Fief AMA #2 — Technical Deep Dive with 0xLongshanks & Galahad (Co-Founders)(Recap)

On 3/11/2022 at 12:00 p.m. (PST), an AMA session was held on Avalaunch with special guests 0xLongshanks and Galahad, Fief Co-Founders. Below we present to you an excerpt from AMA with questions and answers.

Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch

Welcome to Part II of our AMAs with the Fief Guild. Today, we are joined by a couple of visionary, heavy-on-the-grey-matter, crypto savvy, blockchain tough gentlemen in @galahadfief and @longshanks0x. Welcome and good to have you both here. We appreciate the time with our community.

Sir Galahad | Fief

Splendid! Thanks!

0xLongshanks | Fief

Thanks for having us!

Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch

Our pleasure. Let’s get right into it. To kick-start why don’t we begin with the intros? Please, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to the crypto sphere as a whole?

0xLongshanks | Fief

I have a decade of experience in early stage venture creation and investments. Was naturally drawn to the excitement of the crypto industry and have held roles specifically within NFT industry since early 2018 as both an operator and investor across multiple entities, primarily within the Ethereum ecosystem. I am currently leading Guild and Game development at Fief.

Sir Galahad | Fief

Me … nutshell …. Decade of software engineering leadership, focused on financial markets and crypto. Veteran of several startups and household name Big Tech goliaths. Currently leading operations and overseeing protocol development at Fief.

Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch

NFTs since early 2018? That’s before anyone knew what the word fungible meant 😁

Impressive as well. Well suited for a Guild.

Can you tell us about your team? How big is the development team and are there plans for further expansion?

0xLongshanks | Fief

cryptokitties opened pandoras box 😉

We have a team of more than 20 individuals currently across engineering, biz dev, marketing and art. We will continue to expand our team, especially as we ramp up our protocol development and continue to accelerate Blood and Coin, our internal guild game and the reason why we’re all here today.

Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch

I think this is a far bigger outfit than most people realize at first glance. It was a dozen when I first encountered you all but that was some time ago.

which leads me to…How long has the development phase been going on for, and how many iterations did it take you before arriving at Fief as it’s known today?

0xLongshanks | Fief

Yeah we’re growing fast! Hiring actively so anyone interested in guilds and the metaverse, keep an eye out!

as for the development question … Galahad and I have been discussing concepts around Fief for around a year and the guild has been in development since late last year. We’ve gone through a few iterations to reach the current version of Fief you see today, as we’ve increasingly embraced gaming systems versus traditional crypto or DeFi for our tokenomics.

Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch

Will keep that eye out. I’ve seen it continually evolving at a rapid pace even leading up to this offering. Well done. Can you give us a high-level overview of the features users are expected to find within the marketplace or any other element that makes Fief unique?

0xLongshanks | Fief

Sure — the Fief Marketplace is being designed to support both internal and external assets. We are entirely focused on internal assets (IGMs, Blood and Coin NFTs, etc.) to start and will eventually expand to whitelist select third-party projects.

Over time, we hope to make the Fief Marketplace into the premier NFT gaming/GameFi marketplace on Avalanche and beyond. We aim to tailor the user and third-party project experience to best fit the emerging metaverse and how assets are used in-game.

The Fief Marketplace launches in its initial form next week with the IGM sale and we’ll accelerate development on top of that moving forward.

One very unique feature of the Fief Marketplace is the fee-share. Both primary and secondary sales have a fee share associated with them that is paid out to the Merchants, one of the five factions of Fief.

Fees are funneled through our FIEF token via a buyback program we will be launching as soon as post WOOD IDO.

So, you can see how engaging this can become at scale when we have our own game assets and those of third-party whitelisted partners driving transaction volume on a marketplace built on top of a low-fee network like Avalanche.

Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch

Can you comment on the Library architecture? Where does the information flow come from, and how does this whole Fief structure plug into the guild?

0xLongshanks | Fief

Great question, we’re very excited about the Library and what it can bring to the guild.

The Fief Library is being built as a global codex for NFT gaming and GameFi. We totally appreciate how difficult it is to navigate this new industry and are hoping to build up the Library into a trusted source of information, including game guides, news and more.

