N.B. The full Ellerium tokenomics model will be released ahead of the coin introduction. This article gives an overview of our tokenomics philosophy and the wide-ranging uses for $ELLE.
Tokenisation is a huge part of Web3. From in-ecosystem utility to equitable benefit distribution, tokens can significantly enhance both centralised and decentralised ecosystems. Equally, their existence can serve as an opaque proxy against an assumed underlying base of utility.
Up until now, some project tokens have been lightning rods for scams and rugs. Poorly designed tokenomics and hype marketing creating the perfect storm for pump and dumps.
The Kryptoria team has, since the project’s inception, believed that a token’s benefit can only truly be felt, and its risks mitigated, when that token is attached to something concrete. A foundation to anchor its value. A skilled team to execute on an exciting roadmap of demand creation. A long-term vision to carry a token’s life cycle not just days or weeks from now, but years into the future.
In the three months since our launch, Kryptoria has minted out 3 collections of 10,000 unique dNFTs. Released a fully-fledged persistent world crafted in Unity. Built a 4X/RTS game setting new standards in the space. Delivered partnerships with multi-million-dollar international brands. Brought together a massive community of engaged, sophisticated holders. And amassed an audience stretching far beyond that into the tens or hundreds of thousands.
All of this has enhanced our project’s presence in the space, creating a name known for transparency, innovation and above all else, trust.
It’s the perfect platform to launch a token from. Kryptoria’s in-game, in-ecosystem payment token, Ellerium ($ELLE). The next step in our project’s evolution.
Reading this article will help you understand some of the broad benefits and risks of tokens, why Kryptoria is introducing Ellerium, the many ways it can be used and our tokenomics philosophy.
Why projects introduce tokens, some of the benefits of doing so, and some historic pitfalls
Both non-fungible (ERC-721/721A) and fungible (ERC-20) tokens have hugely diverse use cases. The inclusion of both within a project open up new horizons. New ways of leveraging blockchain technology to create and innovate. Though cryptocurrencies have been the most well-known use case for ERC-20 tokens, at a high level they can be understood to increase the decentralisation of a project. This is done by:
- Democratising ownership of a project
- Distributing benefits equitably across holders
- Providing a medium of exchange, both within and across projects
- Giving utility to holders, whether that be rewarding them for playing a game or supporting a project from the start
When implemented poorly, tokens can have significant negative impacts on a project. Though we won’t get into the wider arguments around perceived value, or the fiat vs digital asset debate, tokens can be thought of as an extension of a project’s perceived utility. It’s why people yield or buy them in the first place. Consequently, holding a token means exposure to a project (e.g. holding Ether is essentially exposure to the fortunes of the Ethereum network). Logically, it also means that a project’s worth is divided across the total number of tokens in existence. Many past projects have released infinite supply tokens, where the initial price is high and maintained through hype marketing or market manipulation. As supply increases ad infinitum, demand can never match it. The price falls. Those who bought in late are left holding the bag.
Poorly designed tokenomics and anonymous teams benefit from these tokens by passing on the buck to their holders. As the space moves on to higher standards and an emphasis on building tangible products, tokens can once again provide the benefits originally envisaged. Read on to understand how Kryptoria is implementing Ellerium to bring those benefits into our product and community.
Why Kryptoria is introducing Ellerium
We’ve seen countless tokens attain high, unstable prices. Whether through pre-determined, collective speculation or as a function of late-cycle over-heated markets, fundamentals-based price discovery has oftentimes been detached from reality. As the market has evolved so too has the perception of value.
We see current market conditions as an opportunity. A necessary re-calibration of expectations. One where only the most efficient and laser-focused projects survive. Only those with a strong community, building products or services with tangible utility and experiences are afforded a chance of success against a backdrop of informed consumers.
By extension, a project’s token should be attached to the strength of its community, product and user base. It is this expectation when paired with a controlled, finite supply that will offer stability when used as a medium of exchange.
This logic is why Kryptoria is launching Ellerium now, not some arbitrary point in time.
