Daily Archives: April 21, 2022

Goons of Balatroon, a 2D/3D hybrid metaverse featuring Play 2 Earn card strategy gaming and land ownership built within the Elysium ecosystem, has just closed their most recent funding round with $2.46M in seed and private financing. The funding included backers such as Merit Circle, Jun Capital, Vulcan Forged, Faculty Group, Maven Capital, and Bullperks, alongside a handful of founders of companies including the HUSL, Lovelace and Rarestone Capital. The flagship product, a Trading Card Game (TCG), is unique in its use of complex element-tile strategies, wacky characters, and deep gameplay mechanics, never before seen in the P2E environment. Alongside this project, GOB is working on a land battler game that will also play a major part in the GOB ecosystem.

Goons of Balatroon Co-Founder, Mark says, “With the recent surge in play to earn games, we see an increased focus on the ‘earn’ function, and while this is absolutely an aspect of our environment, we believe a focus on making the game fun to play, first, is of utmost importance.”

The project boasts some notable names in its collection of partners. Vulcan Forged and Merit Circle have both put a lot of effort into the project, alongside The HUSL, Lovelace, Unizen, GSR Capital, MEXC, Synaps, Skyvision Capital, PlayNity, and ImmutableX. Vulcan Forged and Merit Circle both have advisors helping the project reach fruition. Experienced partnership goes a long way towards turning this vision into reality.

“Play to Earn gaming tends to have a very high-cost barrier of entry, we want to onboard users in a free to play manner, welcoming web2 natives to web3 without any initial need for a wallet,” Community manager Matthew states, “They can choose to scale their reward rates, through NFT ownership, at their own pace. Gamers seek to optimize and if we provide them the means, they will integrate at their own desired rate.”

The current iteration of the project has been developed in-house with a view to being fun first and play-to-earn second. TCGs are the most natural fit for NFT products since unique, individual cards already hold value in paper collections. GOB intends to offer that same value system for digital assets. As a digital card game built and tested in-house, the project has great promise for the future. The company sees GOB as being a hit with competitive TCG players because of its rich strategy elements and the introduction of 2D/3D aesthetics that will appeal to gamers from multiple platforms.

The cross-integration of gaming on the Elysium chain opens immense possibilities for TCGs. Combining the rich lore of a well-developed game with solid mechanics and replayability packed into a competitive, community-first game is a unique approach to crypto gaming. The core of the game is its players, and GOB recognizes this, creating a unique gameplay loop that utilizes the full power of the Elysium chain alongside a vibrant community supporting its development.

By integrating the game into the Vulcan Forged Elysium ecosystem, GOB opens the doors to an interchange of NFTs between other projects on the Elysium chain and their own. GOB is already partnering with Vulcan Forged to develop a wider metaverse based on the TCG and land battler. The wider metaverse is a key part of the Elysium chain and will allow for seamless use of NFTs across each part of GOB’s software offerings. Land NFTs and other small minigames are intended to form part of this extended metaverse, with collectibles being usable within the GOB TCG.

At the heart of the project’s metaverse is the $GOB token. This is an ERC20 token dropped via a TGE on ETH and is currently being bridged to Elysium. GOB expects to launch the token via several public launchpads. IDO + CEX and DEX listings are scheduled to happen by the end of April. The expected total supply will be 750 million $GOB.

It was recently announced that 15 leading GameFi projects on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) will host a coordinated airdrop with over $30,000 for participants. The participants include PlanetSandbox, Deathroad, MechMaster, AMAKUNI, MetaStrike, Rise of Defenders, Kingspeed, Ancient Kingdom, My Master War, Metaxiz, Heroes & Empires, Etermon, Hydraverse and Animverse.

In total, $30,000 worth of crypto assets is up for grabs. Rewards are made up of governance/utility tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and so-called hero boxes, and a total of 100 winners will be selected to share the prize pot. On average, total prizes from each project are roughly $2,000, with many split between multiple tiers.

