In case you didn't read the project announcement and the blockchain research, we are joining the Algorand ecosystem with Trantorian.
Now we want to explain the innovative tokenomics behind our project. After reading this your mind will be blown.
This is going to be a game changer. Buckle up!
Please, keep in mind some details mentioned here can change as we progress with the balance test of the game.
A few words on our goal and passion
Before delving into our tokenomics, we want to emphasize some very important aspects of Trantorian.
Trantorian is a video game. As such, it's main "utility" is to provide fun, entertainment, a good time with old friends and meeting new ones.
Every aspect of the tokenomics we have thought — and we have thoroughly — , does not involve any through on speculation, get rich quick or any other pyramidal yield.
We understand players will be spending hard earned value to purchase Trantorian's NFTs. As such, we designed them to improve their value over time, specially for dedicated and skilled players.
We will always lean toward rewarding players. The perks we will be discussing will always be focused on playing the game, rather than simply holding the NFTs.
We want to openly discourage migrant users, as we call them, that get early on a project just to do a quick flip and leave. That is why nobody from Trantorian will talk about ROI and such.
Having said that, let's change the game forever…
A coin-less project backed by NFTs
One of our main concerns within the whole NFT gaming ecosystem is the lack of a true, sustainable economy.
Most projects have some sort of pyramidal economy: rewards they provide come in their majority from the income new players bring into the economy.
In others, the tokenomics are just not well thought out.
We were adamant about this from the start: we don’t want that.
So, how do you create a sustainable economy? It’s not an easy task. We’ve spent a great deal of time thinking, performing analysis, and running projections.
The end-result is a breakthrough project with two major pillars: Coin-less and NFT backed.
Why coin-less?
Trantorian will not start with its own token. Instead we will use $ALGO as the main transaction coin in our marketplace. Here's our take on why:
Stability
$ALGO has a very steady growth plan, which will bring a lot of stability to the token.
Accessibility
We don't believe all projects should start with their own tokens, unless the tokens adds a utility to the project or the world in such early stages. Imagine if you want to buy an iPhone, you are first forced to buy Apple Coins. And if you want to buy an Alienware computer, you have to buy Alienware Coins. It can quickly become messy and cumbersome.
Decentralization
No token, by definition, can be more decentralized than the network it belongs to.
Economic optimization
Developing a game is not an easy task. Many projects fail because they don't know how to optimize their resources and focus on the wrong things. By being coinless, we don't have to spend funds to keep such token alive and valuable and handling liquidity. We rather use those resources into building the game and the ecosystem.
Focus optimization
Just like above, we don't want to spend time and energy chasing whales or fighting pump & dumps.
NFT based economy
The game economy will be mostly NFT-based.
This means Trantorian NFTs not only will allow players to play the game. They will also add a lot of utility to the game, governance, and future on and off-metaverse projects planned.
We don't believe in pay to win games either. So as you will see below, the different NFT are created not to achieve in-game advantages in the main core gameplay (explore, battle and trade), but rather to add benefits and perks (both in- and off-game).
Keep reading to learn the different types of NFTs Trantorian has, and how we are ensuring their value without falling into a pyramidal economy.
NFT Spaceships
These allow owners to play the game as a Fleet Commander.
NFT Spacehips have been designed to be better at different roles. Think of an RPG game where you have your healers, your DPS and your tanks.
In Trantorian, such roles are both for PVE and PVP. These are the 6 main ones:
- Freights
- Repair & Support
- Tanks
- Long Range Damage
- Medium Range Damage
- Stealth
As you can see, each role serves a very specific purpose for battle, exploration and trade.
These perks will be defined as a growing list overtime. To give you an example, they will involve fees reduction, in-game HUD improvements, and even governance votes.
Fleet Commander Academy
NFT Spaceship owners can hire a Fleet Commander to play the game for them. Via a revenue-share agreement controlled by a smart contract, they can allow non-owners to play the game. Think of it as something similar to a scholarship.
We will leverage on Algorand's Freeze feature to achieve this with 100% safety. The NFT will be transferred to the Fleet Commander and frozen, all in one atomic transaction.
This will be controlled by the smart contract automatically. Once the smart contract ends, the NFT is returned to the original owner.
Leasing
There will be options to lease your NFT Spaceship for a fixed value, with a buy-in option at the end of the contract. This feature will be handled by a smart contract.
NFT Blueprints
These NFTs are a major part of Trantorian as they allow new NFT Spaceships to be minted.
Players will earn these NFT Blueprints through several mechanics, such as in-game loots from battles.
NFT Blueprints, as with all NFTs, will be tradeable at the marketplace as such. However, as a player, you have the option to actually build an NFT Spaceship from this blueprint.
This process requires time, in-game resources and $ALGO. It will also burn the NFT Blueprint in the process. And a new NFT Spaceship will be minted as the result.
