Author: ck
Autonomous worlds and minimal rule set
PixeLAW is an Autonomous Worlds dedicated to exploring interoperability between on-chain games. It was born during the ETHGlobal Paris Hackathon in July 2023 and won the first prize of Starknet Best Use. PixeLAW is built on fully on-chain game engine and is committed to exploring the potential value of interoperability between on-chain games. It has the native characteristics of blockchain such as permissionless and composable, and thus builds an Autonomous Worlds.
There are already quite a few explanations for Autonomous Worlds, such as: digital planets, infinite games, on-chain “reality”, etc. To me, an Autonomous World is an open world with no fixed tasks or goals, only emergent and random events, just like everything happening in the physical world, but it has a set of streamlined and immutable rules. , referred to as the minimum rule set.
EVM as a minimal rule set
From the perspective of the minimum rule set, Ethereum (here refers to all EVM compatible chains and the large Ethereum ecosystem composed of all Ethereum Layer 2) is a typical “Autonomous World”! Its minimal rule set is “EVM”. Anyone can deploy any smart contract code into the “world” as long as they follow this set of rules (code in Solidity). In other words, everything that happens in this world is spontaneous, permissionless, and random.
“Pixel” as a minimal rule set
“Pixel” is the smallest programmable unit in PixeLAW and the smallest rule set of PixeLAW. It consists of 6 programmable attributes: App, Color, Owner, Text, Timestamp, and Action. Developing games on PixeLAW means programming the 6 attributes of Pixel. This is the only “limitation” and the only “physical law” of this Autonomous World.
PixeLAW’s Advantages as an Autonomous World
Creative freedom unlocked by minimal ruleset
As long as you follow the minimum set of rules, you can create any game on PixeLAW:
Use one Pixel to create rock-paper-scissors,
Use two Pixel to create Snake,
Use three Pixel to create the Guess number,
Use nine Pixels for Tic-Tac-Toe, Minesweeper, 2048, Sudoku, Crush, Puzzle, etc.
Use more Pixel to create music scores which allow co-create, chess, Monopoly, and more.
Client freedom for fully on-chain games
Since the logic and status of fully on-chain games are all stored on-chain, greater freedom is released for the game client. Taking PixeLAW as an example, its client can be not limited to pixel style, it can also be voxel style; it can be not limited to PC, it can also be mobile; one client can host all games, or one client can just host one or several specific games. In short, PixeLAW is client-free (in theory, all applications on-chain are client-free).
Developer friendly
Thanks to PixeLAW’s excellent design and engineering implementation, it is very developer-friendly. To put it simply, to build games on PixeLAW, you only need to complete contract development, and PixeLAW will take care of contract deployment, front-end development, UI design and other matters for you.
Vice versa, if you are only good at front-end development and lack experience in contract development, you can still develop a client with a better UI for the existing games in PixeLAW, or just integrate multiple games in PixeLAW through a pure front-end approach build a new game.
Meta-game as a case for composability
“Pixel” is the smallest rule set of PixeLAW and the smallest programmable unit in PixeLAW. Building a game on PixeLAW is to programmatically combine one or more “Pixels” (similar to programmable Lego blocks).
You can also programmatically combine games that others have built on PixeLAW to build your own game. This way, you get a game on top of games, just a “metagame”. In the same way, others can also combine the games you have built through programming to get a new game for them. This continuous cycle , stacking, and integration is the path to the evolution of PixeLAW’s composability, and it is also the path to PixeLAW’s meta-game practice.
To sum up, PixeLAW brings the practical path of Autonomous Worlds, the practical path of free creation on the chain, the free implementation path of the fully on-chain game client, and the practical path of composability based on meta-game . Whether for developers, creators, players or the entire blockchain application ecosystem, it deserves more attention and practice.
PixeLAW as a multi-chain application
Based on the above reasons, we believe that PixeLAW exists in more blockchain ecosystems and is a better solution to maximize its value. Prior to this, PixeLAW only existed in the Starknet ecosystem (developed based on the Dojo). Although Starknet is a layer 2 of Ethereum, due to its unique technical route (ZK Rollup and Cairo language), it is not suitable for the majority of EVM ecosystem developers (using Solidity language) is not friendly.
Therefore, we (MetaCat) are building an EVM-compatible version of PixeLAW based on MUD, bringing PixeLAW to the pan-EVM ecosystem, and exploring the infinite possibilities of the Autonomous Worlds as the latest application of blockchain with Web3’s largest developer group.
You can view PixeLAW built on Dojo and MUD by visiting the PixeLAW website.
Essentially, PixeLAW is a methodology for realizing an “Autonomous World” on-chain , which can be implemented on any blockchain.
Autonomous Worlds and Web3 Ecosystem
As mentioned before, the Ethereum ecosystem can be regarded as an “Autonomous World”, and similarly the Bitcoin ecosystem can also be regarded as an “Autonomous World”.
Taking a step further, we can also regard the large blockchain ecosystem composed of the Ethereum ecosystem + the Bitcoin ecosystem, which we also call Web3 for the time being (although it is not accurate, but it is enough to represent its core) as a larger Autonomous World.
In this sense, the Autonomous World is the same macro concept as Web3, and can also be the ultimate goal of blockchain practitioners!
At this level,
is it the account balance model of Ethereum, or the UTXO model of Bitcoin?
is it a fungible token based on ERC-20, or a fungible token based on BRC-20?
is it a non-fungible tokens based on ERC-721 or a non-fungible tokens based on Bitcoin Ordinals?
whether it is the Bitcoin Metaverse based on Bitmap theory or the Ethereum Metaverse based on ERC standards?
there is no so-called portal dispute (regardless of Is it in terms of technical route, consensus solution, governance model, or other aspects). Because all of this is: the natural emergence in the large “Autonomous World” of blockchain, and these emergences together constitute the Autonomous World.
