Cheating Rampant in Blockchain Chess, Leading to Shutdown of Immortal Game’s Play-to-Earn Features

The management team of the blockchain chess game Immortal Game has decided to kill off its non-fungible tokens (NFT) and play-to-earn (P2E) features. The reason: widespread cheating.

“Our heart lies in chess,” the team said. They aim to make Immortal Game a top online chess hub – one that is fair and enjoyable for all players. Therefore, among other things, the developers are looking into Web3 and decentralized technologies, especially anti-cheat measures and community engagement.

However, they have encountered some major difficulties on their path.

The Wednesday announcement stated that,

“After careful deliberation, we have decided to stop development on play-&-earn and NFT collectibles related features on Immortal Game.”

The game’s developers learned that by offering large amounts of cash with no limit barrier to entry, they actually “encouraged heavy cheating” on the platform. At the same time, that degraded the user experience for the legitimate players who looked for a safe and fair online chess platform.

Per the team,

“The unintended consequence of offering money to players has increased the unfair practices, and we have decided that we cannot stand by and let this cheating happen any longer.”

Therefore, the developers have decided to switch gears.

Tokens Discontinued

The developers and the online chess community together “have truly done something special,” the announcement said. They gave back rewards to the community and provided “a real opportunity for people to earn an income through chess for the first time.”

The two have made a positive impact on the chess world, the team said, and added:

“So with this in mind, we have decided to pivot our focus back to the core of what makes Immortal Game special – our passion for chess. We believe this refocus will allow us to provide a more secure and enjoyable experience for all our players, ensuring the long-term sustainability and integrity of our platform.”

New updates have been implemented since this past Monday.

The marketplace on the platform is discontinued.

The platform no longer supports P2E Checkmake tokens (CMTs), but they will remain on the blockchain.

Users’ ETH and CMT balances will no longer be displayed on the platform. The tokens, however, will remain in the owners’ wallets. Custodial wallet users will need to connect a personal wallet to transfer assets.

NFTs, minted on the gaming-focused Immutable blockchain, will also remain on the blockchain. They are usable on Immortal Game in Immortal mode.

To streamline features, the developers will remove listings, P2E development, references to CMT and ETH on the website, daily missions containing CMT rewards, and crypto rewards in the referral and tournament systems.

The team left the possibility for future tournaments to include fiat currency rewards.

At the time of writing (Thursday morning, 10:00 UTC), Immortal Game had an all-time volume of $885,600. The highest price any asset in the collection has ever sold for was $14,300

At the same time, CMT token’s fully diluted market capitalization was $360,075.