Fief AMA #1 — Project Overview with Coop (Digital Marketing) (Recap)
On 3/10/2022 at 12:00 p.m. (PST), an AMA session was held on Avalaunch with special guest Coop, Fief’s digital marketing lead. Below we present to you an excerpt from AMA with questions and answers.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
Hello and welcome everyone to our AMA with Fief Guild. Avalaunch is exciting to be launching a guild project and this is certainly one of the more comprehensive and thought out projects you will encounter. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to ask some questions, and there’s no one better to answer them than today’s guest, @coop_x Over a recovering e-commerce entrepreneur and digital market SME. Welcome Coop, good to have you here today.
Coop | Fief
Hey, thanks!
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
Our pleasure to have you…First thing first. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: who you are and how did you end up where you are today?
Coop | Fief
You sort of mentioned this but I’ve spent the last 10 years in digital marketing, for tech and then ecommerce. Ended up starting my own ecomm company in 2017.
Also got into crypto around 2017, at first just holding ETH. When DeFi summer kicked off I got more involved, eventually found my way to Avalanche in 2021.
I joined the Pangolin team and pretty quickly saw that GameFi and the Metaverse were going to be the next big thing.
I’ve been a gamer my whole life. Playing starcraft, quake, GoldenEye, diablo, I think I played nearly every game in the 90s.
Spent my teenage years in MMORPGs, thinking about getting my next tier piece in WoW instead of paying attention in high school.
So when I met Longshanks and Gallahad, I realized I finally had an amazing opportunity to work in gaming and that the founders have incredible vision for the future of gaming, so I joined the team.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
Some solid training grounds for your current line of work 😁
Why focus on building a “guild” and how does this serve the vision of the project?
Coop | Fief
Good q, and yeah I’ve got tons of training lol.
We set out to structure Fief as a guild in order to best onboard and serve gamers. We believe that NFT gaming and GameFi are markets that are just now getting started, and user onboarding from all walks of life will be essential moving forward.
That means, we want to bring in everyone from traditional gamers (specifically focused on strategy gamers) to more crypto native users who will benefit from our decentralized protocols.
With our guild approach, we have a lot of lateral flexibility to introduce value additive experiences to Fief. The first of which is Blood and Coin, our first internal strategy game that is built on top of our Guild Faction system.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
Can you give us a higher-level overview of Fief structure? How does this structure support the economic gaming and the decentralized protocol concept aimed at fueling the metaverse asset utility?
Coop | Fief
Yeah, a a good way to understand the Fief structure is through the two types of assets we aim to integrate into our protocols:
Internal Assets — These are assets created for the strategy games we develop internal to Fief, such as Blood and Coin. These assets serve as the bedrock by which transaction volume is generated, producing primary rewards for our guild members. Fief Wood is an example (the Avalaunch resource).
External Assets — Third-party assets, including things like in-game currencies and related NFTs. These assets can be brought by users, guilds and metaverse projects to Fief to be used in our protocols. A clear-cut example is the Fief Marketplace, which will eventually whitelist metaverse projects to accept their assets.
between these two we aim to create a productive internal economy, then take that over with third party assets.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
With so many blockchain-driven guilds, gamefi and metaverses available in the space, how do you envision to keep these competitors at bay, what are the key factors that make Fief unique?
Coop | Fief
The emerging metaverse is bringing about a new wave of economic models that require a dedicated focus and expertise to navigate.
The biggest difference for Fief as a guild, is that instead of running play-to-earn programs (“scholar” programs), we are focused on how the Fief protocols can directly plug into the economies of third-party projects. Following the initial phases focused entirely on internal guild activities and Fief: Blood and Coin, we will begin whitelisting projects and their assets to be used in our internal protocols.
Coming back to the idea that we’re not just acquiring assets or working assets like traditional guilds, we’re building the protocols that third parties will use for all their GameFi needs over time.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
As a guild aiming to create a central economy for all the various metaverses on an asset-basis, what are your plans for incentivising users to part-take in the economy?
