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  • Introducing Avalaunch IDO Protection & Refund Policy

    Introducing Avalaunch IDO Protection & Refund Policy

    Introduction

    The rapidly evolving world of crypto has given rise to innovation and opportunity along with the volatility that accompanies genuine disruption. Among these opportunities, IDOs have become a popular method for launching new tokens and raising capital for promising projects. Avalaunch is committed to providing a secure and transparent environment for users to participate in token sales and IDOs. Because investing in this dynamic landscape can be challenging and unpredictable at times, Avalaunch has established a comprehensive refund policy designed to address specific situations to better safeguard our users’ interests.

    The Importance of a Refund Policy

    A well-defined refund policy not only instills trust and confidence but also serves as a protective measure against unforeseen market fluctuations and project shortcomings. By outlining clear eligibility criteria and a streamlined process on a per sale basis, Avalaunch ensures that users can make informed decisions when participating in token sales and IDOs, while also having a safety net in place should the need arise.

    Our Next Sale Policy

    Given that each sale is unique with varying terms and vesting periods, Avalaunch will provide a bespoke solution on a per sale basis to best serve our users. Avalaunch focuses on price protection in three primary ways:

    1. Liquidity—Teams must believe in their pricing and must provide a tradable environment for their token. Initial liquidity provision should be roughly equal to the value of the circulating supply at IDO price.
    2. Price Uniformity—Retail buyers often have the luxury of unlocked tokens while private investors are subject to vesting but may receive tokens at a heavily discounted price along with a percentage of their allocation at TGE. This substantially lowers the cost basis of circulating tokens, creating misaligned incentives.
    3. Price Protection—teams must provide a period where the tokens remain at or above the IDO price.

    Price Protection For Our Next Sale:

    • 100% unlocked at TGE so there are no vesting considerations
    • 14 Days of price performance guarantee
    • Token must remain at or above IDO price for 85% of the time in aggregate and must not fall below IDO for a consecutive period of more than 24 hours
    • Users who have not claimed their tokens will be eligible for a refund

    Please note that the price protection policy for subsequent sales will likely have tweaks and modifications to best optimize the user experience.

    Refund Eligibility Criteria

    To be eligible for a refund under our policy, users must fulfill the following conditions related to the specific sale in question:

    • No Prior Token Claims or Vesting Marketplace Interaction: Users must not have claimed any tokens from the sale or interacted with the Vesting Marketplace for that particular sale before requesting a refund. By claiming tokens or engaging with the Vesting Marketplace for the sale, users are deemed to have accepted the associated risks and rewards, making them ineligible for a refund.
    • Token Price Criteria: Refunds can be claimed and activated only when the token’s value falls below the IDO price, as defined above, within a 14-day refund window. This refund window begins on the date the token is listed on its first supported exchange, decentralized and other. Should the listing project not meet the price protection criteria, eligible users may submit a refund request which will be made available on the Vesting Marketplace.

    Refund Process

    As part of the newly launched Vesting Marketplace rollout, Avalaunch has designed a straightforward refund experience for eligible users.

    To request a refund, simply follow these steps:

    • Connect your wallet to the Avalaunch app and navigate to the Vesting Dashboard.
    • Locate the relevant project and click the “refund” button.
    • Review and accept the refund terms and conditions.
    • Submit your refund request, and our team will process it—please allow up to 48 hours for the refund to be processed.
    • Any fees associated with the original transaction, such as gas fees, may not be refunded.
    • Additionally, please note that users provide collateral for their purchase in AVAX and will be refunded in AVAX.

    Support and Assistance

    We understand that navigating the complex world of crypto investments can be daunting. Should you encounter any issues or have any questions regarding the refund process, please do not hesitate to contact administrators in the official Avalaunch Telegram channel for any assistance.

    Conclusion

    In the fast-paced and often unpredictable world of cryptocurrencies, having a comprehensive refund policy in place is vital for both investors, projects and platforms alike. By offering clear eligibility criteria and a streamlined refund process, the Avalanche ecosystem can continue to thrive as its community confidently navigates the ever-evolving world of digital assets.

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  • Understanding Tokenomics – Models, Systems & Sustainability

    Understanding Tokenomics – Models, Systems & Sustainability

    To build on the overview on web3 gaming from last month, we wanted to explore the basics of web3 tokenomics. GameFi is still a nascent sector, but it has already crossed $14 billion in global value, with some studies indicating future growth upwards of $50 billion by 2025. However, for this to succeed there needs to be continued refinement on how game tokenomics is structured to ensure sustainability.

    Nearly every week, we see new crypto games released, but very few of them survive more than a few months. One of the main causes of this is poorly established tokenomics. Now this could be by design as we saw in late 2021-2022 with many DeFi clone type projects spiraling to zero. The more promising projects suffered from just not having a well-thought-out long-term strategy.

    One of the core components of every blockchain-based project, including games, is tokenomics.  This is especially true when it comes to investors who pay close attention to those sections of a project’s whitepaper to evaluate the game based on its tokenomics architecture.

    So what are tokenomics and what are some key things to look for when evaluating a game? Let’s explore.

    Tokenomics Overview

    Tokenomics encompasses a variety of concepts, including playing, staking, trading, governance, and other mechanisms designed by the game’s development team. By implementing these concepts effectively, game developers can create a self-sustaining ecosystem that rewards players for their involvement.

    One of the key benefits of a well-designed tokenomics system is the creation of a self-sustaining loop. This means that players are rewarded for their contributions, which encourages further engagement and creates a strong community around the game. This community can be a critical factor in a game’s success, as it can help to promote the game, attract new players, and provide valuable feedback to the development team.

    To ensure the success of a game’s tokenomics system, it’s essential to carefully consider the various economic principles at play and how they interact with each other. This includes factors such as token supply, inflation, and distribution, among others. By understanding these principles, game developers can create a sustainable and fair system that benefits both players and the game.

    Tokenomics Models

    There are essentially two main models we have seen projects build their tokenomics around, deflationary and inflationary.

    Deflationary models will typically involve a fixed token supply, where the issuance of new tokens will decrease gradually over time. The decreasing supply usually pushes prices higher as tokens become scarcer. Bitcoin is the best example of a deflationary model.

    Alternatively, an inflationary tokenomics model can be implemented which involves an unlimited cap of tokens. With this model, the token supply will only increase over time, but certain mechanisms can be implemented to limit inflation or potentially shift to create a deflationary system. A great example of this on Avalanche was the Treasure Under the Sea (TUS) token that was inflationary. The team put mechanisms in place to attempt to slow the inflation at various times through introducing different burning mechanisms for TUS.

    Choosing between an inflationary or deflationary tokenomics model is an important decision for game developers as it can significantly impact the long-term sustainability of the game. Both models have their advantages and drawbacks, and game developers need to carefully consider the needs of their specific game and audience when designing tokenomics.

    Inside of each of these models, there are two primary ways a team can approach slowing inflation. Throughout the last 18 months we have seen examples of all of these models and we would expect we continue to see teams incorporate these ideas into innovative ways to sustain a game economy.