We’ve minted out 30,000 unique dNFTs, each denoting in-game assets. Built a persistent world in Unity. Created a commercial ecosystem bridging brands and companies into Web3. And delivered the #1 blockchain powered 4X/RTS game.
Alongside our community, this has grown our brand in the space. One known for professionalism and innovation. Product, brand and community: the three things that will sustain a token, long term. Ellerium is a key step in the evolution of all three. It:
- Takes the sophistication of our game to the next level. The world of Kryptoria is essentially moving from an early trade/barter society to a complex civilisation with a central currency. Ellerium will be the medium of exchange, allowing you to build cities, fund armies, fuel fleets, raise families, expedite operations, lease your asset base and gain access to all upcoming mints.
- Rewards our community by democratising ownership and access to deal flow. In this sense it’s one of the best applications of blockchain, where the community has highly liquid exposure to the entire commercial ecosystem. Immutable proof of ownership and frictionless distribution of benefits — Web3 at its finest.
- Strengthens our brand. The successful delivery of a token, strong tokenomics design, and ongoing utility derived from that token — all these are significant milestones for any project. With a space-leading game and dNFT collection already delivered, Ellerium not only opens up many technical possibilities, but introduces Kryptoria to those in the wider crypto sphere.
A sophisticated ecosystem built around an immersive game and dynamic NFTs. Add a payment token connecting all three, and the possibilities really are endless.
The tokenomics philosophy behind Ellerium
Since inception, Kryptoria has operated on a number of values. Chief among them are trust and transparency.
When building our product and interacting with our community, the team has avoided hype marketing in favour of open dialogue — we’re all building something for the long-term, together. In that vein, our tokenomics philosophy is to provide as much certainty, on top of tangible benefit to our holders.
We don’t believe in infinite supply tokens. Without a constant and matching pressure of token purchase, the laws of supply and demand dictate the price must always fall. Keynes and Friedman can teach us a few lessons here.
Kryptoria is an innovative, long-term business building a roadmap that will go on for years, not months. As such, Ellerium is designed to be a payment token of finite supply and a life cycle of years, not months. Alongside external experts, the team has built a tokenomics model that doesn’t just set out TGE supply constraints or individual allocations but ceteris paribus, maps out behaviour of the token over the coming years.
We will be releasing our full tokenomics model ahead of formal launch, but, at a high level, Ellerium is characterised by:
- Diverse and extensive demand profiles.
- Finite supply.
- A transparent and sophisticated dispersion system.
- Strong incentives to promote retention and on-platform expenditure
Diverse and extensive demand profiles.
Ellerium is the payment token for the Kryptoria game and ecosystem. We designed Kryptoria to be an iterative, open-ended ecosystem, meaning the uses of Ellerium are already huge and will only increase with time. With the token used across our game, ecosystem, and with external providers, we are creating constant demand. With game iteration, marketing and the on-boarding of new audiences, demand pressure will only increase. And when you keep your Ellerium in the ecosystem, you get access to all its uses, including:
In-game
Ellerium is the payment token of Kryptoria. As the game is iterated, you will be able to use $ELLE to:
- Speed up your attacks (i.e. reduce cooldown).
- Boost your Citizen, Land and Weapon’s attack + defence stats.
- Increase resource production by developing your land.
- Purchase loot boxes containing weapons, armour and other technological boosts for your forces.
- Fund and speed up technology research, advancing your army and making it even more dangerous.
- Speed up the construction time for buildings like hospitals or bases on your land.
- Boost your heroes, armies, navies and air forces.
- Access in-game enhancements
Your holdings, your skills and your strategies all let you carve out your share of resources from Binary Code to Meta Spice. Like the great armies of the past, you’ll be able to exchange those plunders for currency, and with that money upgrade your forces. Kryptoria is a meritocracy, and those who fight to win will be rewarded handsomely. For a summary of the game, see our three articles on game mechanics: Build, Trade and Fight.
In-ecosystem
Ellerium is also how you access the benefits of our wider platform. As we develop further commercial partnerships, new and old, Ellerium will be the primary method of distributing benefits. Future mints of NFTs, giving ownership of new in-game assets, will require Ellerium. You’ll use $ELLE to:
- Access some of our Web2 partnership traits and benefits.
