TL;DR
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Google just released clear guidelines for developers to follow if they want to add NFTs to their Google Play Store (Android) games.
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Where Apple has (to date) famously stated that it’s damn near impossible for Web3 apps to exist in their app store, this move suggests Google is taking the opposite approach and welcoming everyone.
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These clear guidelines give developers the go-ahead to start building, allowing for a ton of new Web3 apps to emerge.
Full story
There is a funny irony in the world of Web3.
On the one hand, it’s all about decentralization – owning your data – rather than technology companies, banks or governments.
But on the other hand, many yearn to know the rules of the game.
(The classic example is tax guidelines, which is a relatively gray area, but is becoming more apparent over time).
Well, good news: Google just released clear guidelines for developers to follow if they want to add NFTs to their Google Play Store (Android) games.
“As part of the policy update, we are requiring apps to be transparent to users about tokenized digital assets,” Google said in their announcement.
If in-app products in Android games have corresponding NFTs, developers must make that clear to users, according to Google’s rules. A Google representative told Decrypt via email that allows Google NFTs to unlock in-app content regardless of where the user purchased the NFT.
Here’s why this is a big deal:
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Where Apple has (to date) famously stated that it’s damn near impossible for Web3 apps to exist in their app store, this move suggests Google is taking the opposite approach and welcoming everyone.
Making Android apps the platform of choice seems like a smart, strategic approach.
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Everyone is still waiting for “the big one” when it comes to a Web3 consumer app that takes off in a similar fashion to something like Threads.
There’s a theory that the most likely type of product for that to happen would be a game. Could there be a Web3 game as additive as Candy Crush, Angry Birds or even Wordle?
These clear guidelines give developers the go-ahead to start building, allowing for a ton of new Web3 apps to emerge.
We’d love to see it!