    • Buybacks: Periodically a team will purchase tokens from the market and burn them. This will remove a certain percentage of the supply and attempt to bring a better balance to supply and demand.
    • Transaction Tax: Each transaction of a buy or sell would have a certain tax associated with the transaction. This tax would then be burned similar to the buyback model but occurs constantly.

    Two-Token Systems

    Outside of the inflationary/deflationary models we witnessed the rise of the two (or even three) token system in numerous games over the last year. The two-token system aims to distinguish between a utility token and a governance token. For example, Crabada implemented this model with TUS as the in-game token and CRA as the utility token.

    However, this system has faced some challenges. Both investors and players may struggle to grasp the advantages of holding one token over the other, and how they can benefit from the overall gameplay experience.

    It’s crucial to educate users about the unique roles each token plays in the ecosystem. The utility token serves as a means of exchange for goods and services within the game, while the governance token represents voting power for decisions that impact the ecosystem’s future. By clearly defining these roles, users can make informed decisions on which token best suits their needs and goals.

    It’s also essential to consider the potential risks associated with the two-token system, such as the possibility of the governance token becoming overvalued and negatively impacting the overall ecosystem. As a result, it’s important to carefully monitor and balance the distribution and use of both tokens.

    Web3 games need to be easy to understand and play without the average player becoming confused or frustrated.

    Sustainability (or lack thereof)

    Designing and choosing the right tokenomics is not an easy task, and can easily distract a team by focusing more on how to value the token(s) instead of developing a fun and engaging game.

    Developing an engaging and fun game is the primary goal, and it’s essential to prioritize this over simply focusing on token values. If the game fails to attract and retain players, it doesn’t matter how well-designed the tokenomics are. Therefore, it’s vital to focus on the gameplay experience and make sure it’s easy to understand and enjoyable for players.

    While tokenomics play a crucial role in incentivizing player engagement, solely focusing on how much players can earn may attract a player base only interested in extracting value. This approach can lead to a death spiral for the token, as we’ve seen in some cases over the past few years.

    To avoid this, game developers should design tokenomics that encourage engagement and reward players for their contributions to the ecosystem. This can be achieved by carefully balancing factors such as token supply, inflation, distribution, and other economic principles to create a fair and sustainable system.

    Conclusion

    In addition to basic tokenomics and sustainability, there are other factors that need to be examined before investing in a web3 gaming project. Some of these topics include evaluating the tokenomics distribution, token sale pricing and unlock schedule, a clearly defined governance model, more detailed utility examples, and reading and understanding the whitepaper. These topics are extremely important to evaluate as both a player and investor. In future articles we will take a look at each of these and how you can use the information to help guide your decision making process before investing or playing a new game.

  • Why Web3 is the Future of Gaming

    Why Web3 is the Future of Gaming

    What is GameFi and Why is it Important?

    GameFi is a term used to describe the fusion of finance and gaming. Combining the power of blockchain technology and the massive gaming industry will revolutionize the way we play, invest, and earn money doing something that so many people across the globe already do. GameFi does not just mean video games, but also includes other popular sectors such as sports betting, casino games, and even virtual real estate.

    There has been an unprecedented growth rate in the gaming industry. Blockchain technology and Web3 are about to transform it in a dramatic way. The gaming industry has always been lucrative, with billions of dollars in revenue generated every year. However, gamers have always had limited ways of monetizing their skills and achievements. GameFi offers a solution to this problem by allowing gamers to own, trade, create, and monetize their in-game assets and achievements. This not only provides a new source of revenue for gamers, but also creates a new market for investors who can invest in these assets. You can take a closer look at the GameFi analytics dashboard at footprint.network below for a detailed breakdown by chain activity.

     

     

    The importance of owning Web3 assets like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is becoming increasingly apparent, and it’s time to pay attention to them. Here’s why owning Web3 assets is crucial for GameFi and how it’s going to change the way we play.

    Why is ownership of Web3 Assets Important for GameFi?

    There are a variety of reasons that ownership of assets will change the face of how we look at gaming, but from my perspective you can combine a majority of the benefits into a few main topics.

    • True Ownership
    • Interoperability
    • Scarcity
    • Transparency

    True Ownership

    This is probably one of the single largest benefits of web3 gaming. Unlike traditional in-game assets, Web3 assets are stored on a decentralized blockchain, and the owner holds the private key to access and transfer the asset. This means that the owner has complete control over the asset and can sell it, trade it, or even gift it to someone else. Traditional in-game assets, which are under the control of the game developers and studios do not allow for any trading, selling, or management of anything by the players. They simply collect your money through microtransactions and move on.  For instance, in Call of Duty, players frequently buy skins, weapon blueprints, and attachments. Once purchased they are bound to that account in that version of the game.  In 12-24 months when the next Call of Duty comes out, those purchased items are no longer usable and basically dead money. That player will now have to buy more skins or weapons in the current version.  In web3, those assets should be able to be brought into the next version of the game or sold throughout the existence of the old version to other players to recoup some or all of the original cost.  Rare, limited time skins could become valuable based on what the community wants and is not dictated by the gaming studio. Players can take advantage of all the potential given in this new GameFi environment and have full control over their Web3 assets.

    Interoperability

    Another advantage of Web3 assets is interoperability, which goes hand in hand with ownership. These assets can be used across multiple games, platforms, and even outside of the gaming world.  The possibility to take these NFTs and use them across multiple games opens possibilities that we have not even begun to scratch the surface of when it comes to gaming. This interoperability creates a new level of freedom and flexibility for gamers as well as creators and developers who can put their skills to work to bring numerous communities together.

    Scarcity

    Scarcity is another factor that makes Web3 assets valuable. Unlike traditional in-game assets, Web3 assets have limited supply, and their value is determined by the market demand as opposed to pricing by the game studio. A gaming studio rarely ever releases a limited amount of anything because this would cap how much they can make off the items so eventually, if the item is good, everyone will have it and it is just a requirement to stay competitive. With third party developers having the ability to create NFTs for a game, they can set the number of items for release. If the number is set low and the community loves the release or has a major impact on the game, this scarcity will make the assets more valuable, and this can provide an opportunity for gamers to invest and make money. The scarcity of these assets creates a market for collectors and investors, who are willing to pay premium prices for rare and unique assets.

    On the flip side of this however, this could potentially open game breaking releases. For example, if a skin was released by a developer that would blend into the background of an environment making them almost impossible to see, this could send the community into an outrage if the number of NFTs made it impossible to obtain. Since these assets are owned by the player they cannot be easily patched or removed as we have seen down in web2 games.  How these situations are navigated will be extremely important as the web3 space develops.

    Transparency

    A key part of web3 is transparency. Blockchain technology’s decentralized nature ensures that every transaction is recorded on a public ledger, making it transparent and auditable at any time. With this, gamers can track their assets and history more easily, and creators can see the price history of popular assets so they can improve on or rework them for future releases.

