--- image: https://i.imgur.com/x3dvKfW.png --- *Decentribe White Paper* ![](https://i.imgur.com/gXZFjId.png) # Why Decentribe? We believe there is a tremendous blue-sky opportunity in crypto to bring together decentralized financial applications and crypto assets (mainly non-fungible tokens) developed for use in blockchain-based games. About 18 months ago, many crypto investors were content with buying, hodling, trading and investing in ICOs. Today, crypto has gained much more utility, especially in the area of decentralized finance. For example, according to DeFi Pulse, as much as 2 million ETH has been locked in decentralized lending platforms. While the USD value of this activity is small compared to traditional finance, it is still significant. Thousands of people around the world are turning ETH that would have normally remained idle in their wallets into investment vehicles through collateralized loans that allow their ETH to be put to work without spending it and other activities such as margin trading, purchasing synthetic assets and more From a blockchain gaming perspective, Ethereum-based platforms are still in their infancy. Games like Axie Infinity and Gods Unchained are built on the promise of interesting game play coupled with in-game assets that remain the sole property of individual players and and game effects that can’t be changed on a whim (if they are linked to blockchain-based assets). But, even though these games are still in their earliest stages, something interesting is happening. Global economies are being developed and are maturing around in-game assets, or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) at a rapid rate. According to NonFungible.com, as of September 2019, the total market cap for NFTs is estimated at about $100 million. And, the potential value of NFTs is slated to grow with entertainment, gaming, exchanges and other players looking closely at issuing their own NFTs and helping the blockchain game asset ecosystem grow. Given this activity, and the growing value of the global NFT market, we think NFTs have the potential to become another powerful financial asset. As in-game economies grow, NFTs could be used as collateral for loans, new derivatives could be created allowing players to make bets on the future health of robust in-game economies (based on NFT sale volume and game health) and more. When we look at these two parallel trends, DeFi and blockchain gaming (specifically NFT markets), we see an opportunity: a chance to develop products, services and tools that both expand the potential of DeFi and blockchain games — and bring these two worlds together. [Next: Ecosystem Overview](/@decentribeTEAM/decentribe_ecosystem) [Back to White Paper Table of Contents](https://hackmd.io/@decentribeTEAM/Decentribe_Whitepaper)