Hike introduces NFT avatars on its blockchain gaming platform

Hike, the erstwhile internet messaging service that has since pivoted to blockchain gaming as its key offering, today announced the introduction of non-fungible token (NFT) virtual profile displays, called Rush Avatar NFTs, on its blockchain gaming platform – Rush Gaming Universe (RGU). The airdrop or the initial rollout of the NFTs would take place on Android today, 28 February, and on iOS at a later date.

Hike states that as part of the initial offering, the company will send ‘launch edition’ NFTs to the platform’s most active players, which would be rarer than other NFTs on the platform – and would therefore reward the most active players of the platform with higher value tokens than others.

NFTs are digital artwork that feature a unique underlying digital signature. The latter is what makes an NFT unique. An NFT ‘airdrop’, meanwhile, refers to a promotional activity where the issuing party, in this case Hike’s RGU, sends any web3 asset such as a crypto token or (in this case) NFTs to designated wallet addresses for free.

Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and chief executive of Hike, said upon the announcement, “With the Rush Avatar NFT, players will now own their digital identity in the RGU. This launch brings the Rush Gaming Universe on-chain, to build a new game economy where consumers are owners.” He also added that players holding the Rush Avatar NFTs would get value added to their presence on the platform in the form of “superpowers, more personalization” and more.

Hike says that the RGU offers eight games that are amounting to 100 million gameplays per quarter, and issuing winnings to players worth $50 million per year. In December 2021, the company had announced what it claimed was India’s first cryptocurrency based employee referral scheme. The plan allowed any user, within or outside Hike’s organization, to refer a potential candidate for a position. Upon joining, the referrer could get up to 2 ETH (Ether, the token for Ethereum).

The RGU is based on the Polygon blockchain, and Hike says that the platform can be scaled up to support over 100 million “non crypto-native” users on the blockchain network.