    Web3 is Poised for the Future

    With the right resources in place and the billions of gamers around the globe, web3 gaming is poised to take the place of traditional web2 gaming. There is still plenty of work to be done with ensuring each game has a sustainable economy, the appropriate security measures in place to avoid exploitation, and can seamlessly onboard traditional gamers who may have a negative opinion about crypto and web3 gaming. That being said, with industry titans like Epic Games, Amazon, and more entering the market, it’s clear they’ve done their research and realize the potential that web3 has to completely change how we have looked at gaming during the last 3 decades.

  • Introducing: The Avalaunch Vesting Marketplace

    Introducing: The Avalaunch Vesting Marketplace

    Avalaunch has been busy and in the coming months will release a number of new features and products in an effort to expand as well as optimize its native offerings. Avalanche is evolving and we have every intention of growing right alongside it.  

    Stressing utility and flexibility for XAVA holders is a priority and initially, the team is excited to release its vesting marketplace and token dashboard. Beginning with the Deepwaters IDO, this new offering will enable IDO participants to trade their locked/vesting tokens with other users in an open marketplace inside of an experience optimized for flexibility and usability. In other words, buyers can acquire the right to claim tokens when they unlock as if they had participated in the IDO regardless of whether they actually did or not. 

    The Avalaunch Vesting Marketplace introduces several fundamental shifts for both users of the platform and the projects launching on it:

    1. IDO participants can now deploy more sophisticated strategies that involve retaining select portions of their locked tokens, while offering others up for sale on the marketplace — oftentimes at a discount to the buyer.
    2. The vesting marketplace is of tremendous value to projects launching on Avalaunch as it allows buyer and seller to transact off the order books and without an impact to price. Additionally, these locked tokens can now be transferred to holders who presumably have a longer-term interest in the project. Prior to the marketplace, a user might sell these tokens as soon as the unlock simply because it was the only option. Now, they can trade them well before the unlock, freeing up capital while simultaneously putting the tokens into the hands of holders with an extended time horizon on the project. This is a win-win-win for buyer, seller and the project.
    3. The IDO occurs at the very beginning of a project and doesn’t allow future supporters an opportunity to participate. The marketplace affords projects a brand new ability to engage and excite fresh users well after the IDO and a platform for these users to acquire a position in the earliest opportunity available, well after it has occurred.
    4. IDO participants are only offered a limited allocation based on sale size and registration numbers. Now, if they are especially bullish on a particular project they can acquire additional discounted tokens.

    The Vesting Marketplace is a first for all of crypto, giving way to new market dynamics that benefit both project and user while allowing Avalaunch to continue to establish itself as a market leader with respect to functionality and usability.

    Token Vesting, Liquidity & Market Dynamics

    Crypto is a space where early stage companies are traded; giving rise to great speculation and volatility versus traditional markets where far more mature assets comprise a given exchange’s tradable assets. Risk tolerance among individuals varies greatly and crypto, generally speaking, is an ongoing fight for liquidity where moving in and out of positions can materially impact price and sentiment. Vesting tokens are often released in relative bulk, often creating chaos at the moment of release causing unlocks to often be bearish events.

    Ideally, token distribution schedules should be timed with anticipated demand, however, investors require firm dates where they can expect to receive tokens. The result is quite challenging for projects as they hope to offset inflation with fundamental developments.

    Token vesting, in essence, is a process by which tokens are released gradually over time instead of being issued all at once. This mechanism is intended to align the interests of issuers and investors by ensuring that tokens are distributed in a controlled and strategic manner. 

    Ideally, token vesting is meant to encourage long-term engagement and prevent market saturation, however, this is often not the case. A token vesting marketplace can redistribute tokens into the hands of longer-term participants before tokens are “in the wild.” Avalaunch has developed a platform that allows token holders to buy and sell token vesting schedules, enabling them to trade the right to receive tokens in the future.

    Avalaunch’s vesting marketplace is a tool to incentivize long-term engagement that enables token holders to trade their vested tokens, which can result in a more liquid and efficient market. For projects, these marketplaces offer a new way to engage and attract supporters by incentivizing long-term investment. 

    For token holders, a crypto token vesting marketplace offers a new opportunity to trade their vested tokens to mitigate against risk, free up capital or realize returns in favorable market conditions. For supporters seeking to take a position, they are too often forced to bid up the market with high slippage or negotiate risky OTC deals with prohibitive fees.

    For launching projects, offering a fully audited, cost free, state-of-the-art vesting tool and claim portal can be as advantageous to launching projects as it is to users. The Avalaunch marketplaces aims to add market efficiency for launched projects and broader token support. It can prevent supply shock, add liquid flexibility for holders and offer new opportunities for those with longer investment horizons. Avalaunch believes that a trading marketplace for vested tokens can ultimately take the sting out of a growing circulating supply while offering participants a novel way to unlock value.

    Avalaunch Vesting Marketplace: Understanding the Features and Functionalities

    Avalaunch presents a public-facing dashboard for users to realize value from their vesting positions that allows token holders to buy and sell token vesting schedules, offering them a way to trade the right to receive tokens in the future.

     

    Here are some of the key features and functionalities:

    1. Token vesting schedules: The dashboard displays the IDO token vesting schedules available for trade, including:
      • Unlocked Value—tokens which have been or are currently claimable
      • Implied Value—the total value of an allocation, both claimable and vesting.
      • The duration of the vesting period and the release schedule.
      • Total Token Position—both unlocked and vesting
    2. Trading functionality: a user-friendly platform for buying and selling vested tokens in real-time with order matching and settlement.
    3. Price discovery: The marketplace will not use algorithms to determine price but user supply and demand to ensure fairness and efficiency.
    4. Transparency: The Avalaunch marketplace provides users with a clear and transparent view of their balances and positions in order to make informed decisions.

    Let’s use a practical example to tie it all together. 

    A user participates in an IDO that vests over a period of 1 month, with two unlocks (one at TGE and one 30 days later), creating 2 vesting portions. They decide that they want to participate in the first unlock, but would like to put the remaining portion up on the marketplace. Because the unlock occur in the future and not having immediate access to the tokens creates additional risk, the claim to these tokens should be offered at some discount to make it attractive to potential buyers.

    At this point, anyone can come to the marketplace and purchase these tokens, or more specifically, the right to claim them once they unlock in 30 days. Buyers on the marketplace do not need to KYC or have participated in the IDO. Once they acquire the tokens on the marketplace, they will show up in their token dashboard, available to claim at unlock, as if they had participated in the IDO. In this example there were only 2 vested portions, however if there were more, they could offer up any combination of future unlocks to fit their specific strategy.

    Wrapping Up

    The above was a simple introduction to the Vesting Marketplace, it’s features and implications for projects and users. We have released user guides for step-by-step instructions and will be talking more about it in the coming days and weeks.

    With a user-friendly interface, demand based price discovery and secure trading functionality, a token vesting marketplace is an essential tool for Avalaunch for launching projects and participants. Beginning with Deepwaters, Avalaunch believes that the functionality of a marketplace and the convenience of a robust dashboard will slowly become a staple in a growing list of forthcoming products and services. Avalaunch looks forward to sharing more detailed instructions and information as the launch date draws nearer.

