Introducing Iskra.
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Disclaimer: Following article was written with the sponsorship of Iskra. This article is intended for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal, business, investment, or tax advice. It should not be used as a basis for making any investment decisions or relied upon for accounting, legal, or tax guidance. References to specific assets or securities are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent recommendations or endorsements. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any affiliated institutions, organizations, or individuals. The opinions reflected herein are subject to change without being updated.
1. Introduction
1.1 Unsolved Challenges
I’m noticing a lot of Web3 fatigue these days. With the term Web3 being interpreted and used in so many different contexts, people are starting to question what it really means and what it even means in the first place.
The definition of Web3 gaming is no exception. Aside from the pessimists, there is no consensus on what a Web3 game is, even among advocates. Some believe that adding NFTs to a traditional game format is enough to qualify as a Web3 game, while others believe that on-chain assets, infrastructure, and even game logic must be implemented on-chain to qualify as a Web3 game.
1.2 Iskra, a community-driven gaming platform
In this context, I think it’s more appropriate to define Iskra as a project that aims to build a community-driven gaming platform rather than simply a Web3 gaming platform. As you’ll see in this article, the end goal is to have a community of users and game studios, including Iskra itself, running Iskra as one community. This is a key feature that clearly distinguishes Iskra from other Web3 gaming platforms.
2. E2E Gaming Platform
Before we dive into the biggest feature that sets Iskra apart, the community economy, let’s talk about another feature that sets Iskra apart: the E2E gaming platform. Through a variety of infrastructures, Iskra takes care of the entire process from start to finish for users to enjoy the various games on the platform.
- Wallet: All of your on-chain information as a community member is recorded through this wallet, making it easy for the platform to keep track of who has contributed to the platform and how much. Currently, an Iskra wallet consists of an account and a keystore, but the keystore solution will soon be able to integrate external wallets such as MetaMask.
- Swap: A general DEX service that allows you to exchange multiple assets on the Iskra platform.
- NFT Marketplace: An item store where you can purchase game NFTs released by game studios.
- Bridge: A portal that connects Iskra to the external ecosystem, currently supporting only two networks, Klaytn and Ethereum, but more chains are expected to be supported in the future as games on the Iskra platform use various chains.
- Launchpad: Community members can pre-purchase tokens for newly onboarded games on the Iskra platform at a lower price, and a mechanism called Express Tokens has been introduced for the utility of locked up tokens.
We’ll be covering the details of our Launchpad service in a separate article at a later date.
2.1 Games
Of course, “fun to play” is a key component of Iskra as a gaming platform. It’s important to us that the games themselves are engaging, as we need users to actually play a lot of games and generate enough revenue for our community economic system to work well. Currently, the Three Kingdoms-based turn-based RPG game 3KM is live, and two more notable games, WOW Casino and Noma in Metaland, are planned for launch. Aside from these two games, there are several others in the pipeline for release this year.
- WOW Casino: A Web3 social casino game that will support slot merchandise and tournament games.
- Noma in Metaland: A game based on an existing Web2 IP called Cooking Adventure, which was so popular that it was ranked #10 in the cooking simulation genre worldwide, so it’s safe to assume that this game will be just as good.
Separately, there is a non-game “Daily Lucky Spin” that allows users to spin the wheel once a day to earn $ISK, CP (Contribution Points), or mission cards. This is a great gateway for users who are not familiar with Web3 to try out the Iskra platform.
3. Community Economic System
The community economic system is a key part of what sets Iskra apart from other gaming platforms. To summarize, the community economic system is an economic model that transparently and fairly distributes the platform’s performance based on the contributions of members of the Iskra community through the tokens $ISK and PNFT. The community economic system can be broadly divided into tokenomics and community system.
3.1 Tokenomics: $ISK & PNFT
Iskra’s native tokens include $ISK and PNFT (Pioneer NFT).
3.1.1 $ISK
ISK is the core currency of the Iskra platform, and all services are paid for in it. The main utility of $ISK is in governance, which plays an important role in implementing the core means of meta-game. Users can participate in governance by staking $ISK, which earns them $sISK.
When staking, participants can earn CP and $ISK as additional rewards. ISK is also the only way to purchase PNFT after the 10,000th PNFT sale. The token allocation is 10% to the team, 10% to private investors, 20% to the ecosystem fund, 40% to PNFT holders, and 20% to governance staking.
3.1.2 PNFT
PNFT provides holders with both a premium membership and the right to operate a node in the event of a future chain on Iskra. While the platform does not currently require node operations, by staking PNFT, holders can earn significant amounts of $ISK and CP as rewards.
More importantly, as a premium member, PNFT holders will be able to enjoy a variety of benefits in the Iskra community system. This is in line with the core value of PNFTs, which is to be active in the community and receive rewards for their contributions.
3.2 Community System
Through the CP, Iskra’s community system allows members of the Iskra community to be rewarded in proportion to their contributions to the platform. This model aligns the incentives of various actors with the Iskra platform and encourages them to work together to grow the platform. The Iskra community refers to all actors involved in the Iskra platform, which can be broadly categorized as follows
- Iskra: Iskra itself is a member of the Iskra Community. While we are still in the bootstrapping phase and often have to advocate on behalf of the platform, Iskra will eventually have the same rights as other community members.
- Game studios: Game studios that onboard to the Iskra platform are also part of the Iskra community.
- Users: Users of the Iskra platform can be broadly categorized into Pioneers and Explorers. Pioneers, who hold PNFT, are the ones who provide the bulk of the monetary support for the platform to operate, and later provide computing power by running nodes. Other users who do not own PNFTs are Explorer who use the platform to play games and use various services.
