Meet dSquad: The Gamification Layer of the Internet Computer Ecosystem

An engage-to-earn NFT avatar collection to help promote Internet Computer dapps and grow the IC ecosystem.

TL;DR

• dSquad is an NFT collection that rewards users for engaging with Internet Computer dapps, and it’s the first Web3-native marketing platform for dapps.
• Far more than another PFP (Profile Picture) collection, dSquad is a gamification protocol for the IC ecosystem.
• Early-stage projects will be able to integrate our SDK, which will make it easy to add gamification features to dapps while also giving them direct access to our community of active users.
• We welcome you to participate in making the Internet Computer the first gamified blockchain ecosystem! Mint your dSquad Avatar and start winning prizes by visiting our website: dSquad.icp.xyz

A. Background
B. Overview
C. Engagement
D. Avatar Minting
E. Leaderboard
F. Minting Accessories
G. Wearing Accessories
H. Roadmap

Background

In 2020, Dukakis Tejada started Dfinity Community, a community-based media platform focused on the Internet Computer. In late 2021, Dukakis approached me about creating an NFT collection, and together we defined these goals:

• We wanted to develop something new that would push the limits of what could be done on the Internet Computer, rather than create yet another static collection with no real utility.
• We wanted to give people the ability to mint personalized Avatars they would actually want to use on their social media accounts.
• We aimed to build an inclusive community that would help promote Internet Computer dapps and grow the IC ecosystem.

After defining these goals, we wondered if it would be possible to gamify an entire blockchain ecosystem. The result was our engage-to-earn model and the early concept of an “ICP Squad NFT” — which is now called dSquad!

We recruited rock star IC dev Seb Thuillier to make this vision a reality, raised over 5,000 ICP tokens in a presale, and then got to work building.

Fast-forward to today, and we’ve:

• Launched our minimum viable product (MVP): dSquad.icp.xyz.
• Released over 20 pages worth of documentation: Read it here.
• Won 1st place for Metaverse & NFT in the SuperNova Hackathon!

Overview

dSquad is an NFT collection that rewards users for engaging with Internet Computer dapps, and it’s the first Web3-native marketing platform for dapps.

Anyone can mint a personalized Avatar NFT at any time for 1 ICP. This NFT gives users dSquad membership by placing them on the monthly leaderboard and granting them eligibility to win rewards.

These Avatars can equip Accessory NFTs, which are rare, speculative, and perishable assets. Aside from adding style to the Avatar, equipping accessories will also improve the user’s rank on the leaderboard, and in the near future it’ll also enable ICP rewards.

This approach ensures that our NFT collection remains both accessible and scalable, while building an engaged community of ICP enthusiasts. Early-stage projects will be able to integrate our SDK, which will make it easy to add gamification features to their dapp while also giving them direct access to our community of active users. In this way, we hope to create a gamification layer for the IC ecosystem, which will reward people for exploring the Internet Computer while also helping early-stage dapps gain new users in the process.

Engagement

Right now we’re using NFT events logged via CAP to track simple actions across the ecosystem and allow for some basic Missions. Players can increase their engagement score and rank on the leaderboard by swapping NFTs for various collections and completing missions.

The Internet Computer is currently missing the type of canister-to-canister event publishing interface we’d need to make our engage-to-earn model work, so we’re building an SDK to fix this. The goal amounts to being able to reliably verify a user’s actions on a canister in a way that can be trusted and still preserves the user’s privacy. This capability is needed by many dapps within the ecosystem.

Dapp developers will be able to use our SDK to easily publish events and milestones on a provenance canister so that they can be gamified and rewarded. We will use these events to reward our users for their IC ecosystem engagement, but dapps could also use them to generate native leaderboards, missions, and prize pools on their own websites. We even hope to eventually make an explorer where users can browse dashboards (with a leaderboard, list of missions, and prize pool info) for various dapps across the ecosystem that integrate with our SDK.

The intent of the dSquad SDK is to respect user privacy and allow a user to share a proof-of-achievement on a dapp A to a dapp B without having to reveal their identity or any other information between the two dapps. This is why the SDK will be built assuming that the dapp is using Internet Identity/NFID as an identity provider.

In terms of interoperability, dapps could also use this resource to reward the users of partner dapps or to build things we haven’t thought of yet. In the current ecosystem, airdrops are typically sent to holders of a particular NFT. With this protocol, airdrops could be sent to achievers of specific milestones. For example, a DEX wanting to attract new users might airdrop coupon NFTs (waiving $100 worth of trading fees, for example) to the top 100 most active users of a lending protocol, or perhaps they’d send the coupons only to users who have met the milestone of borrowing more than $1,000. The possibilities for Web3-native marketing and cross-promotion are endless and exciting!

