Search Giant Baidu Is Launching a Blockchain Space Game

Chinese search giant Baidu revealed on Friday that it is launching a native blockchain game, just days after it revealed a proprietary platform called SuperChain.

Dubbed Du Yuzhou – which means "The Universe" in literal translation – the game depicts a blockchain-powered space journey where users, by participating in the blockchain, would receive "elements" to build their own planet.

The elements – much like token rewards generated by a blockchain – will initially be available through airdrops, according to the game's official website. As users accumulate more elements, they will be able to develop their own planet that, as it grows, will increase its gravity to absorb yet more elements allowing additional features to be unlocked.

In essence, the goal of the game is allow users to experience features that could arise from cryptocurrency-like assets, besides simply being traded, a representative from Baidu told CoinDesk.

"Du Yuzhou is not to launch another cryptocurrency, but a digital society experiment," the company said. However it declined to share more details about the game, such as which blockchain is being used, only saying the app is expected to go live next week.

On Monday this week, Xiao Wei, chief scientist at Baidu's blockchain arm, revealed the company's SuperChain platform, which it claims is compatible with the bitcoin and ethereum networks and can scale to allow 100,000 transactions per second. While, back in January, it joined other tech giants in launching a blockchain-as-a-service platform.

Last month, the search giant also started storing the revision histories of entries on Baidu Baike – its Wikipedia-like encyclopedia service – on a blockchain.

Du Yuzhou game image via official website