    User Guide: Video Tutorial

     

  • How to Use the Vesting Marketplace

    How to Use the Vesting Marketplace

    Watch this video to learn how to claim, buy and sell vesting portions on the Avalaunch Vesting Dashboard & Vesting Marketplace.

    Importnat Note:

    All sales previous to the Deepwaters IDO in February 2023 will not have Vesting Marketplace support. In other words, you will not be able to buy or sell vesting positions on the vesting marketplace for any sale before Deepwaters.

  • Deepwaters AMA #2 – Technical Deep Dive (Recap)

    Deepwaters AMA #2 – Technical Deep Dive (Recap)

    Community Questions

  • Deepwaters AMA #1 – Project Overview (Recap)

    Deepwaters AMA #1 – Project Overview (Recap)

    • Maximum deposit size of $100000/day and $500000/month
    • Kaximum withdrawal size of $100000/day and $500000/month
    • Limited trading pairs: we are starting with the five trading pairs included in our testnet along with WTR-USDC. We plan to add more in the months to follow

    Community Questions

    https://discord.com/invite/Deepwaters
    https://t.me/deepwaters_dex
    https://twitter.com/deepwatersxyz

    We can’t say enough thanks to all the support our community has provided, and continues to provide. we hope we can live up to your extremely lofty expectations! Please help us to find and list the best tokens, and don’t let us miss your questions!
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  • Deepwaters X Avalaunch: IDO Announcement

    Deepwaters X Avalaunch: IDO Announcement

    Introduction

    The broken trust and absence of promise that has marred the crypto landscape over the last year has largely been the work of CeFi i.e. centralized financial institutions, private equity firms and insider-controlled projects. Unfortunately, these headline grabbing stories have come replete with scandal and corruption worthy of the soapiest of dramas; effectively conflating CeFi and DeFi to the non-native crypto population. Violations of custody have cost traders tens of billions of dollars and 2022 saw traders face immense losses from Voyager, Celsius, FTX, and others. While unscrupulous and predatory behavior is nothing new to the regulated world, the collateral damage to DeFi has been significant. Despite the seeming steps backwards, these recent mishaps fortify the case for an emergent decentralized financial system. Among the chief tenets of decentralized finance are the principles of fairness and inclusion which includes access to tradfi level trading experiences to go with inclusion and self-custody.

    Deepwaters

    Deepwaters is a different type of exchange that represents a quantum improvement over previous exchange technologies. As we consider the crypto exchange carnage of 2022, we must recognize that there are problems that have hounded crypto traders from inception.

    Centralized exchanges control access to information and order flow. As we have seen many times, this creates misaligned incentives for privileged parties to abuse this control through internalization and Payment for Order Flow (PFOF). In essence, traders are playing against the house. Additionally, exchanges have violated the custody of traders’ assets, repeatedly losing those assets to hacks or financial mismanagement. DeFi was born largely due to the lack of trust in financial intermediaries.

    Meanwhile, mass market adoption of DeFi has been obstructed by the inability of DeFi to meet the expectations established by the tools of traditional finance. Slippage and front-running create inefficiencies for large traders, and high gas/platform fees make them less accessible for smaller traders. Platforms lack composability, requiring bridges that are susceptible to hacking. Decentralized exchanges cannot compete with centralized and traditional trading without addressing predation, friction, risk, and fragmentation all together.

    The failures of these systems manifest for different reasons, but affect traders similarly: risk is increased, and profitability decreases.

    Deepwaters is bringing the trustlessness of DeFi to centralized finance, building the first provably fair centralized exchange. On Deepwaters, all traders have provably equal opportunity, and all orders are invisible to everyone, including Deepwaters itself, until they are executed or hit the public order book. This means:

    • No front running, MEV, or sandwich attacks
    • No PFOF or order internalization
    • Any reordering or order flow privileges are impossible
    • No adverse selection
    • No information asymmetry or data bleed

    Violations of custody have cost traders tens of billions of dollars. Deepwaters’ architecture ensures it can only run audited, open-source code with operations that are validated in real time by a decentralized network. In addition to guaranteeing the sanctity of order flow, this disallows discretionary actions with users’ assets, so there can be no rehypothecation or custodial violations. Deepwaters will also be able to be used in a completely non-custodial manner for further asset security, and any deposits / withdrawals occur at the speed of the relevant blockchain.

    Deepwaters combines the best of centralized and decentralized platforms while adding novel functionality to provide a service which is highly efficient, compliant with regulations, yet trustless.

    The Deepwaters Difference

    Deepwaters solves the following problems that are present in conventional centralized and decentralized order books and automatic market makers (AMMs):

    Problem Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) Invariant AMM Deepwaters
    Compromised Price PFOF[1] widens spreads. Adverse selection. Price Fade.  Local scarcity micro economic price discovery anchored in arbitrage (invariant-based  slippage + MEV-based slippage) PFOF is provably impossible
    Order Flow Disruption Privileged parties can change and block order flow.  MEV[2] players change and block order flow Order flow Immutability
    Poor Order Execution Front-running and sandwiching by privileged parties.

    Bifurcation of orders.

    		 MEV players sandwich and front-run traders Front-running and sandwiching is provably impossible
    Opacity Bid/Ask pyramid may not reflect reality (order flashing)

    Informational Asymmetry.

    		 Just-in-time liquidity and other MEV-based attack vectors WYSIWYG[3]
    Custodial Violations Undisclosed and unagreed asset rehypothecation and commingling Immutable custody, but smart contract risk.  Immutable custody, but smart contract risk. 

    Deepwaters uses on-chain technology to support self-custody: deposits and withdrawals are done using smart contracts. Business logic and critical data are encapsulated in a TEE enclave. Independent validators are compensated to verify integrity of the system as a whole. Market participants interact with Deepwaters through technology that they’re used to: the Deepwaters Trading API and trading terminal. All business logic is open-source. Validators can subscribe to log replication and native TEE cryptographic attestation to verify that behavior is as intended. These validators are compensated to verify behavior and dispute against bad actors.

    Nodes running the Deepwaters application and TEE are distributed across varied regions and participate in RAFT[4]-based consensus. In this way, the system exhibits crash fault tolerance and replication of data while maintaining high throughput, allowing for complex operations, and hindering attempts for any participant to gain advantage in speed over another by means of server colocation.

    The resulting order book is public, however the integration of a TEE ensures that incoming order flow is confidential until after it is posted or matched against the existing order book. Sequencing and execution of orders is the same for all parties, including the host of the engine.

    The majority of actions initiated by users will occur off-chain, utilizing the Deepwaters Trading API. A combined cross-chain state of user balances and other information is held in a secure computing environment. Actions can only be created by a user, who cryptographically proves they own the address associated with the action they are initiating. On-chain settlement is only required during withdrawals, improving system efficiency.

    Deepwaters Beta version development pipeline.

