NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS (NFTs)
Real-world assets, Virtual Worlds & Items, Blockchain Gaming, Collectibles & DeFi+Gaming+NFT
Building crypto thirsty Cryp2Gem community. Searching and researching for blockchain future disruptive innovators.
Cryp2Gem is a community-based research group. We are constantly researching and searching for future blockchain disruptive innovators.
Our Cryp2Gem Telegram Community group is open for everybody, who are interested in learning and sharing knowledge about blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and trading. This article is part of our research which is intended for the community. All the feedbacks and critiques are highly appreciated.
The author of this research is looking to invest or is invested in some of the included projects but tends to stay unbiased while researching and writing. This research is not intended as a promotion and is not part of any paid promotion. Cryp2Gem strongly believes in unbiased researching, sharing knowledge and transparency even when possibly invested, which will always be stated.
This is not financial advice, anything you read should not be perceived or conveyed as financial advice. The author takes no responsibility if you choose to invest in any project that we produce a research piece for. Cryp2Gem solely produces research to assist the cryptocurrency community as a whole and will state when invested or looking to invest. It is significant for all to do their own due diligence when considering an investment.
The author of this article is invested in some of the mentioned projects in the following content. The investments are with Somnium Space CUBE, Ultra, Flow and Terra Virtua. Looking to possibly invest in Centrifuge, Boson, Persistance, Star Atlas, Illuvium and ChainGuardians in the future.
You can find previously published ALT Reports:
*Cryp2Gem ALT Report — Part 1: 2020: A Year in Review, Finance & InsurTech
*Cryp2Gem ALT Report — Part 2: Blockchain Platforms, Interoperability & Scaling
*Cryp2Gem ALT Report — Part 3: Data, Computing & Privacy
NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS (NFT)
“Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are unique, digital items with blockchain-managed ownership. Examples include collectables, game items, digital art, event tickets, domain names, and even ownership records for physical assets. Pioneered by CryptoKitties, ERC721 was the first standard for representing non-fungible digital assets. ERC1155, pioneered by the Enjin team, brings the idea of semi-fungibility to the NFT world. There are also Non-Ethereum NFT standards being developed on EOS, Cosmos and Polkadot. Experiments in NFTs began with the emergence of colored coins on the Bitcoin network. Rare Pepes, illustrations of the Pepe the Frog character built on the Bitcoin counterparty system, were among the first. Some of them actually sold on eBay, and a set of Rare Pepes later sold in a live auction in New York.
The first Ethereum-based NFT experiment was CryptoPunks, which consisted of 10,000 unique collectable punks, each of which has a set of unique characteristics. In 2017 CryptoKitties was the first project to take NFTs to the mainstream.” (source)
Current NFT token standards on Ethereum Network ERC-721, ERC-1633, ERC-1155, ERC-994, ERC-998, ERC-809 and ERC-1201. The most popular NFT standards in Ethereum space are currently ERC-721 and ERC-1155. Each of them has a unique feature for various use cases.
The Interchain NFT and Metadata Standardization conducted extensive research of NFT token and their Metadata standards. OpenSea is one of the first and most popular NFT trading platforms in Ethereum space that developed the NFT Metadata standard aimed to help describe and visualize all NFT properties that deal with NFT trading and exchange.
Alex Attalah of OpenSea: “There’s a cognitive dissonance that we have between creativity and standardization; when you make a core standard, there’s an incentive to break the standard and do something creative that hasn’t been thought of by the community yet.”
NFT projects are hosted on other blockchains outside Ethereum Ecosystem as well. Bitcoin provides the Counterparty protocol. EOS released the recommended standard for NFT smart contract, which is similar to ERC-721.
Tron blockchain recently introduced TRC-721 NFT standard protocol to bring new possibilities to TRON Network, while Tezos team developed TZIP-16 and FA2 (TZIP-12) standards but there are not that many use case except Kalamint NFT marketplace and CricTez fantasy sport DApp.
Possibly a very important upcoming project developed by the team from Usetech, a winner of two Hackhusama — Kusama/Polkadot Hackathlon — categories and part of Kusama Builders Program, Unique Network is building the first Substrate based NFT chain which can be seen as a foundation for standards and dApps or software that uses or relates to NFTs in the Polkadot Ecosystem. Unique Network is running a testnet for Supstrapunks NFT Marketplace, a showcase what is possible on their network and a tribute to famous CryptoPunks.