3.2.1 Contribution Point (CP)
As you can see, there are many different types of actors in the Iskra community, and they contribute to the Iskra platform in different ways. How can we translate this into a single metric for comparison and evaluation? This is where the concept of CP comes in.
CP is a metric that evaluates the contributions of community members and consists of information that is transparently accessible to everyone, such as on-chain data. There are two main types of CP:
- Contribution to platform growth: Community members can earn CP in proportion to the fees they incur when using various services, swaps, bridges, marketplaces, etc. provided by the Iskra platform. CP can also be earned by participating in various promotional events.
- Contribute to the growth of the ecosystem: You can earn CP by first staking $ISK. When you stake $ISK, you will receive $sISK in return, and you can earn 1 CP for 1 sISK. The $sISK is used as voting power in the governance of ISKRA. You can also earn CP by staking PNFT. One PNFT is worth one node point, and one node point is worth 60,000 CP.
3.2.2 Community Ranking System
The reason why CP is so important is because it is used to determine community rankings. The community ranking is very similar to the tier model in games we’re used to. There are five tiers: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Diamond, which are directly related to the community reward pool. To prevent tiers from becoming entrenched over time, each tier is only valid for each season and resets at the start of a new season.
3.2.3 Community Reward Pool
A portion of the revenue earned by the Iskra platform is allocated to this community reward pool. As shown in the figure above, 20% of the total will be used to burn $ISK, and the rest will be split between Iskra and the community, so that ultimately, all of the revenue generated by the Iskra platform will go to the community, except for what is used for burning, and Iskra will also be allocated rewards as a community member.
The community reward pool is as follows:
- Token Airdrop: Tokens allocated to the Community Reward Pool will be airdropped to community members in the following manner. First, 40% of the total reward pool will be distributed equally to each tier, meaning that each tier will be allocated 8%, and as you move to the higher tiers, the size of the rewards for members in each tier will naturally vary, as there are fewer members in each tier. The remaining 60% will be distributed based on the ratio of each member’s CP to the total CP, regardless of tier.
- Other: In addition to token airdrops, games launching on the Iskra platform will also receive promotional airdrops of various assets based on their community ranking, and the higher the community tier, the better the chances of getting into the Launchpad, Initial NFT Offering (INO), and early access to the game.
4. Power Games
Our ultimate goal is to evolve into a fully decentralized gaming platform that is run by the community. In the process, our unique reward system will distribute all the value generated on the platform among community members, which will result in a unique governance event called the “Power Game”.
The Iskra DAO is the governance body responsible for the operation of the Iskra platform, and only community members who own $sISK by staking $ISK can participate. The Power Game is a collective voting competition between members participating in the Iskra DAO to create as much value as possible for each other. The community rewards discussed earlier are the main targets of power games, and the following power games can occur as different interest groups try to get more rewards from each other.
- Pioneers vs Explorers: A power game between pioneers who own PNFTs and explorers who do not, where pioneers want to maintain or increase the benefits of PNFTs and explorers want to reduce them.
- Game studios vs. users: Game studios will want to pay less to publish their games on the Iskra platform, and users will want game studios to pay more.
- Game Studio A vs Game Studio B: For example, Game Studio A is popular and earns a lot of revenue and pays the most fees, while Game Studio B may be less popular than A. In this case, Game Studio B may have more PNFTs and try to compete with Game Studio A by attracting users through rewards.
This power game is a metagame unique to Iskra, and it’s a model that hasn’t existed before. By creating a governance game with direct rewards, the governance of Iskra will remain dynamic and active, and the value of the governance token, $sISK, will be maintained.
5. Risk
5.1 Viability
Obviously, Iskra’s plan to gradually hand over control to the community, and the community economic system that goes along with it, is certainly noteworthy. However, the plan is simply an assertion on Iskra’s part, and no one can say for sure when it will be completed or how realistic it is.
Also, since Iskra’s governance is currently done through Snapshot, it is the Iskra core team that is responsible for actually implementing the governance decisions passed in the Snapshot. Therefore, if a governance decision is passed by the Iskra DAO that is against Iskra’s interests, it is possible that Iskra will not implement it, and we have seen this happen many times in the Web3 industry. To avoid this, the execution of governance decisions should be autonomous and not require human intervention.
5.2 A Major Premise
A large part of $ISK’s utility is its use as a governance token. In order for $ISK to be useful as a governance token, there must be a large enough community reward pool to create a power game around it. This means that there must be a large enough community reward pool to maintain the value of $ISK, which means that there must be a large enough platform fee. In order to generate enough platform fees, the games on the Iskra platform need to be fun to play and attract enough users to play them.
Therefore, the premise of our community economic model is that the games are fun and generate enough platform fees to attract users to play them. If this premise is not satisfied, it doesn’t matter how good the community economic model is designed.
6. Conclusion
Iskra’s community economy system fosters cooperation and competition between game users, game studios, and platforms, which in turn creates power games between different groups. These mechanisms are very novel and can make the platform’s governance activities dynamic and active, allowing the platform to continue to evolve and innovate. From a Web3 perspective, this is why we’re excited about the experiment.
One year after its launch, Iskra has been rolling out core services like the Community Economy System and Launchpad, and this year, it’s starting to show signs of becoming a viable gaming platform by launching games. As such, Iskra’s blueprint is clearly differentiated from other gaming platforms, but as mentioned earlier, the whole idea of a community economic system is only possible if the games on their platform are popular enough with users. As such, we believe that Iskra needs to focus on onboarding compelling games to the platform, while also developing a more mature community economy model, and if they can do this successfully, they could offer a new model that doesn’t exist on existing gaming platforms.
Thanks to Kate for designing the graphics for this article.
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