Open Game Declaration: How B3 Addresses Structural Issues in the Web3 Gaming Industry?

Former Coinbase employees and founding members of the Base chain created B3: a third-layer infrastructure optimized specifically for gaming.

Written by: Tiger Research

This report is written by Tiger Research, analyzing how B3's open gaming vision addresses practical issues in the Web3 gaming industry and its potential for expansion into the mainstream gaming market.

Key Points Summary

The Web3 gaming industry has fallen into a slump after the initial speculative boom. Critics point out that the closed ecosystem structure is the fundamental issue.

Former Coinbase employees and founding members of the Base chain have created B3—a third-layer infrastructure optimized specifically for gaming. The team has developed high-performance, low-cost industry-customized infrastructure and built an open gaming ecosystem based on high interoperability to break through the structural limitations of the Web3 gaming industry.

B3's vision is not limited to addressing the limitations of the Web3 gaming industry. They aim to provide a new paradigm for the traditional gaming industry through a community-centered governance model, a collaborative rather than competitive inter-game model, and the development of an expanded virtual economy.

1. The Crisis in the Web3 Gaming Industry: Speculation or Innovation?

Web3 games were initially seen as a growth engine for the gaming industry due to the new possibilities brought by blockchain integration. However, contrary to early expectations, public interest quickly cooled, and doubts about its 'innovative' nature continued to fester.

The data confirms this shift. The search volume for GameFi on Google Trends has continued to decline after its peak, and the trading volume of major GameFi tokens remains low.

Nevertheless, many builders still firmly believe that Web3 games will be revitalized. However, after the wave of speculation recedes, it is difficult to rebuild public trust. While the cryptocurrency industry finds new growth points through institutional adoption, the Web3 gaming industry is still stagnating in search of breakthroughs.

Today, Web3 games stand at a critical crossroads: will they become a true vehicle for innovation or will they be reduced to the final chapter of speculative bubbles? To move forward, the industry must confront its limitations and formulate a clear breakthrough strategy.

2. The Fundamental Limitation of Web3 Games: Walled Gardens

The core crisis of Web3 games stems from a closed ecosystem structure. Although it touts openness and interoperability as its selling points, the reality often falls short. Blockchain technology theoretically allows users to own game assets and transfer them freely across platforms – this is precisely the core value proposition of the field.

But the current Web3 gaming ecosystem presents a paradox: most games run on isolated blockchain infrastructures, forming "walled gardens." This fragmentation dilutes the already limited user base and liquidity, restricting the industry's growth potential. Game companies compete in a zero-sum environment, fighting over the "existing pie" rather than collaborating to "make the pie bigger," and this dynamic hinders innovation and drags down overall development.

To break the deadlock, Web3 games must dismantle closed structures and build an open and interconnected ecosystem. This requires moving beyond technical fixes to a strategic shift from individual competition to collaborative growth, allowing developers, platforms, and communities to create value together.

Some projects have begun to address this challenge. For example, the blockchain gaming infrastructure project B3 initiated by the creators of the Base chain proposes a vision of "Open Gaming" that aims to address interoperability issues from a structural level, providing a fundamental solution to the fragmentation of the Web3 gaming ecosystem.

3. B3: Opening a New Era of Open Gaming Ecosystem

B3 is a blockchain gaming infrastructure project created by former Coinbase employees and founding members of the Base chain. While building the Base ecosystem, the team identified a critical limitation: the existing blockchain infrastructure could not support the high transaction volume demands of gaming applications, leading to the development of a high-performance, low-cost solution tailored specifically for games.

Source: B3

B3's ambitions go beyond optimizing throughput. After the mainnet launch in August 2024, the team will release the "Open Game Declaration," aimed at addressing the structural issues of Web3 games. The declaration advocates for maximum interoperability, ensuring that games are no longer isolated islands but rather integral parts of an interconnected and open ecosystem.

B3's technical direction and grand vision have attracted the attention of top investors. The project has raised approximately $21 million in seed funding from institutions such as Pantera Capital and Hashed. As of May 2025, the B3 chain has reached 6.9 million wallet addresses, with a total of over 300 million transactions—establishing its leading game infrastructure position within the Base ecosystem.

3.1 Open Game Level Three: Game Optimization Infrastructure

The Open Gaming Layer³ is the philosophical foundation and technical cornerstone of B3's vision, achieving two main objectives through the concept of third-layer infrastructure:

First, develop high-performance Rollup infrastructure "B3 chain" to provide an optimized environment for games;

Second, assist game companies in building horizontally scalable "Game Chains" based on the B3 chain, maintaining interoperability while achieving independence.