Aleksandar Mitrović, Founder & CEO of Unique Network: “One of the features of the Unique chain is minting, transfer and trading of NFT assets. Currently, that process is fairly technical. There are currently 3 solutions being built that will enable that to be very simple. But those are for the simplest of use cases, chains can be used by any solution developer to make very powerful games or any other dApps that may need NFTs (real estate ledgers, for example). It has an Ink smart contract pallet, with which you can do a lot of things.”
Since then NFT standard has been well adopted within the crypto ecosystem. We have gaming studios, NFT marketplaces, VR & AR, domains, collectables, virtual worlds, games, DeFi NFTs & infrastructure projects.
We believe NFTs are an important token standard enabling tokens containing a unique smart contract. The use cases of those non-fungible assets are vast as seen and described in the above infographic made by The Block. We are very excited about all the possibilities that those token standards offer. The following are all the subcategories and startups that use or relate to the NFTs.
REAL-WORLD ASSETS — DEFI
Centrifuge in its core is a protocol and a bridge for FinTech and real-world assets to become tokenized and available on-chain. It is also a decentralised asset financing protocol. The Centrifuge stack architecture consists of a peer-to-peer (P2P) network which has two layers built on Ethereum and Substrate. The public blockchains are used for business identities, committing document status and minting business NFTs while a P2P network enables private and secure, off-chain transactions for documents traffic. An essential part of the Centrifuge project is interoperability and interaction with the Ethereum Ecosystem and its DeFi space. The way to achieve that is through the non-fungible token standards (NFTs). Businesses can use Centrifuge to bring their illiquid assets into DeFi and unlock new financial opportunities. Some tryouts were already performed with Centrifuge’s pilot partners on very concrete examples from the everyday real-world business cases that will have a new door opened to the DeFi space which has a Total Value Locked (USD)(TVL) in DeFi in the Ethereum Ecosystem is just below USD 15 billion at the time of writing. The Centrifuge will play an important role in the DeFi and Ethereum Ecosystem but also for the Polkadot and a generally great addition to the open finance and financial supply chain.
A competitor of Centrifuge, Persistence bridges DeFi and traditional finance by facilitating borrowing of crypto assets using real-world assets as collateral via NFTs. Persistence was established in Q2 2019 and is building on Tendermint. They have just launched their incentivized testnet and are running a Stakedrop campaign. They have also launched a Comdex Testnet in Q3 2019 and completed USD 10 million worth of trades.
Not a competitor but a partner of Centrifuge, Boson Protocol is a blockchain protocol for trading real-world assets and their data as smart voucher non-fungible tokens. The protocol that enables smart contracts that implement stateful non-fungible token vouchers (NFTVs), whose states change as they flow through Boson’s core exchange mechanism to manage the exchange, dispute mediations, and reversals. There are several use cases for Boson protocol and their vouchers. Online commerce (Web3 marketplace), loyalty and rewards, cryptocurrencies exchanges to be redeemed for real-world rewards with no FIAT involved, distribution of non-monetary value (charity), video games gifts or grants permission to buy rare or special items, gaming dApps with NFVTs redeemable for off-chain products, M2M commerce, service bookings, tokenized networks for digital and physical goods and services.
So many use cases for Boson protocol and their non-fungible vouchers. Those vouchers will be traded on the autonomous exchange marketplace which will allow the exchange of on-chain value with off-chain non-monetary assets with atomic transactions. DAO, no human intervention, no intermediaries or arbitrators, and full automation. And incentivized commerce data shared voluntarily. They have the opportunity to disrupt the existing dCommerce and bring real-world non-monetary assets to the decentralized blockchain space and open new frontiers.
C2G Picks: Centrifuge & Boson
DYOR: Persistence
Centrifuge — Research by Cryp2Gem
VIRTUAL WORLDS & ITEMS
We see a lot of potential for blockchain virtual worlds and all connected with those. Virtual items and collectables, eSports, concerts, conferences, social events, business world, marketing, personal and business avatars, self-sovereign identity, etc. Most of those involve NFTs.
There was so much happening in the last 2 years, so many new words are being created.