We want the Fief Library to be a no-cost on ramp for individuals to join the guild by contributing to content in return for NFTs that plug into the global fee flow. However, there is definitely a quality filter associated with the content we put out via the Library so potential creators need to bring their A game!

GameFi + P2E Knowledge Base — The Fief Library

Picking a hero in DeFiKingdoms is an in depth process that changes depending on your game involvement. This article…

library.fief.finance

Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch

I encourage anyone to go through their Docs as they are hugely informative. It is remarkably well thought out and the complexity is not gratuitous in any way.

Blood and Coin was recently introduced as the first guild game. Are we to expect future game developments or is this more like a stepping stone to forge the necessary relationships to increase the dynamic game environment available on the platform?

0xLongshanks | Fief

We are serious about building internal games and experiences that plug into our tokenomics and faction system. We are choosing to really lean into the lore-driven strategy economic game approach, as we see it as a fantastic fit for DeFi concepts and on-chain assets.

With Blood and Coin, we are able to also build a substantial asset hierarchy that enables us to train all protocols that we develop for third-party asset integration.

This is where the Fief Wood (WOOD) comes in, the token we have the exciting opportunity to release through Avalaunch. WOOD is 1 of 5 core Resources that will be essential in game actions performed in Blood and Coin.

Users who hold at least 3000 WOOD when we launch Crafting in April (current goal) will be able to make some of the first Blood and Coin NFTs. These NFTs will be available to sell on any secondary marketplace and eventually directly through the Fief Marketplace.

Once Fief is able to bring all the trading activity to our internal protocols, Blood and Coin will become a massive fee reward generator that will fuel our Faction reward system. So users who are participating in the Avalaunch IDO are among some of the first to engage in this exciting economic strategy game system.

Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch

Appreciate this very much. I think it’s challenging for users to see the full application of WOOD in terms of its utility and potential value as a resource. It really is plug and play, very much lowering the normal entry fees associated with successful games and guilds. Kudos for that.

What parts of Fief live on-chain, and conversely, off-chain? Can you talk about the thinking around this and how the end result services the vision?

0xLongshanks | Fief

Yes WOOD is a fantastic on ramp to join into the guild. I measure guild membership as anyone who is able to participate in the global fee share and owning a future Blood and Coin NFT is a fantastic way to get started down that path. You can read more about these concepts, including building your Character, in our docs.

Given that our IGMs are out of the price range for some users, we hope to create affordable means to join the guild and crafting into it via WOOD is a great way!

We are taking a hybrid approach here to create an internal system that is capable of onboarding millions, as the technical barriers are still fairly high in web 3, especially for gamers.

That being said, we will be utilizing a number of off-chain mechanics for Blood and Coin game actions with token output settlement on-chain. This means users will conduct their game actions off chain and mint the outputted fungible or NFT (depending on the action) to the Avalanche network.

This will feed into our protocols, all of which will be on-chain so those who are more comfortable with DeFi and related systems can take things a step further.

We believe this combo will result in a fantastic UX that welcomes all levels of guild members.

Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch

Which part of the development was the most challenging and how did this affect the vision of the project? Would any of the challenges have been eased if you were building on a different blockchain?

0xLongshanks | Fief

Great q …as with any new project or startup, getting all the necessary framework into place for future scalability is a challenge. This is especially the case for Fief as we hope to have substantial flexibility moving forward to integrate and launch new protocols & guild experiences. We have needed to be extra diligent in our early architecture decisions, especially given the fact that we hope to onboard third party projects & their assets across various protocols.

Regarding blockchain decisions, not necessarily. It’s always easiest to build on Ethereum mainnet as it has the most tooling and established testnets, but c-chain being EVM compatible hasn’t made our lives too difficult!

Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch

Well stated. What has developing on Avalanche been like for you? What has been your impression of the developer community?

0xLongshanks | Fief

Developing on Avalanche has been a solid experience so far! The development community seems to be very well connected & helpful, and we’re excited to see the emergence of more NFT gaming on the network.

What I think is equally important is the NFT/gaming community, which has been very strong despite its relative small size to date. We can tell that Ava Labs is serious about gaming and we’re excited to play a pivotal role in the network’s growth for this segment.