Coop | Fief
We have introduced a five faction system internal to the guild, where each faction is segmented into specific metaverse asset categories.
With this approach, users can align with the factions that fit their asset interests.
As an example, if a user is bullish on metaverse NFTs and the growing transaction volume associated with them, they would join the Merchant Faction, which receives the bulk of the fee rewards from trading activity on the Fief Marketplace.
It’s important to note that each Faction will also benefit from the internal game activity of Blood and Coin, providing two clear paths towards rewards over time.
and that internal game again comes back to jumpstarting productivity before we move into third party assets.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
and on a side note it is interesting that you are more resource/tool oriented than not. Removes a lot of the hiccups in managing humans 😁
Coop | Fief
Right, we see most traditional guilds at this point as extremely inefficient because they’re essentially managing a bunch of low cost employees. That is the opposite of what we want.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
Can you explain the fee structure, in particular the Initial Guild Membership (IGM) concept?
Coop | Fief
Each Fief protocol (the marketplace for example) will fall within a specific faction: Merchant, Farmer, Craftsman, Alchemist and Bishop.
Within each Faction will be a highly competitive, NFT-based weighted scoring system where users must collect internal Fief Faction NFTs (currently from Blood and Coin) to earn a portion of the fees generated by activities on each protocol.
The more rare/higher the rating the NFTs a user collects, the more rewards they will receive over time. This is what is being fleshed out with the initial release of Blood and Coin, using our own internal game assets as a training ground for what will be a much more global system.
In regards to the actual mechanisms of fee rewards, we leverage a Fief Token (FIEF) buyback and redistributed approach. This way, we are funneling all fee action through our core guild utility token. This utility token is primarily distributed (65% of the supply) by Initial Guild Membership (IGM) NFTs, which will be on sale starting next week (March 15th).
IGMs will also feed into the weighted scoring system, so the more IGMs you hold of a particular faction, the more rewards you’ll receive from faction-based transaction fees.
I think of the IGMs as your main ticket to guild membership, a huge chunk of our rewards will go back to these NFT holders over time.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
And well done I must say. FIEF is the utility token behind the Fief guild. However its scope expands beyond that of mere utility and into a reward economy. Can you explain this structure to us, and how token holders will be able to derive utility and game access?
Coop | Fief
Like you said, the Fief Token (“FIEF”) is a utility and reward currency that ties into the productivity of Fief’s decentralized protocols. So FIEF is the main game currency for Fief: Blood and Coin, in addition to all future Fief game titles.
As the primary game currency of Blood and Coin, FIEF will have substantial utility across all layers of game interaction.
FIEF will be used for the following, all of which can be seen in our docs under game activity:
Resource Gathering — FIEF must be staked to gather resources in Blood and Coin. All staked Fief will be consumed in order to claim the desired resources.
Item Crafting — a FIEF fee is required to craft an item. The more FIEF paid, the faster an item is crafted.
Item Conjuring — a FIEF fee is required to conjure an item. The more FIEF paid, the faster an item is conjured.
Importing / Exporting — FIEF must be staked to accrue resources or items from import/export activity. All staked Fief will be consumed in order to claim the desired resources.
Taxing — FIEF must be staked in order to earn a portion of the global fees generated from all factions.
and we should probably take this chance to say that FIEF is NOT the token being launched with Avalaunch, that’s $WOOD and it’s the main resource token for the beginnings of Blood and Coin :).
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
Can you expound on the strategic positioning of Blood and Coin — Fief’s first guild game and how it aims to achieve the guild objectives?
Coop | Fief
Fief: Blood and Coin was designed to achieve the following guild objectives:
Productive State
Faction Balance
Protocol Refinement
FIEF Utility
IGM Rewards
Let me expand on these in a second.
Productive State — Transform the guild’s economy into a self-sufficient system where primary reward generation can be achieved through our own actions, reducing the reliance on third party projects and shielding us from macro trends.