The best part is the player that originally transformed the blueprint to an NFT Spaceship, will get a life-time royalty every time that spaceship is traded in the marketplace.
As you can see, finding and transforming NFT Blueprints to actual NFT Spaceships will be a very desired activity within the game.
NFT Land rights
These allow owners to play the game as Space Tycoons.
Fractional NFTs
Every planetary system in Trantorian is divided in 100 lands. As a player, you will be able to buy as many as you want, in different planetary systems.
To achieve this feature, we are leveraging on Algorand's fractional NFT feature. This ensures the Planetary System as a whole is an actual NFT.
Land Owners have their own plot of land: their place in the metaverse to build and enhance. But are also part of the government of the Planetary System.
For more detailes check out the NFT Planetary Systems section in our Dark Paper.
Taxes
Lands will be subject to taxes. The details about the amount of taxes and how they will be paid will be announced later.
Just like the NFT Spaceships, we want to incentivize land owners to actually play the game. So we will announce certain mechanics to achieve that.
Regardless, taxes will be relatively low, and very easy to pay if you are playing the game.
If a Land Owner taxes are overdue after a certain period, the owner loses the land and it's open for sale again in the marketplace.
To ensure transparency and safety, this will be governed in its entirety by the smart contract using Algorand's clawback and revoke feature. This guarantees there will be no shady practices on our end.
We want to be very clear this key feature is controlled 100% by the smart contract. In no-way there will be a mechanism to manually perform a clawback/revoke operation. This will be simply not allowed in the smart contract.
Trantorian will initially define how much overdue time would trigger a clawback. As soon as the future DAO is in place, this will be controlled in its entirety by the DAO.
As you can see, DAO votes matter a lot!
Mortgages
Land Owners will be able to sell their land through a mortgage system. This allows owners to get a steady revenue and others to access a land that may be too expensive for them to purchase directly.
Mortgage system will, of course, be handled by a smart contract.
NFT Heroes
These are special NFTs that can be used for either the Fleet Commander or the Land Owner gameplay path. And they enhance either based on their stats.
Also, NFT Heroes enable additional features in the game HUD that can make your gameplay a little better.
NFT Heroes will appear in future seasons and will be explained later.
NFT Rarities and Perks
By now it's clear Trantorian is not a pay to win game. With that in mind, we've defined an initial price for the NFTs based on their rarity and in-game characteristics such as location for lands, and stats for spaceships.
These are some of the different perks any NFT can have. Keep in mind this list may not be in the same order as it will appear in the game:
Enhancement slots
These slots provide slighter enhancement for the spaceships.
Enhancement Slots do not work in ladder / tournament PVP. But they do work in open galaxy PVE/PVP.
An NFT can have 1 through 6 enhancement slots available.
Available spots for special events
Special events such as season quests and other similar, unique events, have a limited NFT Spaceship capacity. Therefore, the capacity is defined by the individual NFT Spaceship rarity that you have in your fleet, and not the entire fleet.
This means if you have a fleet that has mixed rarities, you may not be able to participate in the special event if the slots for one of your fleet rarities has been filled.
Spots apply only for special events. Not for playing the game regularly.
DAO votes
Another very important benefit some NFTs have are the votes for the future DAO.
This votes will allow owners to participate in the governance and define a lot of aspects of Trantorian. As well as propose and vote for new features that will be developed.
The mechanics for proposal submission and voting will be defined and announced later.
Zack's Matrix
We loved Zack's article about tokenomics. His article is amazing.
Here's our Zack's Matrix proposal.
If you haven't read Zack's article, we highly recommend you do! In the article he provides a great introduction to tokenomics.
In his article, he goes deep into utility and incentives, which are mostly financial. Since Trantorian is a game, with it's main utility being having a great time, here's our stab at Zack’s Matrix:
More on economic sustainability
We don't want to make this article extremely large. But we are aware we are leaving out a very important aspect of the project: how is it being funded and how will it sustain itself in the future?
In a following article, we'll cover Trantorian's economics, funding sources, revenue channels, goals, and more.
The article will complete the circle and show why our project is well thought, not pyramidal and sustainable.
More on continuity
Another major aspect is, after the initial minting of NFTs, how new NFTs will be minted.
We will explain this in another article as well. We will be very clear about how new NFTs will be minted.
And like with everything we do, it will be transparent, well-thought, and eventually handed over to the DAO.
The rundown
We've worked out the tokenomics to make the project sustainable in the long run.
The value of the NFT goes beyond the game itself, with added benefits such as participation in the governance and even true infrastructure projects behind them.
You can play Trantorian. You will own your NFTs. You will be able to decide the fate by participating in the governance. And many more things are planned ahead.
See you in the Galactic Union.