    Over 60% of exchange order flow is internalized (usually via internal netting on the exchanges themselves or payment for order flow to market makers; “PFOF”). This means orders are sold or internalized by the exchange before they hit the orderbook, and not matched to other traders. Orderbook spreads are 25% larger as a result of internalization, costing traders over $200m daily. Some or all of the price improvement is taken by the internalizing counterparties.

    Internalized orders are filled slower and in a manner that maximizes adverse selection (90% more likely to happen), resulting in orders losing value immediately upon being filled.

    Deepwaters is bringing trustlessness to centralized finance, building the first provably fair, centralized, optionally self-custodied exchange. On Deepwaters, all traders have provably equal opportunity, and all orders are invisible to everyone, including Deepwaters itself, until they are executed or hit the public order book. This means:* No front running, MEV, or sandwich attack

    • No PFOF or order internalization
    • Any reordering or order flow privileges are impossible
    • No adverse selection
    • No information asymmetry or data bleed

    Consider the difficulties one encounters with centralized exchanges:

    • Inexplicable system outages
    • Hacks
    • Funds concentrated in custodial wallets
    • Difficulties withdrawing or depositing funds
    • Frontrunning
    • Improper use of customer funds: Staking, leverage etc.
    • Erroneous account seizures

    Conversely, AMM driven DEX’s come with their own peril:

    • Impermanent loss
    • Absence of order books
    • Variable and costly gas fees
    • Failed transactions
    • Predatory bots

    Deepwaters exists to solve all of these problems.

    [1] PFOF: payment for order flow
    [2] MEV: miner extracted value
    [3] WYSIWYG: what you see is what you get
    [4] The Raft Consensus Algorithm
    https://raft.github.io/

    Traction

    • Deepwaters has had over 140,000 registered wallet addresses access its testnet. These users have placed over 7 million orders and 2.5 million trades.
    • Four community members have created custom libraries to connect to Deepwaters.
    • 85,000+ members in Discord, 47,000+ followers on Twitter.
    • According to DappRadar & ICOdrops, in November 2022 Deepwaters was the fastest growing unreleased project in all of web3.

    Deepwaters—Links & Team

    Website | Telegram (Discussion) | Twitter | Blog | Blog II | Discord | Github

    Partners & Backers

    “IVC is proud to back Deepwaters, which aims to transform the way centralized finance operates by incorporating principles of DeFi into CeFi, providing traders with the first centralized exchange that is provably fair and secure.

    With its hybrid architecture and real-time & decentralized platform validation, Deepwaters guarantees equal opportunities for all traders and upholds the necessary efficiency and compliance for the greater adoption of DeFi technology.”

    – Jeremy Hsiao, Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC)

    “With Avalanche being the primary state layer for Deepwaters, Blizzard is extremely excited to support one of the most experienced and savvy teams in crypto.”

    – Yi Hsin Wei, Blizzard Fund (VC arm of Avalanche)

    “Deepwaters team has a very professional team background to complete what they are trying to solve. The problems deepwaters trying to resolve are significant. They combine the best of centralized and decentralized platforms while adding novel functionality to provide a service which is highly efficient, compliant with regulations, yet trustless. We are very bullish on what they are doing.”

    – Sona, LD Capital

    “We are one of the earliest investors that supported the Deepwaters team. We enjoyed working with the team for their deep expertise in building robust trading infrastructure, innovative ideas, willingness to take feedback, and ability to execute”

    – Calvin Du, OP Crypto

    Conclusion

    The automated market maker represented a breakthrough in trading technologies. Quite swiftly, decentralized exchanges (“DEX”) were generating trading volume on par with their incumbent centralized counterparts but not without drawbacks. There has been nothing in the decentralized world where speed did not play a factor, where technology could not be used to game the system and certainly, nothing resembling a virtuous hybrid that offers an institutional grade self-custodied exchange.

    Lowered barriers to entry, inclusiveness, disintermediation are some of the “true Norths” that blockchain has been founded upon and somehow, provably fair exchanges have not taken center stage. The maxim “move fast and break things,” has served crypto quite well but has also left some gaping holes in its wake.

    Deepwaters is combining the ethos and trustlessness of DeFi with the efficiency, compliance, and throughput needed to ultimately bring this technology to TradFi.

    The team at Deepwaters has deep experience across tech, fintech, and crypto/blockchain. Collectively, the team has had multiple large, public exits, conducted over 10 ICOs (including Reg A and Reg D exempt tokenized securities), built high-frequency trading systems, architected cryptocurrency-based exchange-traded products, and founded and scaled many companies prior to founding Deepwaters. There are 16 full-time, non-anonymous team members, including 3 PhDs.

    The beta version of Deepwaters is going live on January 31.

    “If I could summarize the Avalaunch team in a few words, it would be ‘integrity and competence’. We greatly appreciate that the Avalaunch team only puts forward projects that they themselves believe in. Avalaunch team was thorough in trying to understand our token, technology and intent. Their deep understanding of Deepwaters tokenomics resulted in a wealth of helpful advice, particularly about protecting retail post launch, a major concern of ours. Deepwaters mission is that of creating a level playing field. We want the general public to have the same opportunity as everyone else. This was the common ground for us. The Avalaunch team cares about their community. For them, running a launchpad is about passion for the crypto sector and love of the Avalanche community. That resonates well with us. Of course, they’re also just all-around great people. It was a real pleasure working with Avalaunch, every step of the way.”

    – Zorrik Voldman, CEO / co-Founder

    Token Economics

    The WTR token (pronounced “water token”) is a utility and governance token for the Deepwaters ecosystem. WTR is accepted for goods and services provided by Deepwaters. It also provides coordination mechanisms for future development and various system parameters. While WTR is not explicitly required to use Deepwaters, it will provide the user with exclusive benefits, improving and expanding the user’s overall experience while allowing them to take part in the evolution of the ecosystem through governance.

    The total maximum supply of WTR is capped at 350,000,000 units (350 Million units). Issuance is both milestone-based and time-based. This is an effort to ensure that token distribution is commensurate with success of the platform and distributed over time.

    WTR can be spent on various goods and services provided by Deepwaters. Some examples include:

    • Trading fees
    • Purchasing Deepwaters Memberships / Subscriptions
    • Deepwaters premium data

    Fees are denominated in relevant assets, corresponding to the user’s actions. WTR can be used to pay a portion of the fees on Deepwaters at a fixed dollar-denominated exchange rate of $0.70. The allowable portion is a protocol-defined parameter, subject to the user’s current subscription and/or recent trading volume.

    A relevant example:

    1. User Alice executes a trade, selling 10 ETH for a price of 2000 USDC/ETH
    2. Alice pays a fee of 10 bps: 20000 USDC x 0.001 = 20 USDC:
      • 50% of the fee is paid in USDC (10 USDC)
      • 50% of the fee is paid in WTR at 1 WTR/$0.70 USD (~14.29 WTR)

    Allocation and Distribution

    Distribution of tokens is designed to promote a fair and diverse set of token holders, as shown below. By enabling all stakeholders to participate in governance and token utility, the system is set up with checks and balances ensuring the best interests of the project are pursued.