Faction Balance — Full scale protocol development for implementation with third-party assets will take significant time. This will result in some factions seeing their protocols or sources of reward generation come online before others, resulting in the potential for serious reward imbalances. Through Blood and Coin, each faction will have equal access to rewards with the ability for the Fief team to adjust meta to further balance when needed.
Protocol Refinement — With an internal abundance of assets and user interactions, we are better able to refine the protocols we are developing for application to integrated third-party assets.
FIEF Utility — Each layer of interaction in Blood and Coin will require FIEF. Through this baseline utility, the guild can establish immediate demand and sinks for FIEF.
IGM Rewards — With a focus on internal faction productivity, the guild is able to reward IGM holders with periodic drops of first-party faction assets, including fungible resources and NFT items.
It’s really an amazing tool to kickstart everything the guild aims to be for NFT gaming.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
The Productive State is impressive as you don’t hear of guilds achieving any real level of autonomy.
In its simplistic form, Fief can be divided into three main phases: guild, core protocols/games and the metaverse. What metrics will you use to measure this success?
Coop | Fief
Largely two main metrics, but outside of this there is a lot of narrative that you need to keep an eye on that isn’t just metric based.
User count — how many users are participating in our guild and hold our assets (FIEF, Blood and Coin assets, IGMs, etc.)
Transaction Volume — how much capital is being moved throughout the guild and its various protocols, as this will be the main driver of reward generation for guild members.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
I’m sure this will come up again with our community but…What can you tell us about the future of Fief? Are there any collaborations or alliances that you are able to share with us?
Coop | Fief
We are pushing hard currently on two major fronts:
Delivering the initial mechanisms and reward generating experiences for each of the five Fief Factions.
Establishing collaborations across the Avalanche ecosystem with third-party metaverse projects, to not only support the growth of the larger community but to begin setting the stage for the integration of third-party assets into the guild.
We’re already deeply engrained in the Avalanche gamefi ecosystem between our connections from our previous work and the excitement that Fief has driven already. We’re set up nicely to execute on both of these fronts.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
Appreciate that. And our final question before we move on to the Twitter portion of the program — What part of the Fief ecosystem are you particularly excited about? Are there any features that you think have the most potential?
Coop | Fief
For me it’s actually the first protocol we’re launching, the marketplace. If you look at NFT marketplaces now, they’re all focused on PFP and art, they provide very little value on the GameFi and metaverse asset front.
There is so much to learn about a gamefi asset before making a purchase, simply showing its picture is not going to cut it.
I know when I’ve looked at recent tokenomics games on Avalanche it’s a huge learning process to figure out what you’re buying and why. The resources are split all over the place. I think of our marketplace as the one stop to figure it all out and make a purchase.
And secondarily, the Fief Library is kind of my baby. Love how active people are in posting great guides and info.
Twitter Questions
@Ahmetogrtm asks — Did you consider community feedback/requests during the creation of your product in order to expand on fresh ideas for your project?
Coop | Fief
Absolutely. We have a suggestions channel in Discord that has been hugely helpful. We believe in taking feedback and moving quickly, which many have likely noticed with our changes in strategy up to our launch.
I think it’s most important when it comes to what all we do with the community. The library itself really came from community feedback.
@Bambang97516553 somewhat vaguely inquires — What is the current development of your project in terms of NFT?
Coop | Fief
The NFTs and marketplace are in user testing now, we’re essentially ready to go but wanted to wait out this week to launch with the macro environment being what it is.
@ANDRIAN240900 wants to know — Can you be more specific about the tasks the user has to do? How much does the user earn for each task and do you plan to pay with your token or will it be another token?
Coop | Fief
oh I have a great table for this, one min
This is every action a user will take in the game depending on which Faction they align with.
There’s a lot in there, but that’s what we aim to be for GameFi assets, nearly everything they need to make smart decisions, trade, optimize yield, all of it built for gamers.
and for anyone thinking “where are all these games that you’ll be building for” they’re coming. Between recent announcement and Avalanche summit, pretty soon AVAX will be a gaming powerhouse.
