Jason Brink: Barbarian, Path of the Berserker at Gala Games

Avoiding boring titles like head of blockchain, Jason Brink prefers to label his position at Gala Games as Barbarian, Path of the Berserker. Anyone who has had the privilege of hearing him speak at a conference or watched his TedTalks might agree the title is apt. He has approached the blockchain world with a double-sided ax and taken Web3 gaming to the next level with Gala Games. 

With a long history in blockchain, he wanted to find ways to use the technology to help people. The problem, he noted, when working with governments and Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), is that the process is “horrendously inefficient and extremely slow.” They avoid the overly innovative according to Jason and his experience in Haiti taught him that delays cost lives. This steered him toward blockchain gaming and play-to-earn. Wanting to do something that had a positive impact on people, Jason felt “gaming had the most ability to get money into the hands of those who need it.”

Gala Games has already given the web3 world blockchain games that are fun and provide rewards in the form of currency. They are now working to make entertainment what it should be, and their 2023 plan lays out some ambitious goals.

They want to give participants actual ownership and upgrade the entertainment industry by extending the play-to-earn models to more verticals. People and an audience are the most valuable resource of businesses. Companies that find a model to provide their audience with ownership and even income for engaging should be the new norm.

In addition to more gaming and mobile options, Gala is tackling the entertainment industry head on. Gala Music is becoming a hub for discovery and emerging talent already featuring artists like Steve Aoki, Snoop Dogg, and Ice Cube. Gala Film, operating alongside Gala Music, aims to enhance the content experience for NFT holders, fans, and streamers. Gala’s metaverse, VOXverse, will collect games, music, and film together. Each vertical will run on Gala’s Layer 1 blockchain that uses $GALA as the Gas token. Gala Founder’s Nodes, the core of the Gala Ecosystem, support Gala’s distributed content delivery network and serve vital functions. 

Gala is continuing on the march, and their head Barbarian has more than just blockchain backing their progress. There is a greater good behind their forward movement. The gaming world has some very loud voices advocating directly against play-to-earn and NFT based games. Jason says that “blockchain is an inevitable part of the tech stack of gaming. There’s no reason that we would not go that direction.” He feels a lot of the backlash is coming from small populations that may have their advertising dollars interfered with if control and ownership is passed to the people. “Blockchain shouldn’t be the selling point, it shouldn’t be the feature,” Jason said. “If you buy something, you should own that thing. And that’s central to our whole argument.”