Two of the biggest virtual worlds built on Ethereum blockchain are Cryptovoxels focusing on building stores and art galleries and Decentraland. One of the hottest projects building its metaverse and virtual space in Somnium Space. They are tokenizing in-game assets and parcels, social VR world with its own economy, its own currency and its own marketplace, games, social experiences and Virtual Land ownership. There was lots of interest in buying the land. VR mode is live inside Somnium Space. Somnium CUBEs are their in-world cryptocurrency tokens. CUBEs are used to buy or rent land parcels on OpenSea NFT marketplace but the ultimate use of CUBEs will be for in-world transactions, like for example the teleportation system and other micropayments in their store and especially user to user transactions. Creators who build structures or avatar models will need CUBEs, artists who want to sell tickets for their performance will need CUBEs. If you want to utilize the Somnium Transportation System and travel inside our VR world by Teleportation Hubs or other means of transport — you will need CUBEs. But there is much more which is yet to be announced.
CUBEs utility is also for minting your own full-body virtual reality avatars onto the blockchain. This is a real revolution in a way how creators can protect and monetize their creations. Because having a VR avatar is one of the most important parts of self-representation inside Metaverse. The same could be said for the self-sovereign digital identity of players.
Over the next few years, siloed gaming universes are expected to converge to form what is being termed the ‘open metaverse’. Crucible’s long-term ambition is to provide a foundational piece of technical infrastructure critical to facilitating its emergence. Crucible Network’s technology is enabling end-users (gamers) to manage their digital identities and assets across different gaming ecosystems through a single, universal interface amongst many other solutions.
The Sandbox was one of the most anticipated games and was offered on the Binance Launchpad. It is a community-driven project that will monetize voxels (3d pixels). They have a partnership with Atari which built a big theme park in the middle of the Sandbox metaverse. Animoca Brands and it's subsidiary TSB Gamers are developing the project.
There are also virtual worlds that are being built on other blockchains like Alien Worlds (WAX), Project Nebula (ICON), etc.
The biggest issue of Ethereum based virtual worlds is scaling and latency but that is solved by integrating into a layer 2 scaling solution like Matic. All of the above-mentioned projects are doing that.
C2G Picks: Somnium Space & Crucible Network
Far from ignoring: The Sandbox & Decentraland
DYOR: Alien Worlds
Crucible — Musings by Cryp2Gem
BLOCKCHAIN GAMING
So much is happening in the blockchain gaming related field. We consider the Blockchain gaming field as one of the most potentially prosperous fields adopting and building with distributed ledger technology.
In the currently hot Polkadot environment, there are DMScript, Xaya and Darwinia Network building.
DMScript will have an interesting platform including an online store where you can buy games and games related items with crypto, eSports and betting. They will try to solve latency which is an issue for blockchain-based games. DMScript will be backing and releasing blockchain-based video games.
Xaya is one really cool project building a decentralised, permissionless blockchain that is optimised for scalability and fully decentralised games and apps. They have a blockchain games platform with some unique features. Xaya was part of Ubisoft Entrepreneurs Lab Season 5 Startup hub together with Sorare, Planetarium and Sky Mavis from Axie Infinity. It is actually a fork of Namecoin which is a fork of Bitcoin. The Xaya team contributes to the Bitcoin Core codebase and also maintains Namecoin, the first altcoin fork of Bitcoin. They created the world’s first blockchain game, Huntercoin, in 2013. Huntercoin is a fully decentralised, provably fair blockchain game with Human Mining. There are quite some games running on Xaya mainnet already.
Ultra is a blockchain-based games publishing platform and marketplace that offers solutions to both developers and players. Also games and a virtual assets market, a platform for developers and gamers as well as influencers. The goal is to disrupt the game market system by cutting the almost monopolistic middlemen, firstly conquering the Chinese market, but also spreading the business and the platform to South East Asia and the West. Ultra is building a permissioned Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) blockchain with EOSIO. Ultra ecosystem will consist of the Desktop App with built-in Ultra Miner and Mobile App. Ultra SDK, which allows third parties to build and operate their own game distribution platforms or viral goods websites. SDK has feature parity with Steam’s SDK and is ready for native c++ but also Unity 3D, Unreal Engine and html5 flavours.
Implemented also ADS technology that allows efficient promotion for developers or influencers, even incentives for the users.
