provide novel forms of engagement to players.

Perhaps the most likely change we might see is that players will start to pay each other in bitcoin for digital assets or services provided to each other.

Mini economies can spring up around popular games in which users can create content and sell to each other for bitcoin.

Vlad: Given your insights and unique position in the industry, where do you see the Lightning Network in 5 to 10 years?

Jack: I hope the next wave of bitcoin adopters will onboard straight to the Lightning Network and it will become the most popular way to use bitcoin. In 10 years I don’t believe many businesses will even accept on chain bitcoin anymore.

Vlad: You’ve been working hard on another 1980s neon-colored and synthwave-styled video game, which at this time is in testing phase. What is it called, what is it about, and when should players expect to download it from app stores?

Jack: The new game is called Turbo 84. The theme and music in the games is inspired by the film Drive.  The aim is to drive your white Ferrari as fast as you can before you crash out.  And of course, you can win bitcoin as you play via a daily prize draw. The more skilled driver you are, the more chance you have of winning the bigger prizes.

It’s available as a beta on the Google Play right now, and you can find links on our website. iOS support coming soon, but predictably we are having issues with the Apple rules and regs. But we are working on it!

Thank you for joining tonight’s defiant display of knowledge and insights into the future of our hard money. It’s time for you to go now, the creatures of the night shall proceed to satisfy their carnivore desires in less than five minutes. And I hope you remember the rules on your way out, you definitely wouldn’t want to deal with Atticus.

As for you Jack, look into my eyes and let me hypnotize you – I need to learn those cheat codes!