    Funding Numbers

    • Total Supply: 350M WTR
    • Pre-Seed, tier 1 (4c): 16,866,250.00 WTR | 4.82%
    • Pre-Seed, tier 2 (6c): 4,291,666.67 WTR / 1.23%
    • Bridge (8c): 25,665,000 WTR | 7.33%
    • Seed Round (12c): 25,000,000 WTR | 7.14%
    • Avalaunch IDO (12c): 2,083,333.33 WTR | .59%

    Total raise: $5.41M

    Project Tokenomics & Vesting

    • Total Tokens (fully diluted): 350,000,000.00 WTR | 100.00%
    • Deepwaters Team: 80,000,000.00 WTR | 22.86%
    • Strategic Reserve: 63,192,083.34 WTR | 18.05%
    • Pre-Seed tier 1: 16,866,250.00 WTR | 4.82%
    • Pre-Seed tier 2: 4,291,666.67 WTR | 1.23%
    • Bridge: 25,650,000.00 WTR | 7.33%
    • Seed Round*: 25,000,000 WTR | 7.14%
    • Advisors: 5,000,000.00 WTR | 1.43%
    • Validator Rewards: 30,000,000.00 WTR | 8.57%
    • User Incentives: 30,000,000.00 WTR | 8.57%
    • Community Fund (milestone-based unlock): 30,000,000.00 WTR | 8.57%
    • Community Fund (time-based unlock): 30,000,000.00 WTR | 8.57%
    • Avalaunch IDO: 2,083,333.33 WTR | 0.59%
    • Marketing / Promotion: 7,916,666.67 WTR | 2.27%

    Initial supply: 24,407,035.80 | 6.97%

    *Seed round tokens may not be sold in their entirety. Remaining supply will be added to the future investors pool.

    Vesting:

    Deepwaters Team

    • 88% of team allocation: 6-month cliff, quarterly distributions over a two-year period.
    • 12% of team allocation: Set aside as ‘employee incentive pool;’ reserved for recruitment, retention, and bonuses—Discretionary unlock

    Strategic Reserve

    • Held by Deepwaters for purposes of liquidity, partnerships, future investors, etc. Can be used at the discretion of the company with the following restrictions:
      • Cannot be reallocated to team or advisors
      • Cannot be sold on the open market by Deepwaters
      • Any sale or other disbursement of tokens must have at least a 6-month lockup / cliff (call options to market makers must be either 1) European or Bermudan style and have at least a 6-month period before they can be exercised, or 2) American style with the lowest strike price at least 100% above the then-current market price)

    Pre-Seed, Bridge and Seed

    • 6-month cliff, quarterly distributions from mainnet launch over two years.

    Advisors

    • Allocated for rewarding advisors to Deepwaters, but can remain unused or be allocated to further community programs.
    • Vesting varies across advisory and roles.
      • 708,290 WTR unlocked at TGE
      • Projected 1,443,970 WTR unlocked at 1 year past TGE (unless new advisors are added and given token allocations)
      • Projected 1,958,210 WTR unlocked at 2 years past TGE (unless new advisors are added and given token allocations)

    Validator Rewards, User Incentives and Community Funds

    • These rewards are earmarked for Deepwaters users and validators.
    • Validator Rewards — Awarded to validators for ensuring security of Deepwaters. Milestone-based unlock.
    • User Incentives — Awarded to users to incentivize ecosystem growth and early adoption. Milestone-based unlock.
    • Community Fund (milestone)— Strategic reserve controlled by WTR governance: to be used for community incentive programs. Milestone-based unlock.
    • Community Fund (time) — These time-based rewards represent the strategic reserve controlled by WTR governance—to be used for community incentive programs.
      • Unlocked monthly over 4 years, starting at platform launch

    Avalaunch Sale

    • 50% at TGE, 50% in one month.

    Marketing / Promotion

    • Allocated for promotional purposes, including airdrops. No lockup.

    Other:

    • Initial Circulating Supply: ~24.40M WTR (excluding liquidity tokens)
    • Initial Market Cap: ~2.929M USD (excluding liquidity tokens)

    The Deepwaters IDO on Avalaunch:

    • Total Supply: 350M WTR
    • 2083333.33 WTR at USD 0.12
    • Sale Size: 250,000 USD

    Registration Schedule:

    Registration Opens: February 6th at 3:00 p.m. (UTC)
    Registration Closes: February 13rd at 6:00 p.m. (UTC)

    Sale Schedule:

    Validator Round Begins: February 15th at 6:00 a.m. (UTC)
    Validator Round Closes: February 15th at 3:00 p.m. (UTC)

    Staking Round Begins: February 15th at 3:30 p.m. (UTC)
    Staking Round Closes: February 16th at 6:00 a.m. (UTC)

    Booster Round Begins: February 16th at 6:00 a.m. (UTC)
    Booster Round Closes: February 16th at 10:30 a.m. (UTC)

  • The BFG Roadmap

    The BFG Roadmap

    This article was written by Battle For Giostone Co-Founder Mile Gramatikov.

    A Road Ahead

    As a founder, sometimes a great idea will come, and you won’t be able to stop thinking about it. That’s what happened with Battle For Giostone.

    After competing and building friendships in the MOBA space for more than a decade, we started to tinker with blockchain apps and immediately fell in love. The thought of combining the two became a mesmerizing concept — we couldn’t help wonder what the result would be of bringing these worlds together. Battle For Giostone is our attempt to reinvent gaming by allowing gamers to immerse themselves in familiar and fun experiences, with the added benefits of ownership and self sovereignty that Web3 technology provides.

    That’s no easy task. But Gandalf the White said it best: “Things are now in motion that cannot be undone.”

    The Beginning — Q1 2022

    Many people remember the beginning of 2022 as a time when the pandemic was still raging on in the world, and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine was heating up. In the Battle For Giostone offices, we were hard at work developing a product market fit for our idea. With the assistance of Theeban, aka 1437, we went through a couple of iterations of the game, conceptualized numerous new abilities, and crafted the first edition of our website. It was was rudimentary, but it was enough to test out the waters and we discovered massive community support for a Web3 MOBA game.

    As soon as we had evidence that real players as well as professional gamers loved what we were doing, we doubled down on our ideas and started developing the BFG token. The tokenomics went under heavy development, and in the meantime, we started to develop out our early Web3 contracts (such as staking).

    The game production phase itself also started in Q1, where we worked tirelessly to make the first edition playable as soon as possible.

    The Middle — Q2 2022

    The closed MVP game launch happened in Q2 2022. We devoted a lot of resources to developing the product, and it was important to us to have the hero and ability mechanics working the way we intended. Our initial idea was to make the fundamentals work, and then to make it beautiful later. That was our engineering approach, and it has turned out great. The parameters of the heroes and the abilities began meshing, but of course there were still a lot of bugs to resolve. One by one, we handled them all, ensuring that the Pre-Alpha would come out on time.