Ultra also offers Cloud Code, which allows corrections without having to release a full patch update of the game and NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) creation. NFTs allow game developers to represent their game’s virtual items on the blockchain and possibly NTTs (Non-Transferable Tokens) if the developer needs additional not tradeable and transferable features such as permission access, licenses, and certificates to make ownership more decentralized. NFTs are actually one of the major advantages that blockchain technology can offer as they prove authenticity and ownership. The moment they are created, they are auto-certified. NFTs can easily be transferred and even traded (if such feature is added when NFT is created) on distributed marketplaces or native marketplace, such as Ultra.
The most important aspect of the Ultra blockchain is their game ownership NFT design. Selling games on different platforms is not an option. Enabling game ownership and allowing the selling of games is a game-changer. Another impressive use case of the NFT tokens.
Centralized and permissioned blockchain is governed with up to 21 Technical and Corporate nodes, Block Producers that make decisions and run the ecosystem. Corporate Block Producers will be composed of carefully selected video gaming industry partners that are well aware of the specific needs of gamers and game distribution. AMD and Ubisoft are already on board and Block Producers.
Let me highlight why Cryp2Gem likes Ultra and see much potential with their platform:
*15% games revenues share (Steam takes 30% cut)
*disrupting the distribution games market where downloaded PC games market is currently worth $32 billion, increasing yearly
*built-in Ultra Miner, which mines the most profitable altcoins supported by the users GPU
*easy to use Universal Ultra SDK supporting Unity 3D & Unreal Engine amongst others
*Cloud Code, which allows corrections without having to release a full patch update of the game
*NTFs structure for virtual items, rewards, game ownership & NTTs (Non-Transferable Tokens) which can be created if the dev needs additional not tradeable and transferable features such as permission access, licenses, and certificates to make ownership more decentralized
*very strong token use case with game and items purchases, ads services, and incentives, p2p payments, referral rewards, NFTs and mined crypto payments. All going through the UOS.
*the connections with the Chinese giant, Ubisoft, AMD, Bitfinex, Atari
*the corporate block producers from the industry
*the founders with great knowledge, experience and connections
*new UX social network concept
*non-crypto users onboarding via partnerships with AMD and CUDO
*Easy Blockchain Account System — patent pending — no more lost keys, no more custodial services
*most importantly game ownership NFTs
David: “We just solved the holy grail problem for blockchain platforms: Decentralized non-custodial secret keys recovery, its brilliant, optimized, foolproof, safe, fast and Ultra easy! The mass-market here we come! It's compatible with 2fa, including hardware wallets! You could even dazy chain them if you’re paranoid.”
Ultra is currently running a testnet in a private environment. They have invited some of the long term community members. The mainnet should be ready until Q2 2021.
There are blockchain gaming companies that one should be aware of — Animoca Brands, Horizon, Dapper Labs as well as many others.
Dapper Labs is probably the most known for CryptoKitties but the really interesting project they are working on is already mentioned by Flow. The first game on Flow will be NBA Top Shots. NFTs and collectables. UFC, Dr Seuss, Samsung, Ubisoft, Warner Music are their partners. Animoca Brands will launch 2 games, MotoGP and Star Girl on Flow. Dapper also made a deal with Circle and Binance to bring the USDC and BUSD stablecoins to Flow blockchain. Chainmonster is also integrated into Flow.
“One partnership that has stirred much excitement is our collaboration with Genies. Genies is an established avatar company bringing celebrities closer to their fan bases with custom avatars and exclusive digital collectables (soon to be NFTs), making a collaboration with Flow a perfect match. They’ve already had amazing celebrity collaborations including Shawn Mendes, J.Lo, Offset, Rihanna, DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Cardi B and more.” Digital avatars are coming to Dapper’s Flow blockchain with CryptoGenies. (source)
Animoca Brands is probably one of the most important blockchain games companies. They are a mobile game developer and publisher but recently more recognized as investors in blockchain-based game companies/startups. Their portfolio consists of The Sandbox, Stryking (Football-Stars), Sky Mavis, Dapper Labs, Decentraland, Lucid Sight, wallet outfit Bitski and marketplace OpenSea. They will be making games for MotoGP and F1.
Horizon Blockchain Games is another blockchain games infrastructure that has already delivered SkyWeaver — a free-to-play trading card game on Ethereum Network. They are heavily backed by big investors like ConsenSys, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain and Digital Currency Group amongst others.
Horizon has been working on two parallel verticals. They make games like SkyWeaver but are also building Sequence (called Arcadeum previously) platform for virtual items, both for developers and gamers.
Another interesting one is Cocos-BCX, a full-stack blockchain games platform built on a native chain with mainnet live and running.