Avatar Minting

When minting a dSquad Avatar NFT, users can pick the features, expressions, hairstyles, and colors they want. Once minting is complete, the avatar’s look is set for good, and the user gets the option of downloading the image as a PNG to use on any social media websites they want.

Only one Avatar NFT can be active per player, so these assets aren’t speculative and count more as membership to dSquad. Having an Avatar puts players on the monthly leaderboards so that they have a chance to win prizes.

The low flat rate of 1 ICP is intentional because it keeps participation accessible to everyone. High floor prices are exciting, but ultimately they limit how much a project can scale and it ends up excluding so many users that could otherwise have been adding value.

The Avatar minting fees are sent to the dSquad treasury, which will eventually be converted into a DAO. Unlike most NFT projects, which need to constantly launch new collections to keep raising funds, the Avatar mint fees provide a consistent source of revenue to help fund operations as the project scales.

Leaderboard

Each month there will be a leaderboard ranking all Avatar holders based on their engagement within the ecosystem and the accessories their Avatar is wearing. At the end of the month, a prize pool full of Material NFTs (which are needed to mint Accessories) will be airdropped as prizes to everyone on the leaderboard, and then all scores reset for the next month. On occasion, third-party prizes and NFTs will also be included in these monthly airdrops.

A lot of Material NFTs are required to mint an Accessory NFT, with some being common/cheap and others being rare/valuable. This means we can distribute a wide range of prizes to thousands of players each month without over-inflating the supply of Accessory NFTs.

Winner selection on the leaderboard will be randomized and fair. The top-ranked user will have a 200x higher chance of winning than the lowest-ranked user, with the odds of winning increasing linearly as you rank higher on the leaderboard. The most valuable Material NFTs are distributed in order of rank, so a player’s rank on the leaderboard increases both their odds of winning and the value of any prize they’d get if they did win.

Minting Accessories

Accessory NFTs are the rare and speculative assets that drive the value of our airdrops and therefore promote usage of the Internet Computer.

Minting an Accessory NFT requires burning specific Material NFTs according to its recipe, as well as a small ICP minting fee. There are 6 different types of basic Material NFTs, and valuable accessories will require more materials of increasing rarity to mint. We’ve designed the recipes to literally make it impossible to over-supply the accessory economy. You can read all of the details in our documentation.

In addition, players can mint extra-rare branded versions of accessories by including an “essence” material obtained from one of our partners. For example, with ICPunk Essence Material NFTs you can mint special heart-shaped sunglasses that have a clown nose, using the same basic materials you’d use to mint the normal sunglasses. This opens the door to a unique type of Web3-native digital merch with your favorite brands from across the ecosystem!

The Accessory ICP minting fees will be sent to the dSquad NNS neuron, and in the future we will distribute the ICP maturity rewards of this neuron to all Avatars that are actively wearing an Accessory NFT. Including ICP rewards for Accessory wearers will add stability to the accessory economy. If very few Avatars are wearing Accessories, those who do will get a bigger share of the ICP rewards, so it’ll incentivize more players to mint and/or buy Accessories.

Wearing Accessories

Avatars can equipment one accessory in each of the 5 Accessory slots:

• Hat
• Eyes
• Face
• Clothes
• Misc.

Once an Accessory NFT is equipped to an Avatar NFT, the Accessory begins to wear out just like a physical item would in real life. Right now each accessory starts with a wear value of 100 and reduces by 1 each day, and when it reaches 0 it’ll automatically be burned. This is a deflationary mechanism to help balance the Accessory supply so that we can continue giving out rewards without reducing the rarity of Accessories.

While wearing an accessory, players will gain “style points” each day that will help increase their rank on the leaderboard. A 5-star accessory grants 5 points per day, while a 1-star grants 1 point per day, etc. In the future, ICP airdrops from the maturity of the dSquad NNS neuron will also be given to Avatars wearing accessories. We also hope to have dapp partners who offer perks to accessory-wearing avatars.

Roadmap

Our MVP is currently live and in what we call “Season 0,” but we still have a lot of building to do. Our primary focus in the coming months will be creating the engagement SDK. After that, we’ve got some exciting plans for Legendary Accessory auctions and preparing for Season 1.

When we migrate from Season 0 to Season 1, we will refresh the Accessory artwork and only Season 1 Accessories will be mintable from that point forward. We will keep the game fresh by launching Seasons, which will include new styles of art and new features a few times each year.

Next Steps

We welcome you to participate in making the Internet Computer the first gamified blockchain ecosystem! Mint your Avatar, get involved, and start winning prizes by visiting our website: dSquad.icp.xyz

You can also read our documentation to learn more, follow us on Twitter, and participate in our Discord.

If you’re a dapp developer, please contact us to integrate and get involved!