    Q2 was also special because that’s when we launched our Forum. The Forum has been a place for the community to can discuss major events, patch notes, read announcements, talk about the economy, submit ideas about balancing the game, give item suggestions, or even talk about the rest of the MOBA world.

    Also during this period, we were focused on getting Seed Round funding and pitching our idea.

    The Current State — Q3 2022

    Over the last three months, we’ve completely redesigned our website. That was a massive draw for our community because they loved the new look when we launched it. We also rewarded the most active participants in our Discord community with access to the Pre-Alpha version of the game and got enthusiastic as well as honest feedback from players about what they wanted to see next.

    Turning this feedback into reality, we returned to the drawing board, covered their requests in new patches, and even started developing a surprise. This turned out to be our first hosted tournament, with the Pre-Alpha version of the game. Things were getting serious. After two successful tournaments, we started preparing for the IDO, scheduled for the 4th of October.

    After the IDO is finished, we’ll start hosting monthly or bi-weekly tournaments with a Spectator mode that will allow casters to comment on what’s happening during the match in real time. That will elevate the streaming experience and transform the game into an enjoyable experience for players and spectators alike.

    During this time, we also launched our Official Cinematic Trailer, released Pre-Alpha gameplay videos on YouTube, and released a developer update to cover the new designs and gameplay mechanics.

    In the last several weeks, we have started publishing the Battle For Giostone lore. People can now go to our website and read about the story of the Three Kings, the appearance of the Giostone, what it did to their civilization, and why the battle started in the first place.

    The Future — Q4 2022

    We are really excited about what is to come. Once we complete the IDO, we will release information about the Closed Pre-Alpha game launch. We will also release the GIOS utility token, which will serve as an in-game currency and will not be a blockchain-based asset.

    We will then release a marketplace and an NFT Heroes pre-sale and complete a CoinMarketCap listing. Immediately after our token generation event, we will create a liquidity pool where people can stake their BFG tokens and receive rewards for supporting the project early on, per our vesting schedule.

    We will also begin placing a much larger emphasis on the Esports component of Battle For Giostone. We’re currently in the final stages of negotiating with several sponsors that we think will make our Tournaments legendary in regards to player rewards. We want the watching experience to be spectacular, where the Story Mode will help gamers immerse themselves into the heroes’ backstories and the world’s beginning.

    Finally, we will begin working on the Android, iOS, and Ubuntu releases of the game to broaden our funnel for player onboarding. We are excited to involve as many people as possible in a project that aims to reinvent gaming as well as the rewards it provides for their time, effort, and skills!

  • BFG: Building A Token Economy

    BFG: Building A Token Economy

    While progress is ultimately measured in both steps backwards as well as forward, those living in the day-to-day of crypto have an acute understanding of the pains of each step back. In the Web3, gaming is a microcosm of the broader markets and the embodiment of three steps forward, two steps back. While pundits nearly unanimously agree that blockchain built games will rule the roost in due course, getting there will not be without its growing pains.

    There are complex difficulties in creating a sustainable token economy for a game. The current cris de coeur amongst experts is to shout the rather self-evident, “a game must be playable.” True, but there is much more to it.

    We all know:

    • Attracting users through inflation is unsustainable.
    • Rewards easily earned are easily spent.

    Typically, tokens can be earned through play, staking and LP’ing.

    From first principles we can understand — a game is an attention economy. This is why the narrative “games need to be playable” is an important one. Should a DeFi protocol masquerade as a game, the attention required to drive sustainable ongoing growth is not there. Instead, participants merely work on “gaming” the protocol, rather than have the protocol serve the gaming experience.

    Earning

    The stain of an earning game that no longer has sustainable economic activity does not come out in the wash. Whilst Web3 games can be dynamic and create opportunities for a higher percentage of players to earn income—thanks to decentralized value distribution models—without ongoing revenue this model will fall flat. Dota2 famously generates more than 200M USD annually and puts about 40M of that revenue into tournaments. Were a Web3 game to attain similar success, by all accounts the tokenomics should be much more inclusive. This would equate to a much larger percentage of value being distributed via rewards, tournaments, tokenized incentives and the litany of possibilities that simply do not exist in Web2. However, the key differentiator here is that players return to Dota2 over the course of weeks, months and years. Utility (or attention) drives value, hence value needs to be driven into utility. Passive staking for example is not complementary to play and must be reconsidered. Game loops must be thought of as value loops, driven by the attention and enjoyment of the player.

    A Word on Staking

    Locking tokens to receive emissions is mildly worthwhile as it incentivizes vesting as a project matures but — it is not the utility of a token. Users receive more of a risky asset and can now mitigate some of the risk by selling it. This is a simple equation that often undermines inchoate game ecosystems.

    Liquidity

    Incentivizing liquidity is of value but should not be too heavily front-loaded or bloated, otherwise, users will depart when they see their outsized APYs dwindle. Teams should be willing to provide more liquidity than they often do for myriad reasons. Should a team not feel like their listing price is a worthy buy, why should anyone else?

    Proper liquidity forces teams to reevaluate their diluted market cap as reliance on people showing up to provide liquidity for them in uncertain markets is a perilous prospect. Even in better conditions, the same scenario has played out ad nauseum — highly valuated, well capitalized projects experience a dramatic drop in volume, making it near impossible to enter or exit a position without massive slippage. While all markets have suffered greatly, these projects are going to have difficulty re-emerging as unlocks continue and every bounce gets sold. Teams that experience this become gun-shy and attempt to save every last dollar rather than defend their own token. The psychological impact is awful on early stage projects while private investors sit on the sidelines, saying nothing and waiting to sell. Early on, it is essential that a team understands their fragility as a new entrant into a highly volatile trading environment and must learn to balance their funding needs and liquidity.

    Diluted Valuations

    Battle For Giostone has a considerably lower diluted cap than most projects coming to market. And, as anyone can see, their distribution is a little different than what has become a standard but hugely flawed practice. Participants became worried that investors could own too much of a given supply and teams responded by raising their valuations in order to sell less tokens. This hugely limits upside potential and makes it extraordinarily expensive to provide liquidity, especially following unlocks. BFG as a project wishes for broad distribution of their token across their user base while conversely, keeping their cap table incredibly small. They have been remarkably efficient and believe that a lower starting point in terms of diluted value supports not only their prospective public but the future of the game economy itself.

    This is inherent to preparing a worthwhile token economy — one in which the game tokens are prepared to grow in step with the growth of the game, not one where a newly released ecosystem sags under the weight of initial overvaluation.

    In-Game Economy

    The Battle For Giostone economy is a rethinking and gamification of the typical play-to-earn model. Sustainability should come from activity within the network and not be a slave to time-based emissions or investor demands. The borderline delusional hope that value can be shared and sustained through gratuitous emissions, without real underlying attention and activity will hopefully constitute a misguided footnote in Web3 gaming history. DeFi apps, which deployed similarly disastrous strategies, have woken up from the slumber of three-digit APYs to a rather stark reality. In recent months, the term “real yield” has become popularized. This simply means that APY is created by revenues derived from a given protocol. Gaming can be approached similarly even though the value of play is not something that can be perfectly quantified.