We have some pioneers in the virtual items and NFT adopting with Enjin and WAX. Enjin, founded in 2017, developed a multiverse platform and has an ecosystem of games building on their ERC-1155 standard. One of Enjin’s core value propositions is the ability to easily bring items from one game into another.
Solana Network is also a very suitable environment for blockchain games. Star Atlas, building on Solana, is a massively-multiplayer online meta-verse. In the distant future, three galactic factions have emerged, (1)The MUD Territory governed by humankind, (2)The ONI Region as a consortium of alien races, and (3)The Ustur Sector controlled by sentient androids. in an ongoing struggle for resources, territorial conquest, and political domination. Players can join a faction, directly influence the course of the meta-verse, and earn real-world income for their contributions.
Star Atlas has all the whisperings of Eve Online. Eve Online is a space-based, massively multiplayer online role-playing game in which has a daily player count of over 20k players, peaking at around 33k.
Star Atlas will use the upcoming game engine Unreal Engine 5. The features are truly mind-blowing. Games companies have been trying for years to achieve what Epic Games have done. Unreal Engine 5 will have real-time dynamic lighting with the lumen, and unlimited polygon counts with nanite, as well as other features such as chaos and Niagara. Star Atlas will use the Solana blockchain to utilise a server-less approach for the game. It is true we don’t know how this will perform just yet but as Solana allows up to 50k TPS it is very impressive. It is also said that a million transactions on Solana cost $10, which is a cost-effective approach compared to servers. The game will be available on PC, Console and Mobile.
Some blockchain games can’t be missed and simply must be mentioned — CryptoKitties, Gods Unchained, CryptoWars, Axie Infinity, Neon District, Spells of Genesis, Ethermon etc.
C2G Picks: Ultra, Flow (again!) and Star Atlas
Far from ignoring: Enjin & Xaya
Ultra — A Review by Cryp2Gem
AMA with Ultra
Star Atlas — Research by Cryp2Gem
COLLECTIBLES
Surely NFTs have a great use case with digital art and collectables.
Terra Virtua is an NFT marketplace to connect major brands. We can already see this on their website, which currently has brands such as ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Lost in Space’. They are also working with major film brands such as Paramount, Warner Bros and Universal. The big difference between Rarible and Terra Virtua is brands and in this case HUGE ones! Rarible allows any artist, good or bad to submit work, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Topps trading cards are huge, I imagine at some point in all of our lives we have collected some type of trading card; whether that is a World Cup sticker collection, NFL or NBA. Imagine the possibilities if Terra Virtua partnered with Topps…
Terra has a full suite of products enabling collection, trading and interaction of NFTs. They also plan DeFi integration into their ecosystem.
They also boast that they are the first streamlined commercialisation platform for creators and collectors.
So what can we expect from Terra Virtua? Well, firstly I would like to point out that this is a team of veteran game developers, they have careers that span over 30 years, at some of the best companies in the industry. They know how to craft experiences that will last and they know how to build hype. This team compared to any other game development blockchain team is ALLSTAR!
Our current experience of NFTs is a 2D image on a screen which follows you around marketplaces such as OpenSea or Rarible and is connected to our ethereum account. What if I told you that not only could you earn and buy NFTs in Terra Virtua but you could also inspect them in 3D inside of your fan-cave! What if I told you that not only can you inspect them in 3D but you can get inside of them and drive them around, even fly them around the Galaxy! This is the grand vision of Terra Virtua! With Terra Virtua, we are inching closer and closer to the movie ‘Ready Player One’.
Why stop there? In their original vision of VR and AR entertainment, they planned on giving the consumer the ability to watch live sporting events from within their virtual world while you’re in the comfort of your own home. You could even go to a virtual concert and feel like you are in the front row. It is all possible with VR. I think the possibilities of live sporting events and concerts are too good to be left out, and looking at their roadmap I can certainly see where these would fit in nicely.
The future is extremely bright for Terra Virtua, they have the team, the experience, the network, the partnership and the vision to make it something truly remarkable. The only limitation is the imagination and they have that in abundance!