3.1.1 B3 Chain: High-performance Rollup infrastructure built on the Base Chain

B3 Chain provides infrastructure for game developers without the need for a dedicated blockchain. Built on the Base chain, it inherits the security and flexibility of the EVM stack while achieving low-cost, high-performance transaction processing through an off-chain scaling solution based on Optimium.

This off-chain third-layer infrastructure is specifically designed to meet the needs of the gaming industry. Existing second-layer solutions improve general performance, but still face limitations in cost and throughput when handling millions of concurrent gaming transactions. This challenge is akin to traffic peaks on a multi-lane highway – widening the lanes (first layer) helps, but congestion remains difficult to avoid.

The B3 chain addresses this bottleneck through a third-layer architecture specifically designed for gaming. By providing dedicated channels for game transactions—similar to bus lanes on a congested highway (third layer)—it simultaneously achieves high throughput and cost efficiency.

As of July 2024, the cost of a single transaction on the B3 chain is only $0.001, significantly lower than Ethereum Layer 1 ($0.34), Base chain ($0.017), and even Solana ($0.004). This enables developers to operate blockchain games reliably and efficiently, eliminating cost friction.

3.1.2 Game Chain: A Customized Infrastructure that Combines Independence and Scalability

The B3 team provides internal toolkits and technical support for companies developing "Game Chain" based on the B3 chain. This model is similar to a network of independent hotels connected through a global booking system—game companies maintain autonomy while achieving seamless interoperability within the larger B3 ecosystem.

These game chains adopt a central-radiation architecture: the Base chain is the central hub, while the B3 chain and various game chains act as radiation nodes. This structure allows each game to operate in an independent high-performance environment while maintaining cross-chain connectivity and shared infrastructure. B3 extends the concept of Optimism's "super chain" to the third layer, providing a scalable framework that allows assets and interactions to flow freely between chains without sacrificing sovereignty.

Developers can add functionality chains on demand, just like designing microservices. For instance, a dedicated chain can be established for high-traffic NFT transactions to avoid the "noisy neighbor problem" (where the load of one function affects the overall infrastructure performance).

Currently, four game studios are building a game chain:

• Prime Chain of Parallel Studio
• Infinigods' God Chain
• SuperGaming's SuperGaming Chain
• The Reach Chain of the MySpace founding team

These chains form the early pillars of the interconnected open gaming ecosystem supported by B3 infrastructure.

3.2 Basement.fun: On-chain gaming platform

Basement.fun is the first front-end client of the B3 team, providing a user-friendly entry point for blockchain games. The platform allows users to experience blockchain games without requiring specialized Web3 knowledge and provides developers with easy tools for deploying and managing blockchain games.

3.2.1 User-Friendly Design: Seamless Onboarding Experience

Source: B3, Tiger Research

Users can register with just an email or phone number. The platform supports a global account model that integrates social logins, EOA wallets like MetaMask, and Coinbase smart wallets. The guest mode allows for instant gaming without login, significantly lowering the entry barrier.

Source: B3

To enhance usability, Basement.fun utilizes its self-developed B3 account and chain abstraction technology AnySpend. This feature allows users to instantly access cross-chain assets through a single login account—without the need for bridging or exchanging—providing a smooth experience similar to Web2, making blockchain gaming accessible to mainstream users.

Source: B3, Tiger Research

In addition to gaming, Basement.fun also serves as a social hub to promote player interaction. The "Play-to-Win" real-time tournaments, which feature both competition and cooperation, support an immersive experience, with all game processes and rewards recorded on-chain to ensure transparency.

3.2.2 Developer-Friendly Release Platform: Web-Based Game Launcher

Source: B3

Basement.fun also serves as a release platform, providing a web-based game launcher to facilitate the easy deployment and management of blockchain games. Through this platform, developers can implement key blockchain features such as token gating (restricting access to specific token holders) and a task system based on on-chain activities.

In addition, the platform provides operational tools such as game reviews, leaderboard management, and notification functions, allowing developers to focus on game design and content creation rather than backend infrastructure.

4. Hypothesis: The Future of the Gaming Industry to be Unleashed by B3

Source: Tiger Research

B3's open gaming vision not only brings new possibilities for Web3 games but also for the entire gaming industry. Although the traditional industry has developed for decades, it is still constrained by centralized decision-making and closed economic structures. B3 attempts to break through these limitations by building a more open, interconnected, and community-driven ecosystem, paving the way for innovative new paths.

4.1 Hypothesis: Will game development decision-making power shift from publishers to the community?

In traditional games, large publishers control core decisions and limit development and creative diversity. Studios often rely on commercially validated remakes or sequels, rather than investing in new IPs—resulting in a stagnation of innovation.