    The dynamism of a token within a game is essential. While there is no game without capital contributions, players everywhere see these parties as prospective enemies. This largely adversarial relationship is problematic and was previously mitigated by very large community funds where players received free tokens, causing massive sell-offs. An improved appearance created a worse reality whereby the “cure” was worse than the “disease.” Tokens and their economy must be designed to serve both of these parties — the holder and the player — at the same time.

    To better align incentives, the BFG economy has been designed to respect all types of token holders by introducing a looped economic system. After all, those who earn tokens bring activity and revenue to buyers while token holders can bring revenue to gamers, within the constructs of a mutually beneficial architecture.

    A schematic of the BFG in-game economy (some of these values may change)

    The diagram above illustrates how a shared value economy can function within both a gameplay and holder loop.

    For example:

    • A capital contributor who supports the project will hope to earn additional tokens by staking their tokens.
    • In order to do this, they must forge an NFT which will be taxed.
    • In the diagram, the tax is 10% (as an example).
    • This tax is then deposited into a player reward fund.

    This is the beginning of a symbiotic relationship — holders are likely to lock up their tokens when they see future growth potential in the ecosystem while future growth potential must come in the form of new players.

    • Network generated revenues offer BFG rewards to the NFT stakers.

    A Tradable Asset

    An overlooked element in all of this is the listed token which can live in a world that is separated from the game itself. Since the BFG token utilities is an acting currency among other utility, all game associated revenues will be converted to BFG. This allows for some token velocity and creates a direct relationship between APY, token price and emissions.

    • When the APY is lower, the token price will respond in kind thus:
    • Stabilizing the amount of BFG tokens to be distributed as revenue.
    • When rewards increase, APY increases as will the token price, thus:
    • Stabilizing the amount of BFG tokens to be distributed as revenue.
    • Any inefficiency or lag creates opportunity for those who follow the game’s economy.

    There are additional safeguards in place that further capitalize on the price to earning ratio:

    • Not all locked BFG will have earning power — it will be capped by a percentage of the supply to incentivize early participants to gain earning seniority.

    Naturally, economic activity will ebb and flow but the APY will be adjusted at the both high and low end to best support a burgeoning economy:

    • Effectively rebasing to a lower APY when activity spikes around very bullish price activity balances value between the token and its return.
    • Conversely, boosting APY during a lagging or developmentally intensive period will also impact price.
    • The overall effect is stability both in BFG earning power as well as potential token price.

    The ultimate aim is to create a popular game that has a sustainable economy with robust token utility. This requires thought surrounding the speculative nature of crypto in general as well as the seasonal aspects of gaming. Three digit APYs do not support the long-term growth and reward a minimum number of early entrants. APYs that offer very little do not attract users. Using a rebase function to create ceilings and floors provides economic sustainability. This is also the reason that not all BFG will have earning power from day one. The reasons are as follows:

    • A new game needs time to grow and creating seniority incentivizes early adopters to forge NFTs (lock BFG) in anticipation of network activity.
    • Increased economic activity will create more earning NFTs but — it must be sustainable.
    • A user can lock in their earning power by being early to forge an NFT.

    Modifiers

    In order to create a sympathetic relationship between active players and token holders there must be a point of convergence. When there is zero overlap between these two parties, dissent can occur as gamers tend to see capital contributors as a necessary evil at best. The reality is far different but in gaming economies, there is something of a Chinese Wall between token holders and players. One never seems clear what the other incentives are and on occasion, they function independently of each other. There are examples of games with poor token utility with limited activity and vibrant gaming communities. This is a massive lost opportunity for genuine synergy as a vibrant Web3 game needs players and speculators alike.

    To combat this, Battle For Giostone has introduced artifacts generated from in-game activity that are of benefit to token-holders, called modifiers.

    • Modifiers are NFTs that boost earning power for a finite period of time.
    • Modifiers can only be earned through gameplay via random or skill-based drops.
    • Token holders purchase these from players on the BFG marketplace.
    • Modifiers can have varied utility but can only be used with forged NFTs that have earning power.

    Mutual support between gamers and passive token holders is an ideal for Battle For Giostone. This is achieved through the dispensation of earning modifiers that are dropped to gamers as a result of general gameplay activity. The range of modifier functions will be broad, not limited to but including — improved APY characteristics for the modifier holder, upgraded seniority position in the locking queue, time-based upgrades that provide powerful results for a limited period, and rare modifiers that will only ever exist on a very limited basis.

    Recap

    The BFG token economy is a significant departure from what has become a flawed standard play-to-earn economy. In fact, there are numerous differentiators across gaming economies on the whole that represent an important step forward.

    Some key features of the BFG economic cycle:

    • NFTs must be forged by BFG holders and staked in order to participate in the rewards schema.
    • Saleable items, of value to holders, are generated through economic activity within the game.
    • Forging NFTs exercises a tax, generating rewards for the players.
    • Yield is non-inflationary and tied to actual in-game popularity.
    • Player Rewards tend to be earned by highly skilled players.

    Within this gameplay loop, there is a token flow to players that is bolstered by modifier drops (which boost the earning power of BFG locked NFTs), to be sold in the secondary marketplace. BFG producing NFTs are seniority based so longer-term users are always first to earn. Depending on the flow of rewards coming into the system, an NFTs earning power will vary.

    As it stands, there is a second tokenized asset, GIOS, which lives off-chain where players can only earn GIOS through gameplay and which will not be tradable on exchanges. It acts as an in-game credit and its primary purpose is to forge new Heroes. While there may be a modest conversion rate to BFG, the rate will be purposefully high to stimulate players to forge new heroes.

    The game itself will evolve rapidly as assets are created and seasonal play begins. There will be clear epochs that will stimulate economic activity and create favorable circumstances for entry. New entrants into the game will not feel behind in any capacity and the entree itself can be sped up through skilled play or subsidized by economic activity.

    Conclusion

    The BFG economy is designed for any and everyone to enjoy, however, participation trophies won’t come with monetary rewards. The promise of Web3 gaming and broader distribution of value is that more players are able to economically benefit from playing a game but more does not mean all. It is unrealistic to expect things to be any different and the performance of early play-to-earn models are proving this point in a painful way. Nonetheless, they are not to be maligned as progress is always marked by those who came first and dared to experiment.

    Battle For Giostone has set out to improve upon the great experiments that have come before them, focusing on creating an economic loop that seeks to unite the passive and the active, the player and the invested holder if you will. It is not a DeFi protocol dressed up as a game. It is a well-balanced game, a long time in the making, where yield is non-inflationary and rewards benefit all parties. Economic activity and play are the drivers of this economy, not inflation and bloated APYs. Investors are incentivized to forge NFTs that add to the player reward fund, and invest in boosting modifiers via the secondary marketplace to improve their yields. The ultimate motivation behind this design is to enhance the existing gameplay experience for players into something that is uniquely Web3 oriented, financially rewarding, whilst at the same time provides for the familiar sense of enjoyment found in traditional gameplay experiences.