The top competitor in the NFT collectables field is Ecomi. Ecomi sees digital collectables as a new asset class that offers intellectual property owners the opportunity for new revenue streams in the digital landscape. Digital streaming, gaming, and in-app purchasing have become a multibillion-dollar market and the next to join this digital trend is the pop culture and collectables industry. A few months ago they launched their VE-VE application (available on Google Play) marketplace for premium licensed digital collectables. VE-VE digital collectables give you HQ 3D models, augmented reality (AR) showrooms, static and animated characters and the ability to upgrade your digital collectables with virtual items such as costumes, actions, scenes etc… They have an impressive lineup of licenses and brands. From Tokidoki (Mermicorno, Donutella, Unicorno, and Cactus Friends), CBS (Star Trek The Next Generation, Star Trek Picard, Star Trek Discovery), Cartoon Network (Adventure Time, The Powerpuff Girls, We Bare Bears, Tzuki), Warner Brothers (DC Collectibles) and Capcom (Monster Hunter, Monster Hunter World Iceborn, Street Fighter). This is an app that will be used by the younger population equipped with smartphones and using an easy to use the app for their favourite characters. Ecomi has also developed a SecureWallet for digital currencies and private keys. David Yu worked in Marvel as well as the Hello Kitty brand. Head Of Global Licensing is Alfred Khan. Al has been inducted into the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association in 2005, and the Kidscreen hall of fame in the same year.
His company, 4Kids Entertainment was responsible for some of the world’s biggest and most recognizable brands, including Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Al is actually credited with renaming ‘Pocket Monsters’ to Pokémon and bringing the international megahit out of Japan in the early 90s. His licenses are responsible for more than $25 billion in retail revenue. Has spent the past 4 years as CEO of CraneKahn LLC, collecting world-class licenses and intellectual properties from around the world. These assets have since been folded into Kidrageous Entertainment. As CEO of CraneKahn, Al quickly recognized the potential and capabilities of blockchain for digital collectables and product development.
Similar as with Terra Virtua, we have collectables and gaming aspect merged in some games. Illuvium is a decentralized, NFT collection and auto battler game built on the Ethereum network. Integrated with the hyper-scalable Immutable-X L2 solution, players of Illuvium gain access to zero gas fees for minting or exchanging of assets as well as sub-second transaction times, all with user-maintained custody. Illuvium will offer to collect, trade, battle, and earn rare and valuable assets. They will introduce new 4D holographic shards.
The prophecy for the arrival of anime characters into the crypto-sphere has been long foretold; but until now, has been nothing more than an urban myth.
In this unique universe, where anime meets crypto, Guardians have been forming alliances, battling rivals and fighting for survival within a post-apocalyptic, volatile and war-ridden universe.
These idiosyncratic anime-meets-crypto Guardians found their way from the depths of the blockchain labyrinths, developing: unique skills, magical abilities, heroic traits and followers throughout their journeys.
The first Chain Guardian to break free from the clutches of the blockchain tyrants, perhaps unsurprisingly, was Bitsee Naka, who overcame the oppressing centralised rule of the Gatekeepers over the Bitcoin blockchain entities. She is now the dedicated Guardian of the world of the Bitcoin blockchain. (source)
Ethereum Network based ChainGuardians utilises the ERC-721 NFT token standard for all in-game assets. It is a persistent meta-verse turn-based real-time strategy game with desirable rewards and transparent economies. Player rewards are driven by both player purchases and crypto infusions which occur as a result of new partnerships with other cryptocurrency platforms. There is currently a range of different characters in ChainGuardians representing different blockchains, that are called Guardians.
C2G Picks: Terra Virtua, Ecomi, Illuvium and ChainGuardians
Terra Virtua — Research by Cryp2Gem
SPECIAL SUBSECTION: DEFI + GAMING + NFT
DeFi, Gaming and NTFs seem to go hand in hand. Last year brought us some peculiar projects combining meta-verse and decentralised finance.
Aavegotchi is a game project built on the Ethereum blockchain. It has elements of decentralised finance (DeFi) and NFTs. Aavegotchis are rare-crypto collectables which use the ERC-721 standard, the same standard used in popular blockchain games such as Axie Infinity and CryptoKitties.
The project has introduced many innovations into blockchain gaming, such as DeFi collateral staking, dynamic rarity, rarity farming, DAO-governed game mechanics and an open meta-verse with smart contract interoperability.
The project is based on the Ethereum blockchain but most recently they have announced the delay of their main-net on the Ethereum blockchain due to high gas fees and are migrating to the Matic Network instead, which is suitable for projects that are dependent on non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Matic Network is a layer-2 scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain. Aavegotchi on L2 means no gas fees, faster transaction confirmations, and a great gaming experience overall.