To be in with a chance of winning, all users have to do is follow each of the projects on Twitter, log their entry here, and enter their BEP20 wallet address. Entries must be logged by 11.59 pm on April 27.

BSC Bonanza

Binance Smart Chain is carving out a reputation as the go-to GameFi network. Last December, the network teamed up with gaming giant Animoca Brands to launch a $200 million investment program to incubate GameFi projects building on BSC. The network now supports over 500 gaming dApps according to DappRadar.

For retail users around the world, BSC is an attractive alternative to ERC-20 assets as it boasts low transaction fees while maintaining speed and effectiveness. For this reason, many GameFi projects have built on BSC as a way to provide fair access to users around the world, while making sure scalability is not jeopardized.

As a result, BSC has become a magnet for leading GameFi projects, particularly in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia, with strongholds like Vietnam and Indonesia, was the driving force behind the rise of Axie Infinity and the recent play-to-earn narrative which fueled the rise of GameFi in 2021. Beyond engaged users, Southeast Asia brings passionate gamers that are mobile-native and understand the mix of game mechanics and blockchain-savvy that is required to perform at a competitive level.

The First Airdrop of its Kind

Airdrops are a common mechanism to attract new community members and reward existing ones for their loyalty. In this case, 14 leading communities will combine forces, creating what is expected to be a massive wave of cross-adoption between platforms. Users will be exposed to new games while having a chance to win prizes that will immediately give them a leg up on the competition.

Prize Pool Specifics

The following prizes have been confirmed for airdrop winners:

• $2000 worth of PlanetSandbox PSB tokens
• 10 NFT SARU by AMAKUNI (~$2000)
• $1000 worth of Rise of Defenders RDR tokens; 40 Boxes of Heroes
• $1000 worth of KingSpeed KSC tokens; $1000 worth of KingSpeed NFTs
• $1000 worth of Mech Master MECH tokens; $1000 worth of Mech Master NFTs
• $1000 worth of MetaStrike MTS tokens; 50 Uncommon Boxes
• $1000 worth of Metaxiz MEXI tokens; $1000 Common Boxes
• $2000 worth of Etermon ETM tokens
• $1000 worth of Heroes & Empires HE tokens; $1000 Genesis Rare Chest
• $2000 worth of Deathroad DRACE tokens
• $1000 worth of Ancient Kingdom DOM token; 8 Standard Boxes
• $1000 worth of Hydraverse HDV tokens; 40 Standard Eggs
• $1000 worth of MyMasterWar MAT tokens; 20 NFT Heroes (~$1000)
• $2,000 worth of Animverse ANM tokens

By participating in Binance Smart Chain’s latest headline-grabbing campaign, companies like Planet Sandbox, DeathRoad, Etermon and others will be looking to attract yet more interest in the network’s fast-growing GameFi ecosystem. The partnership can be looked at as a coalition of sorts, where games can use each respective competitive advantage to build a combined network effect to help the ecosystem flourish as a whole.

The best part is that the airdrop is easy and straightforward. A reminder for interested gamers: all you need to do is follow each project on Twitter, document the record of this action here, and submit your BEP20 wallet address. Make sure to do so by April 27 as well.

Blizzard, a game studio and part of the Activision-Blizzard company, has started polling some gamers about the use of NFTs and cryptocurrency elements. The survey, which was only directed to some of its players, raised rumors about the possibility of the company introducing some of these elements into its games. However, Mike Ybarra, head of the studio, denied this possibility.

Blizzard Makes Selective Poll, Includes NFTs and Play-to-Earn Subjects

Blizzard, the game development studio that created franchises like Starcraft, Warcraft, and Overwatch, is polling some gamers about their opinions when it comes to NFTs and play-to-earn mechanics. According to sources on social media, the poll consulted players about issues that included other, more common topics for a gaming company, like augmented reality and cloud gaming.

However, there was a section that asked directly about the opinion and the feelings of these users on the inclusion of NFTs and cryptocurrency elements in some of the gaming IPs (intellectual property) of the company. While the survey did not directly point to the implementation of these mechanics into any game, it did raise worries in some gamers about the possibility of this being in the works.

