Blockchain is the missing link for gaming.

Opinion by: Kin Wai Lau, CEO of ZKcandy

Many people still don’t see the point of using blockchain in games. It’s a powerful tool that drives ownership and trading but is not vital for most gameplay types. 

The rise of AI shifts the equation. Blockchain isn’t just a bonus feature for games enhanced with artificial intelligence — it’s critical for building consistent gameplay. Fast processors and cloud servers are not enough anymore. AI agents and players need blockchain to enable a truly social gaming experience, where achievements can be recorded and carried across different titles, turning games into connected social ecosystems. Without decentralized infrastructure, agentic gameplay risks becoming a centralized walled garden where progress is temporary, creations are locked in, and experience is limited. 

Disposable creations

Today’s AI can build a personalized game flow as it learns and adapts in real time. But when AI runs within a centralized entity, its creations remain disposable, owned and monetized by corporations. 

Player interactions are stored privately on corporate servers. Memories and evolving character relationships die if the server shuts down. Game progress, AI agent evolution and generated content are tied to the lifecycle of a game session, account or corporate policy. If a player restarts the game or a publisher pulls the plug, all creations and achievements risk going in vain. When AI agents forget what they did yesterday, emerging storylines can’t unfold consistently, and NPCs don’t get smarter.

If the user owned at least part of the generated content, this could solve the problem, but the centralized nature of games doesn’t permit this either. 

Here’s another important thing: When AI adapts to the player, they become co-creators of the game. They build new characters, stories and items, but gamers can’t benefit from their own creations. Creativity gets exploited when players can’t capitalize on their contributions.

Memory, ownership and monetization

Blockchain is a natural fit to extend AI’s memory and grant users ownership of their creations.

A distributed ledger can record game contents onchain, including player actions and achievements. Most AI agents today operate within a single session: They don’t remember past interactions once the session ends. If the game progress records are on the blockchain, nothing gets lost. Agents can learn and evolve from session to session. This opens the way to consistent…