- Buy and sell in the Kryptoria Marketplace, accessing new traits for your Alpha Citizens.
- Essential to the enhanced 3D game of V2.
- Provide for your in-game family as your breed Alpha Citizens, creating new in-game characters. Each new Citizen will have its own unique dNFT.
Externally
Collaboration and interoperability are two keys to mass adoption. The Kryptoria team is already in talks to integrate with other games and worlds. As part of our near-term roadmap, Ellerium will be used:
- In other games and worlds.
- To lease your NFTs. This not only rewards early holders but reduces the barriers to entry in the ecosystem, widening our audience.
- As payment by other projects to access our Unity world.
From day 1, Ellerium was designed to be a payment token to complement and improve the existing Kryptoria ecosystem. It is not a passive number on a screen, but the lifeblood of a world. As that world grows and the audience builds, the finite supply will be stretched to further uses, benefiting early holders.
Finite supply
Having a finite supply gives everyone certainty on future amounts of Ellerium, sidestepping the volatility and uncertainty of infinite supply tokens. A finite supply combined with a long-term vesting schedule gives a strong predictive model for price action over time. In addition, incentives and use cases aim to minimise the impact of holder-behaviour variables like withdrawals.
A transparent and sophisticated dispersion system
Community, team and investors will all receive a certain amount of token at our Token Generation Event (TGE), or token mint. For the community, this is based on the number of Alpha Citizen/Land/Weapons owned, during our snapshots.
Outside of this amount, the number of tokens available daily will be controlled by a strong vesting schedule, mapped out over 3 years. To further control circulating supply after TGE, the only way to obtain some of that daily amount of Ellerium will be the conversion of all 5 in-game resources, at a dynamic exchange rate. Playing the Kryptoria game for in-game resources is therefore the most immersive and effective way of getting Ellerium.
Every 32 hours, the conversion pool will reset. Once all available Ellerium has been converted, no more is available until the next reset. The pool will not stack in the event not all $ELLE has been converted. The exchange rate of each resource will be dynamic depending on a number of market factors. In the same way the world largely adopts floating exchange rates, so too does the world of Kryptoria. If the economy is getting too hot, the Bank of Kryptoria may step in to cool the market.
Holders will also be able to obtain Ellerium for completing in-game quests. As the game is iterated, players will be able to take part in quests. Side quests are a brilliant way of expanding a game’s lore. Not only will the community be able to earn Ellerium from completing quests, but they’ll be able to contribute to writing them. It’s creativity, decentralised and rewarded.
Finally, engagement with Kryptoria socials will be rewarded in resources. Our community is filled with evangelists. To see them rewarded, we launched the space-leading Citizens Reward Program. And, as we iterate the CRP, interacting with Kryptoria online will be rewarded with resources, to be used in-game or converted into Ellerium.
Strong incentives to keep Ellerium within the Kryptoria ecosystem
As well as the limit on resource conversion, there are a number of mechanisms encouraging holders to keep their tokens within the ecosystem, where they can enjoy Ellerium’s full utility.
- A withdrawal tax when moving Ellerium out of the ecosystem into a wallet. This tax is dynamic, based on staking streak.
- A minimum in-game rank required to withdraw Ellerium into a wallet. Strategising in the world of Kryptoria is the only way of gaining resources and, by extension, Ellerium. Only those engaged, active and with a rank of Ensign or higher, will be able to withdraw $ELLE into their wallets. This not only prevents opportunistic supply increases but encourages user engagement.
The Kryptoria team works on the belief that ownership of digital assets should always stay with holders. It means increased security, reduced gas fees, and a better UX. It’s why we implemented our market-leading soft staking system, allowing staked Kryptoria NFTs to remain in owners’ wallets. We have tried to combine this belief with an approach that rewards our community of loyal holders.
Tl;dr
Ellerium is the payment token of Kryptoria’s gamified ecosystem. An ERC-20 token, it is the next step in the evolution of an already sophisticated project. It exposes the project to new audiences. And with a huge number of uses, finite supply and strong tokenomics, it opens up new possibilities for the team and community to build on in the years to come.