However, the head of Blizzard, Mike Ybarra, denied the idea, declaring:

No one is doing NFTs.

NFTs in the Future

Fans of Blizzard were surprised by the answer of Ybarra and the survey, deeming the situation illogical. However, this poll might be related to the future of Activision Blizzard after the acquisition announced by Microsoft for almost $69 billion in January.

The future owner of the company, if the purchase clears the legal hurdles it faces, might be interested in taking some of Blizzard’s IPs to experiment with them, which would explain the existence of the exploratory poll. However, there has been no clear news about the origin of the poll.

NFTs and the play-to-earn phenomena have been hotly debated topics amongst gamers of AAA franchises, who have shown resistance to the adoption of these elements in traditional games. However, some companies have already included them in part of their business plans, even investing in companies involved in the field.

One of the most pro-crypto companies is Ubisoft, which has already launched its own NFT market, called Quartz, and has backed Animoca Brands, the company behind The Sandbox, one of the most well-known metaverse-based platforms. Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda has also declared support for these types of features, highlighting their benefits in a new year’s letter.

What do you think about Blizzard polling gamers on NFTs and the play-to-earn movement? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio Goschenko

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price rise happened during December 2017. Having a computer engineering background, living in Venezuela, and being impacted by the cryptocurrency boom at a social level, he offers a different point of view about crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

After yesterday’s Mint coverage around the incoming NBA NFT release, today’s drop was more… flop. Meanwhile, the long-awaited Coinbase NFT platform is finally opening it’s doors, albeit only to a limited amount of beta testers thus far.

A lot of hype with limited delivery in today’s Mint, but that’s just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. We’ll give you a quick dose of reality Monday through Friday with all the biggest stories around NFTs.

The Nightly Mint

Latest Mint: Coinbase’s NFT Platform

In a new announcement today, Coinbase shared that after first introducing Coinbase NFT last year, the company is finally rolling out the product. It started today with limited access for beta testers, based on their position on the waitlist. Ethereum, of course, is the first blockchain to be supported on Coinbase NFT; screenshots shared thus far have compared Coinbase NFT to the likes of Instagram, with profile pages, ‘followers’ and ‘following’ tabs, verified checkmarks, and comment sections. The crossover between social media and NFTs is inevitable, and Coinbase certainly could serve as the first true bridge.

Related Reading | Halfway To The Halving: What This Means For Bitcoin

Coinbase has taken heat for it's lack of movement on it's NFT product, but critics will need to shift their critique this week, as the company has finally unveiled it's beta version to limited testers. | Source: NASDAQ: COIN on TradingView.com

A Follow Up On NBAxNFT

Yesterday’s Mint praised the NBA for being one of the most aggressive sports leagues in the growing blockchain landscape. Unfortunately with aggressive moves, comes risk, and the dynamic NFTs – powered on Ethereum – released today fell short of expectations. ‘The Association’ collection had a contract error that did not limit or gate transactions as intended, leaving some users with the ability to mint over 100 NFTs.

We recognize the issues with the smart contract which caused the Allow List supply to sell out prematurely. We apologize for this situation and are currently identifying the Allow List wallets that were not able to mint as a result.

— NBAxNFT (@NBAxNFT) April 20, 2022

The ‘Minty Fresh’ Take

A great recap from @TopshotTandy on Twitter to reflect how much of a mess today’s NBAxNFT release was. Kudos to the league for continuing to take risk, but as we’ve seen time and time again in this space, without diligent and careful engineers, things can go south quickly.

Today was @NBAxNFT 10,000 Allow List mint. The rules were “1 NFT per wallet”. Yet there are 15,925 minted, some wallets with up to 100 NFTs. 🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/Lt2TMkp8Rf

— Tandyman ☘️ (@TopshotTandy) April 20, 2022

Related Reading | Did Vitalik Buterin Sign Up For This Subsocial Web3 Feature?

Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com
The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.