@AmaPemburu — Can you tell us about your current partners in the ecosystem and your plans for additional partnerships?
Coop | Fief
Partners is a pretty loose term in crypto so idk who to include and who not to honestly.
We’ve worked with nearly every game on Avalanche already in some capacity, from co-marketing to guides. We haven’t asked much of them yet, drops for our guild members, but we’re building these relationships in prep for our protocol launches.
We’ve also taken NFT pre-purchases from most major protocols across Avalanche.
@DhoniMeiu — I’m just an investor but not a gamer, how can I benefit from this IDO since $WOOD is just an in-game resource with uncapped supply?
Coop | Fief
Early on, $WOOD might be scarce due to the fact that only Farmers can actually create it. So there may be a trading opportunity.
But honestly, If you don’t want to participate in the game I don’t think it’s really for you. This is not the core asset of FIEF for speculating on.
Telegram Questions
Do you guys feel satisfied by seeing your progresses and achievements till now, when you look back to the day when you have started this project?
Coop | Fief
I like this one.
Yeah, we’re very satisfied. Especially on the pivots and innovations we’ve introduced along the way. I think to Dave’s point, we’ve adjusted a lot in a short period of time and each adjustment has put us into a better position.
This space is not for the slow or feint of heart.
What is the most ambitious goal of your project? Could share with us any Upcoming Updates?
Coop | Fief
I think our overall goal is super ambitious. The be THE platform to do anything with gamefi and metaverse assets, buy, trade, loan, stake, anything you need in the metaverse economy.
Do you have any plans to attract non-crypto investors to join your project? Because the success of a project attracts more investors who haven’t yet entered the crypto world. What are the plans to raise awareness about your project in the non-crypto space.
Coop | Fief
This one is a really important part of why we see GameFi and the Metaverse as onboarding the next billion users.
We ourselves are focusing on making protocols that are built for gamers, which in some way means making it easy. But we also are extremely keen to find and partner with the games that will do this for us.
We believe a handful or maybe many games will do this, and we want to be their number one partner.
Do you have Whitepaper if yes, please share it with as secondly do you have plans for pre-sale? Now where can we Join it?
Coop | Fief
Our docs are great: https://docs.fief.finance/ and it’s really important that people actually read them for our project. This isn’t a fork that you can just grasp in a quick look, it takes some time.
ah I think the second part said something like We launched $FIEF with Rocket Joe, so we’re whitelisted there and you can buy FIEF there.
Marketing is a central element for every project, so that everyone knows the potential that a project can bring is vital to achieve the goals set. What is your strategy to attract new users and Investor to your platform and keep them long term.
Coop | Fief
this is another good one as the marketer It always feels important.
There’s a really awesome part to Fief in that a lot of our growth is going to be built off helping games grow and building up our network. We give games some marketing, a place to host guides, and for their assets. In exchange, they direct their players to us.
This is a key that most guilds ignore by focusing on one single game. They aren’t able to continually build on that community.
By avoiding the scholarship model, we’ll be able to network with significantly more projects to build both ourselves and those games.
Dave Donnenfeld | Avalaunch
Coop it has been a pleasure having you here today. Look forward to you all continuing to evolve the ever evolving organism that is Fief and achieving great success with it. Appreciate your time here today and on behalf of our community, many thanks.
Coop | Fief
whew, what an AMA
Thanks for having me everyone.
About Avalaunch
Avalaunch is a launchpad powered by the Avalanche platform, allowing new and innovative projects to seamlessly prepare for launch with an emphasis on fair and broad distribution. With its values deeply rooted in the early Avalanche community, we are able to offer projects confident, informed users who are aligned with the long-term goals of the rapidly expanding application ecosystem.
Leveraging Avalanche’s scalable, high-throughput, and low-latency platform, Avalaunch is built by users, for teams, to help grow strong communities.