B3 will provide an alternative model through tokenized community governance. Using B3 tokens, the community can directly vote on game projects, and selected works will receive funding for development.

Obsidian Kickstarter Countdown Live, Source: Obsidian Entertainment

This model allows game development to more transparently reflect the interests of players rather than publishers. Similar successful cases like "Pillars of Eternity" obtaining community support through Kickstarter, or "Stardew Valley" reviving the farming simulation genre as an independent game outside of commercial constraints. B3 aims to create a growth space for original player-driven creativity that is not restricted by top-down market logic.

Ultimately, B3's vision for open gaming goes beyond technical interoperability, introducing a more transparent and inclusive governance structure that empowers the community to shape development direction, injecting new vitality into the gaming industry.

4.2 Hypothesis: Is the gaming industry shifting from competition to collaboration?

The traditional gaming industry suffers from structural inefficiencies, most notably the isolation of user data. This fragmentation leads to difficulties in precise targeting and cross-platform marketing. Coupled with rising user acquisition costs and declining marketing efficiency, companies face severe challenges.

In contrast, B3 has launched a Global State system that aligns with its vision of open gaming, allowing user data, achievements, and assessments to be recorded and shared across all game chains. This shared infrastructure supports more precise and effective marketing.

Source: B3

B3 proposes various collaboration models based on high interoperability. The "shared incentive" model encourages games to expand their user base through cooperation, replacing the competition for exclusive users. For example, if a user from Game A purchases items in Game B, Game A will receive a portion of the revenue as a referral reward.

The "shared liquidity" model bridges game tokens through B3 tokens or other underlying assets, allowing for free movement between game tokens. This enables games to focus on content development and ecological collaboration, rather than fragmenting resources in the competition for liquidity. These models directly address the volatility and inefficiencies of the Web3 market. Earlier this year, the liquidity of project tokens related to Trump and Melania experienced severe fluctuations, exposing the vulnerabilities of the existing system and the short-term speculative nature of the projects.

The collaborative ecosystem structure of B3 points to a sustainable long-term development path for Web3 games—beyond competitive fragmentation, moving towards shared value creation.

4.3 Hypothesis: Are the boundaries between games and finance becoming blurred?

Linden Dollar transactions in Second Life, Source: Second Life

The gaming industry has long connected the virtual and real economies. For example, Roblox creators monetize game content, and the Linden dollar economy constructed by Second Life is comparable to the GDP of a small country.

But these economic systems operate in a closed environment. The platform and publishers charge high fees, and users are limited to creating captured value within a specific ecosystem. This platform-centric structure hinders users from fully realizing their economic potential.

B3 builds an open and extensible economic ecosystem through high interoperability to address these issues. In the B3 ecosystem, various game chains support seamless use of digital assets across game environments. The shared token accumulation model allows players to obtain premium items or special quests across games using B3 tokens, creating a value cycle that transcends game boundaries. This effect is similar to economic activities expanding from domestic markets to global trade, enhancing market scale and liquidity.

This structure expands users' economic activities from a single game to the entire B3 ecosystem, empowering users to truly own and manage the value they create. B3 will bring virtual assets closer to the real economy, establishing gaming as a legitimate economic activity that goes beyond entertainment. Its infrastructure will further enhance and popularize models like Axie Infinity scholarships.

5. Conclusion

The Web3 gaming industry is undergoing a transformation similar to the early 2000s internet bubble. Initial hype and speculative interest have given way to a slump, raising fundamental questions about sustainability and exposing unexpected challenges. Such cycles are a necessary phase in the maturation of disruptive technologies. The industry must now focus on accurate self-assessment, solving real problems, and converting innovative value.

In this context, B3's "Open Game Vision" is of great significance. They not only create new games but also more clearly diagnose the structural issues in the Web3 gaming industry and provide concrete solutions. While emphasizing the interoperability of technological philosophy, they build an open collaborative ecosystem. B3 brings together core members who are pushing the Base chain to the forefront of the second-layer market, with a team comprising experts from the fields of DeFi, governance, gaming infrastructure, social platforms, and NFTs, possessing both technical infrastructure capabilities and experience in implementing experimental models.

In summary, B3's open gaming vision is expected to address real issues in the Web3 gaming industry and contribute the diversity and creativity that traditional games lack. If its vision is successful, Web3 games will break through the niche market of cryptocurrency enthusiasts and gain a true competitive advantage in attracting mainstream players. These changes may have a profound impact on the broader gaming industry in the long run.