ROCO Finance

A Rising Force in GameFi?

Introduction

NFTs have provided a whole new way for video game players to monetize their playing times. However, capitalizing on this whole new market can be difficult for developers who are unfamiliar with blockchain platforms. ROCO is the token that powers Roco Finance, a suite of tools that allow game developers to integrate NFT services into their games. These tools include open source software development kits (SDKs), APIs, game add-ons, virtual items, management applications, and a payment systems platform. Developed on AVAX Network, Roco Finance allows developers, content creators, and player communities to access the blockchain and capitalize on all of the features that entails.

Problems For The Video Game Industry

The video game industry is one of the most sought after markets in the world. Estimated to be worth nearly $160 billion in 2020, it is already worth more than the film industry, the publishing industry and the music industry. Not only that, it is also one of the fastest growing industries in the world, with an expected average growth rate of 12.9% per year until 2027. This makes the video game industry an incredibly attractive area for investment.

This is especially true when you consider the potential the industry has once NFT technology is successfully integrate. The market capitalisation of renowned NFT products grew by around 1,785% in the first three months of this year. This rapid growth is a development that is set to add even more value to video games. By giving players the ability of genuine digital ownership of in-game items that create a whole new revenue stream for both developers and players. Blockchain and NFTs in particular allow a genuine economy to develop around a game as in-game items become much more secure stores of value.

However despite all this growth, the video game industry still has many issues preventing it from properly fulfilling its potential.

The Problem of P2P trading

Most gaming platforms are not optimised to facilitate secure peer-to-peer trading. This means that very often gamers who want to trade in game items will have to go outside of their game and use other platforms. Third party trading platforms cannot always be overseen by the game developers and therefore there is more risk to players. Players can be exposed to fraud because the lack of oversight increases the chance of unfair trades and duplication. In addition to that, the sheer complexity and frequently high commission rates associated with having to use multiple platforms to trade in-game items will dissuade many players from taking part.

Lack of Interoperability

Many online games have an in-game currency that can be used to purchase items in the virtual world. However ,there is very little currency flexibility between different online games, meaning players cannot transfer and use the same currency across multiple gaming platforms. This means they are forced to grind and earn a new type of currency for each game, which is time-consuming and an unpleasant experience. Although the idea of a system that forces players to play for longer may seem beneficial for a developer, it actually diminishes incentive to earn money within the game at all, as once the player moves on to the next game their currency will become essentially worthless.

The Blockchain Barrier of Entry

The obvious solution to these issues is to build games on a blockchain platform. However, while this sounds like a great idea, the process can be very complex even for experienced developers. There is a huge amount of research, marketing, and especially security updates involved in integrating a blockchain onto a gaming platform. Any mistake could expose users’ funds to a hack and cause the price of the in-game currency to plummet. For these reasons, many online gaming companies avoid using blockchain technology. Considering that blockchain provides such adequate solutions to the problems faced by online gaming though, this represents a huge lost opportunity.

Crypto Marketing Limitations

Even if a developer does manage to successfully integrate blockchain onto their platform they still must overcome the barrier of getting people to use it. Although blockchain can improve a game for both developers and players, this is not a fact that is yet known by the mainstream. Because of this, it is difficult and expensive to convince players and investors to pay attention to a platform built on this model.

The ROCO Solution

Roco Finance is the platform that can provide all the solutions to these issues by dramatically lowering the entry barriers for game developers, content creators, and player communities to access blockchain features as part of their gaming experience. By combining blockchain technology with the video game industry, it allows both developers and players to maximize the monetization of virtual items. ROCO is the crypto asset developed on AVAX Network that powers the Roco Finance ecosystem. ROCO provides a suite of different services to game developers and players that helps them manage, distribute and exchange virtual items by integrating NFT services.

The tools that Roco Finance provides include:

NFT Market

This will provide players with a secure place to exchange NFTs from any game that integrates ROCO. This means that NFTs from one game can be traded for NFTs from another creating interoperability and more use cases for the tokens.

Staking & Farming pools

These pools will provide the liquidity for the ROCO ecosystem, allowing investors to stake their tokens and earn interest for doing so.

ROCO Starter (Launchpad)

ROCO starter is the launchpad that developers can use to launch their in game currency. A launchpad will ensure that the token is properly advertised and properly distributed, creating lock-up periods to stabilize the price.

Mobile Wallet

The Mobile Wallet is ROCO’s easy to use wallet that will take the difficulty out of storing crypto assets and help with onboarding new players.

Payment Gateway

This will provide the validation service for in-game currency transactions. All games in the ROCO network will use this gateway meaning currency can be traded across different games.

Applications ( Software development kits (SDKs), APIs, game add-ons)

These can be used by developers to make integrating all of these processes easy. Even for experienced video game-coders, blockchain programming can be complex. These applications will make it possible for developers to build smart contracts to power their games.

These tools make it easier for developers to integrate blockchain protocols with their games. They provide interoperability for both NFTs and currencies between all games on the ROCO Network. Also, thanks to the ROCO Starter IDOs platforms can advertise these new blockchain features and ensure that the players entering the ecosystem have enough technical knowledge to property avail of these features.

