Gaming Eminence interviews Desiree Dickerson, CEO and Co-Founder of THNDR, to delve into the intersection of Bitcoin and mobile gaming. Dickerson explains how THNDR uses Bitcoin micropayments and game design principles to drive player engagement and retention. She discusses the substantial impact on monetisation models, highlighting increased long-term retention and user lifetime value. The interview also addresses the challenges of integrating Bitcoin, including combating bots and cheats, and THNDR's strategies for maintaining game integrity.
Gaming Eminence: Desiree, you've successfully gamified the process of earning Bitcoin through mobile games. Could you discuss how you've used behavioural psychology and game design principles to enhance player engagement and retention? What specific features or mechanisms have proven most effective in maintaining a high level of user activity?
DD) To enhance user engagement and retention in our games, we’re harnessing the power of instant Bitcoin micropayments. With Bitcoin, we can send as little as one satoshi, which is 1/100,000,000th of a Bitcoin, currently $0.00063, instantly with little-to-no fees. This allows us to reward our users numerous times throughout the day without the transaction constraints of the traditional financial system that would significantly cut into our revenue.
We also harness traditional game mechanics such as hourly prize draws, with cash out expirations, that keep users coming back every hour. With these variable hourly rewards, we’re effectively using operant conditioning that instils the idea of “when you’re not playing THNDR, you’re losing money”. Especially when you’re winning/losing an asset that’s outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 3x in 2024.
Gaming Eminence: How do you see cryptocurrencies altering traditional monetisation models in the gaming industry? What new opportunities do you think this integration presents for developers and players alike?
DD) Because Bitcoin holds real-world value, and is more than a fleeting loyalty reward or meaningless in-game currency, it is the perfect method for driving more serious play. We’ve found that long-term retention increases well over 500% when adding Bitcoin microrewards to games. Users play the games more over a longer period of time, interact with more ads, and purchase more in-app items, effectively driving user LTV. We share a small amount of the immense increased monetisation with our users as the prize rewards, leaving a substantial profit margin.
Outside of rewards as a monetisation driver, we’re also harnessing Bitcoin as a rails for peer-to-peer marketplace payments and skills-based wagering. While both of these in-game activities are typically plagued with slow settlement times and high fees, bitcoin solves this friction and lowers the barrier to entry for many games developers. This is where we’re focused at with THNDR today.
Gaming Eminence: Integrating Bitcoin into game mechanics introduces a novel dimension to both gameplay and monetisation. Could you discuss any specific game design challenges or creative opportunities that arose from this integration? How does this affect the way developers at THNDR approach game creation compared to traditional mobile gaming paradigms?
DD) One of the main challenges with adding Bitcoin to games is combatting bots and cheats. Adding real-world value to games not only incentivises positive user behaviour but also tends to attract negative behaviours as well. This introduces another level of complexity, as we must defensively build our games to combat bots and cheats. For example, all our games must be designed with server-side validation. These types of mechanisms make it difficult for bad actors to take advantage of our reward systems.
The majority of additional game mechanics that we employ specifically when dealing with Bitcoin are largely for combating fraud and bots. For example, rather than paying users directly, we use a free prize draw in the games as an incentive mechanic. Users win tickets in the games, which enter them into a free prize draw where they can win Bitcoin. This introduces a layer of friction that avoids guaranteeing a prize.
Layering in game-specific honeypots allows us to catch cheats submitting impossible behavior or game submissions, using emulators or bot farms. We currently have a patent pending for a move validation server that confirms the legitimacy of player choices in puzzle games, which we hope to share with companies using our API.
Gaming Eminence: Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies often face skepticism, particularly concerning their applicability and value in different sectors. From your experience at THNDR, how do you address these concerns within the gaming community? What measures or strategies have proven effective in educating and winning over gamers and developers who may be skeptical of cryptocurrency integration?
DD) We recognise that the narrative around Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies tends to be covered with a hint of pessimism in the media. We also acknowledge that Bitcoin isn’t right for every game, as the entire game design must be built with Bitcoin in mind. At THNDR, we build successful games and powerful products and technologies that illustrate the power of Bitcoin on their own. We also attend and speak at gaming conferences to share our positive experiences and educate other developers.
One example of a success story is our partnership with Cash App. Partnering with a well-known brand that provides traditional financial services helped us build an additional layer of trust with our users. With Cash App, we made it possible for our users to cash out their winnings to Cash App, which most users had on their phones and were familiar with before ever getting involved with Bitcoin. We also added educational content sponsored by Cash App to the loading screens of every game. In this way, we can actively educate users on this new asset they will be winning in the game, from everything about the currency denominations to how to hold and use the asset.
We also invest significantly in our community management and customer support. We always have a team member online to help new users. We understand that most users are new and unfamiliar with Bitcoin when they download our games. Our FAQs, educational blogs, and videos are indispensable resources for our users. When these fall short, we have dedicated team members who spend countless hours providing hands-on help in Discord, Telegram, and via the company X account.