It would be fair to say that the in-game characters ‘Aavegotchis’ is based upon the classic hand-held game Tamagotchi. However, in this case, Aavegotchis live on the blockchain and feature very cute 8-bit pixel styling and are backed by a digital value.
They have three attributes which determine their individual digital value; spirit-force, traits and wearables.
Spirit-force — the number of aTokens the Aavegotchi is backed by. There are a variety of different aTokens available and the user will generate a yield from staking tokens in their Aavegotchi. It’s worth noting though, that when you remove your stake from an Aavegotchi it will die.
Traits — when you summon an Aavegotchi it will have a range of randomly generated traits assigned to it by using Chainlink’s VRF random number generator.
Wearables — all Aavegotchis have the ability to equip cool wearables. In total there will be 8 slots. Your wearables can be equipped and unequipped at any time, but please note that the rarity of your Aavegotchi will change when you do this. Wearables can boost or have a detrimental effect on certain traits of your Aavegotchi thus making them very important!
You can find the latest available wearables on OpenSea but be mindful that they are expensive!
All wearables available can be found in Aavegotchi’s Wiki!
Portals are a feature in the game which act a gateway between the Nether and the Ether realms. If you wish to obtain an Aavegotchi, the only way you can do this is by purchasing a portal. Each portal will contain 10 different variants of Aavegotchi, each will have different randomised traits. You are only allowed to choose one of the 10 Aavegotchis and to do so you must stake a required amount of Spirit Force to the portal.
Ghost Token (GHST) — is the native utility token of the Aavegotchi ecosystem. It will be used as a base currency for the purchase of various digital assets such as portals, wearables, consumables and collectables.
Aavegotchi Realm — This is a 2D pixelated metaverse, where Aavegotchis can encounter each other, participate in mini-games, call smart contracts and participate in the governance of the AavegotchiDAO.
Aavegotchi Realm acts as the social layer for AavegotchiDAO, enabling event-based, gamified governance. Aavegotchis will convene in a pixelated town square to review proposals, debate and cast votes — all in real-time.
To date, most DAOs have focused on technical and incentive-based approaches to address voter apathy. While AavegotchiDAO makes use of those emerging best practices, it also leverages social engagement to deliver a delightful voting experience that could redefine what it means to “participate in a DAO”.
Mini-Games — What fun would it be owning an Aavegotchi if you couldn’t play with it? The core experience of the Aavegotchi game is to explore the Aavegotchi realm with friends and battle each other! What would be the point in having an all-powerful warrior Aavegotchi if you don’t send it out to war?!
The winner of a battle/s will earn the accrued Spirit Force of their opponents and gain experience (XP) based upon the amount of Spirit Force earned.
The Aavegotchi Ecosystem Flow of Value
In the Aavegotchi ecosystem, value first flows from token distribution participants into the token distribution mechanism (bonding curve) to generate GHST token.
Upon Mainnet launch, GHST token will be redeemable for various digital assets, such as Aavegotchi Portals, wearables, consumables and collectables, which will drive value into the community-owned vault.
To incentivize wise governance, a portion of sales conducted via GHST will be set aside as rewards for users who have actively participated in voting in the AavegotchiDAO.
Players will also get rewarded with GHST for participating in “rarity farming”, the summoning and training of rare Aavegotchis.
Why do we like Aavegotchi?
In comparison with earlier blockchain games such as CryptoKitties, we can see that Aavegotchi is offering so much more. CryptoKitties coined itself a game but in reality, it was a project which allowed you to purchase Kitties and then mate them to produce an offspring through a genetic algorithm, which would produce common or rare traits in the offspring. The value proposition was truly intrinsic and realistically the aim of that so-called game was to collect a whole selection of Kitties with different attributes/traits.
Aavegotchi allows the player to buy, sell, lend, stake and earn yield all while being part of the AavegotchiDAO. It moves beyond CryptoKitties, which I would call a stage one blockchain game, and makes the player think strategically by offering a variety of different game mechanics. It is not enough that you have an Aavegotchi with the best traits, you will have to continue to monitor and apply the best wearables, consumables, the amount of spirit force it has if you want to stand a chance in this ever-changing game.
C2G Picks: Aavegotchi
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Reach as out on C2G Community Telegram group.