Benefits For Developers

• R&D costs of partner companies decrease as they use ROCO products.
• Purchases on the NFT Market are always carried out in a transparent and secure manner.
• Minimal chargeback and fraudulent transactions.
• Genuine ownership will bring more loyalty to gamings.
• ROCO Starter supports developers at every stage of their crowdfunding process.
• Initial asset offerings available through our NFT Market pre-launch or post-launch of the games.

Investors Benefits

• ROCO token holders can stake their own tokens and earn passive income.
• ROCO token stakers have priority participation in IDOs at ROCO Starter.
• Roco Finance distributes 10% of the NFT market item sales revenue of its own games to Stakers as a profit share.
• Roco Finance distributes 1% of the NFT market item sales revenue of partner games to Stakers as a profit share.
• Roco Finance receives 1% commission from NFT items sold by players in the secondary market and distributes commissions to stakers as rewards.
• 10% of the ROCO Token revenue from monthly membership fees and Rise cash sales will be distributed to the stakers as a profit share. We will apply the same reward distribution rate for all of our games that we will develop in the future.
• Roco Finance will organize a buyback program every year. Buyback amount is 5% of annual profit.

RISE Online

Riseonline is the first MMORPG game to be part of the ROCO ecosystem. It demonstrates the use cases for the tools that ROCO provides. Riseonline has already achieved over 100,000 users and will launch its closed beta version at the end of September.

The game will include numerous events that will allow players to earn ROCO tokens. Defeating Monsters for example, will allow a player to win ROCO tokens just like an item drop in a normal video game. However in addition to that, players will also have the ability to earn thousands of dollars worth of ROCO tokens at Boss events. ROCO tokens can also be earned in airdrops and will be distributed in the game via a specific algorithm to maintain market stability. One million US dollars worth of ROCO tokens will be distributed to game players per year.

Events

• Roco token rewarded missions
• Roco token drops from defeated monsters
• Boss Events
• PVP Tournaments
• Clan Wars

Income Model Of Rise Online

• Selling rare virtual items at the NFT market
• Season tickets
• Monthly subscription Fees
• In-game ads

According to Roco Finance the expected revenue from RISE Online will be around $8M, with only Turkish players included in the calculation. It remains to be seen how this figure may grow with critical success on the international market.

Avalanche

ROCO is built on Avalanche, an open source platform that can launch decentralized applications in one interoperable ecosystem. Avalanche is the first decentralized smart contract platform that is built for a scale of global finance and thus is able to perform near instant transaction verification. Rapid transaction speed is crucial for in-game ecosystems where the fast paced nature of gaming means that many transactions have to be approved quickly.

Using a probabilistic consensus protocol, Avalanche creates a voting mechanism that incentivizes validators to reach a consensus. This novel approach to consensus is what allows Avalanche to achieve it’s strong safety guarantees, quick finality, and high-throughput without compromising decentralisation.

Token Economics

Roco Finance just completed a very successful seed round which saw them raise over $3.5 million in funds.

The total supply is set at 100M tokens.

41% to be sold by Roco Finance to presale purchasers pursuant to a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (“SAFT”) offering or through Approved Affiliates. All tokens, except for Public Sale, have some vesting schedule. Allocations start after the Pangolin Exchange listing.

Distribution

• Token Sale: 41M
• Ecosystem: 20M
• Foundation: 15M
• Strategic Services: 7M
• Liquidity: 10M
• Sustainability: 7M

Sale Metrics

• Seed and Private Sale: 36M tokens, $0.1
• Public Sale: 5M tokens, $0.12
• Total Hard Cap $4,200.000
• Initial Circulating Supply: 9.600.000
• InitialPrice : $0.12
• Initial Market Cap: $1,152.000

Vesting

• Foundation
• 6 months cliff, 8.33% monthly for a year.
• Ecosystem
• 30 days cliff, 25% unlocked quarterly over a year.
• Liquidity Provision
• 100% unlocked, 33,3% will be used for pool liquidity on Pangolin at the beginning.

Strategic Services

30 days cliff, 8.33% a month for 12 months

Sustainability

2 years cliff, 16.66% a month for 6 months.

Seed & Private

10% unlocked, 3 month cliff, 5% a month for 18 months.

Public Sale

100% unlocked

Conclusion

Despite the massive explosion in popularity of NFTs as digital collectibles, nowhere is NFT technology being more quickly integrated than in the gaming industry. It’s clear that any developers that aren’t integrating NFTs are missing out on a huge potential revenue stream. This technology can allow entire economies to develop around video games, in ways we cannot yet predict.

Early indications suggest RISE Online could become a formidable MMORPG in its own right. If the initial revenue estimates for this game are anything to go by, it will be a major success for Roco Finance and the ROCO ecosystem. Additionally, with the platform itself poised to offer game developers a suite of tools to enable a next generation gaming economy, Roco Finance is in a strong position to disrupt the gaming industry and take a leading position in the GameFi world.

Note: 4SV invested in Roco Finance. Nothing written in this article should be considered financial advice of any kind.