Former Nintendo America Director joins BLMP as VP of Digital Platforms

BLMP — Blockchain Licensing Market Place, an innovative blockchain platform that is bringing transparency and efficiency to the virtual goods market, has recently recruited Darren Smith to its team. Known for his tenure as Director of Nintendo America, Smith offers valuable insight into the development & implementation of a successful virtual platform.

BLMP was created to help solve some of the biggest challenges facing the virtual goods market. Growth in the industry has been stalled by the fact that brands and digital publishers often cannot efficiently form licensing partnerships. BLMP uses advanced intellectual property tracking, smart contracts, and other blockchain-based technologies to shore up these problems and bolster the market for virtual goods.

As the new Vice President of Digital Platforms, Darren Smith will have a positive impact on BLMP’s development efforts. Smith is a skilled professional with experience in a range of technologies, ranging from platform development, IP licensing to user experience. With this expertise, he can not only help BLMP develop an efficient, secure platform, but also make sure that platform is easy to use for all brands, publishers, and content creators.

BLMP & the Future of Virtual Goods

Virtual goods are digital items purchased and used on social media platforms, in games as well as other online environments. Items such as skins used for video games are in high demand, and currently can sell for more than $50K USD. There is a large untapped opportunity for licensed virtual goods, but the industry first needs to resolve a number of challenges that include:

• Agreement Issues — To produce and sell virtual goods, there must be solid licensing agreements between brands and digital publishers. But due to their vastly different goals and priorities, signing such an agreement is a lengthy and arduous process.
• Authenticity Obstacles — Brands and consumers both need to know that virtual goods are sold with proper permissions. But because it’s so hard to track such sales, they cannot be confident about whether goods have been verified.
• Royalty Tracking  —  Virtual goods can only be sold on a large scale if brands, creators, and publishers each know they will be properly compensated for every sale.

BLMP uses the blockchain to resolve these problems. By tracking all transactions involving proprietary goods, it eliminates doubts about authenticity. Likewise, the platform uses the blockchain to develop smart contracts that enforce themselves as well as facilitate virtual goods payments. Given these innovations, brands and publishers will no longer face obstacles in forming profitable partnerships.

Darren Smith

Darren Smith is the former Director of Nintendo America and a video game industry veteran. While at Nintendo, he developed, produced games, applications, online services, eCommerce systems, and game platforms. He was responsible for the development and operations of Nintendo’s online services on the Wii and Nintendo DS/DSi platforms in the Americas, including eCommerce services in Wii Shop and DSi Shop storefronts for downloadable games, virtual goods, and other add-on content. Additionally, Darren secured and managed the introduction of key internet brands and services such as Netflix and Facebook across Nintendo’s platform. At BLMP, Darren plays a critical role working around the clock on digital platform integration and digital platform adoption.