Twitter Questions

@avaxsummit who asks — 200 days after purchasing IGM NFT, FIEF will finish spreading, and then will we be able to continue the game without renewing the IGM NFT we purchased?

0xLongshanks | Fief

IGMs, which go on sale next week, output FIEF over 200 days. This reward is separate from any perks that the IGMs will give related to Blood and Coin, such as Faction NFT/Item drops and more.

So after the 200 days, IGMs still have utility.

A reminder: IGMs are different from Fief Wood. IGMs come at a lot higher price point and have different global utility within our ecosystem.

As I mentioned before, owning WOOD is a fantastic way to get started in the guild without needing to buy in higher. So if you’re looking to try your hand at crafting while joining our discord to talk with other guild members, WOOD is a great option!

@Cryptob11940274— Will the number of factions increase in number if the game is updated?

0xLongshanks | Fief

There is no current plan to increase the core faction numbers, as they connect to the broader guild economics.

@Metetelli11 — Will a user be able to receive multiple and different IGM NFT’s? Also, after winning $FIEF with NFT’s in the long run, will we be able to sell them out of the game?

0xLongshanks | Fief

Yes, a user can purchase as many types of IGM NFTs as they would like. We have a limited supply of each faction/rarity combination so I would recommend reading our documentation prior to the IGM sale next week if you are interested in participating.

Regarding the second part of that question, FIEF (which is our global guild utility token) is distributed directly from the IGMs for 200 days. These are fungible tokens on the Avalanche network so anyone who holds them can sell them on Trader Joe (there’s a ~$4M pool there)

We will also be launching a pool for Fief Wood (WOOD), which again is entirely isolated to the Blood and Coin experience. We will also eventually release our own internal guild exchange where Resource tokens like WOOD can be traded actively with rewards going to our Bishop Faction.

This may seem like a lot so really recommend reading our docs and joining our Discord to learn!

@godisblockchain — Is $Wood token something that can be used in just one game or all of your games?

0xLongshanks | Fief

Fief Wood is specific to Blood and Coin. We haven’t announced any other games or related experiences as Blood and Coin will be our primary focus for the foreseeable future.

@Jordan58016764 — How does WOOD work in the game…once I craft an item what does that do for me?

0xLongshanks | Fief

WOOD is a fungible ERC-20 token that can be used to craft Earthly Items. These Items can then be equipped by your Character to complete additional Game Actions, such as Resource Gathering or Crafting, or you can sell the Item on the open market as it is an NFT.

Whenever you craft an Item with a Resource, such as WOOD, it will be totally consumed and removed from circulation. This acts as a massive deflationary mechanism to offset any Resource Gathering activity moving forward.

So if everyone crafts items with their WOOD in April, the initial supply should drop greatly!

Telegram Questions

Savy

What is your strongest advantage that you think will make your team leading the market?

0xLongshanks | Fief

We have a heavy focus on protocol development versus scholarship programs (which are often the focus of game guilds). This allows us to scale faster and focus on assets not logistics

shoujia1023

Your project name seems to be very interesting. Does it have any story behind it? Can you share us with the inspiron for approaching to this name?

0xLongshanks | Fief

Yes our name is based on the traditional concepts of Fief and Fiefdom, which is a play on the current state of the economic models in the metaverse.

Smitty Werben Man Jensen | ZoanLab

According to the roadmap, what is your most important next priority?

0xLongshanks | Fief

The release of the IGM NFTs next week!

Lucius ( I won’t Dm first)

Which market, partners and community are you presently focusing on collaborating with at the moment?

0xLongshanks | Fief

We are entirely focused on the Avalanche community and all of its users currently.

Lovish Shahi| Avalaunch

I guess we are done with all 🙂

Congratulations and On behalf of us all, many thanks.

On a final note — you have been an exceptional guest. Highly thoughtful answers and cleanly shared information. We’re happy to be hosting your IDO and wish you all the success we imagine you having. Very much appreciate your time today and look forward to your launch and beyond!

0xLongshanks | Fief

that should be 5! Great AMA, appreciate you all taking the time to learn and looking forward to having you all craft some wooden items with your WOOD!

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