Ryan Wyatt interview: Why YouTube’s gaming chief moved to blockchain games at Polygon

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Polygon raised $450 million for its blockchain protocol and it hired YouTube Gaming chief Ryan Wyatt to build its blockchain gaming platform.

That’s a bold move for Wyatt, since he is leaving Google and YouTube for a blockchain company with a lot of cash. It’s risky because a lot of hardcore gamers and streamers are aghast at what they’ve seen so far with blockchain games. Since Wyatt will build up a blockchain gaming division at Polygon, he will be in the crosshairs.

But Wyatt has become a bit of a wonk in both cryptocurrency and blockchain, and he’s excited about the future of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), which use the transparency and security of the digital ledger of blockchain to authenticate unique digital items. It could be the move of a lifetime as blockchain gaming could be the next free to play. Or it could be a wrong turn as hardcore gamers dig in their heels about their opposition to blockchain games.

But he’s in interesting company, as a wave of game industry people have moved into blockchain games, such as Zynga cofounder Eric Schiermeyer, former Coca-Cola gaming exec Matthew Wolf, Sim City designer Will Wright, former Magic Leap chief creative director Graeme Devine, former Glu business chief Chris Akhavan, former Activision exec John Linden, former Google Play leader Koh Kim, and Black & White creator Peter Molyneux.

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I asked Wyatt why he made the move and what was interesting to him about Polygon, which offers a Layer 2 solution on top of the Ethereum blockchain and is home to many of the successful blockchain games. He noted that transactions on Polygon are fast and carry low environmental costs.

And