By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
After announcing its “super chain”, the Chinese search giant Baidu decided to launch a new blockchain-based game called Du Yuzhou.
Baidu, the second-largest search engine in the world, announced its plans to launch a blockchain gaming app called “Du Yuzhou”. The name is literally translated as “The Universe”.
In the game, users will make a space journey and take part in blockchain, getting so-called “elements”, similar to tokens, for creating their own planet. The more elements users receive, the larger their planet can become. As the planet grows, it will increase its gravity to absorb yet more elements, which will allow to unlock additional features.
According to Baidu, the game has been designed to show users what features can arise from cryptocurrency-like assets, besides simply being traded, “Du Yuzhou is not to launch another cryptocurrency, but a digital society experiment,” the company said.
Baidu is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products, and artificial intelligence. It was established in January 2000 and has its headquarters in Beijing. The company has a market cap of $86.65 billion and is moving beyond its primary business model, just like Google, turning into a premier technology company with a global presence. Baidu has invested in development, manufacturing, and sale of artificial intelligence systems, including transaction devices and self-driving cars. The international business unit of the company boasts 2 billion active users already.
Following the Chinese government’s crackdowns on cryptocurrency, the company removed all advertisement of the stuff from its websites in February. Its first contact with the tech came in the form of “Totem” — a project that lets users copyright their images.
Baidu has already got some experience in blockchain-based gaming apps. In February, Baidu launched a blockchain-based pet rearing game called “Leci Gou”. The game is similar to CryptoKitties, but here players take care of dogs.
Recently, at the “Responsibility Chaining the Future” conference, Baidu has announced one more blockchain project, SuperChain platform. According to Xiao Wei, chief scientist at Baidu’s blockchain arm, the chain is a “compatible developer ecosystem of Bitcoin and Ethereum that can not only insert and remove consensus mechanisms to solve the current energy consumption problem, but also support single-chain support of 100,000 concurrent nodes.”
“Baidu is currently completing a blockchain transformation of its own business based on this super chain,” Xiao Wei said. Further details about this project are not provided.