In a series of essays, we will explain the token economic model of RACE Poker. Token can convey values across the entire eco-system, the function of which is also essential to a healthy eco-system. For poker player, community and contributor, RACE token has different functions. In the following articles, the mechanisms shall be illustrated respectively.
Let’s start with poker games in the first article. Poker players are the most important kinds of users in RACE Poker, a decentralized poker platform powered by web3 technology. They also makes up the majority of the whole ecosystem. Thus, in the token economic model, it is crucial to take players’ benefit into consideration and to make the best combination of their demands and the whole system.
In poker games, players use RACE token to buy-in(cash game), or buy tickets(tournaments and SNG games), while the platform will keeps a part of the pot as rake to make a profit. It appears to be similar to traditional live casino or online poker apps, in which players deposit money to their account balance and the platform earns a rake in return.
On traditional platforms, however, it would easily turn into negative-sum games. Will players continue to encounter this issue on the web3 poker platform?
1.The most important aspect to negative-sum games is the rate of rake.
Rake is a percentage of the pot taken by the platform(often between 2.5% and 10%), and it is an important source of revenue for both online poker apps and live casinos.The rake will be higher if the operational expense is higher.
As a result, when compared to online poker apps, live casinos typically take a higher rake because the latter saves on costs such as rent and labor.
Even if that online apps have already made some progress in lowering cost, there are still costs on complex fund management. The deposit and withdraw mechanisms imply a payment process, in which a succession of intermediate processes run linearly from payer to payee. The total cost of the procedure, like commissions of payment channels, the management of merchants and the prepared refund, would inevitable result in a relatively high rate of rake.
Smart contract, a self-executing contract with agreement written into code, can deal with the complicated payment process at its core. With automatically verified and executed agreements, it allows the fund to flow straight from payer to payee, shortening the whole procedure of transaction. As a result, the costs of intermediate processes can be reduced.
That is why we adopt smart contracts as one of the fundamental infrastructure of RACE Poker. In the game, each poker table functions as an account owned by the dealer contract, handling requests for buy-in and withdrawing. Player’s wallet and blockchain contract interact directly, simplifying and lowering the cost of fund administration.
As a result of a cheaper cost, our platform can charge a relatively lower percentage of rake than traditional platforms, allowing our users to play negative-sum games.
2. Rakeback with RACE token will result in a higher profit.
When it comes to calculating the ultimate profits, some players will add the amount of rakeback into their gains. However, players cannot always rely on rakeback to actually improve their profits.
In order to advertise the product and attract more users, online poker platforms give back a portion of the rake to players. Rakeback, mainly intended for marketing purposes, usually comes with many restrictions, like the complicated calculation, a lengthy period of time(maybe a month) and strict requirement of withdrawal. Thus, rakeback in traditional platforms resembles a rake discount with strict condition.
The potential of ‘rakeback’ can be completely realized in our token economic model.
Unlike traditional ways, we plan to return a part of rake back to the players immediately after the game, with no limits. Furthermore, the rakeback can be returned to users with any tokens we’ve supported (USDC, RACE, actually, it could be any SPL).
It will not only make the profit more accessible and reliable for players, it will allow them to earn RACE or other SPL as well. As a result, the money spent on rake can be viewed as a means of exchanging various tokens. Besides, as the community grow stronger, the value of RACE token will rise, indicating the possibility for positive-sum games.
The economic model of RACE token will allow the fund in poker games to operate more efficiently and economically. Lowering rate of rake will reduce players’ overall cost, while the design of ‘rakeback’ with RACE token will provide minimum-guaranteed profit for players. We hope poker player can enjoy the pleasure positive-sum games on our platforms.
That is how RACE token works in the perspective of poker players. What is your opinion on it? We would love to hear from you.
In the next essay, we shall go through more details from the perspective of community, which is also an important component of the entire eco-system. Please stay tuned!
Website: https://racepoker.app
Discord: https://discord.gg/tzR4sHjNNx
Telegram:https://t.me/racegame
Twitter:https://twitter.com/RaceGameTeam
