Introducing “Dev to Earn”

How web3 provides novel methods for software developers to become fractional owners by taking actions deemed valuable

Introducing “Dev to Earn”

“Dev to Earn” is a phrase used at Ready to describe how game developers, in exchange for producing “meaningful work” in a tokenized software ecosystem, receive remuneration (in whole or in part) by the distribution of utility tokens affiliated to that ecosystem.

Tokens are a hybrid financial instrument: they contain aspects of “money” in that they can be exchanged for other things of value in the ecosystem (the utility), while also containing aspects of a “security” — meaning their value also reflects the collective value of the ecosystem.

In the context of Ready, “Dev to Earn” is a method by which game devs receive the ecosystem’s utility token- known as $AURA- in exchange for work that the ecosystem deems of “value” to its overall health.

What might be valuable to a web3 gaming ecosystem? At the core, “good games” would be a primary value proposition. “Good games” are what players are looking to play: in building a distributed web3 gaming ecosystem, a lack of “good games” would be an obvious deficiency.

How “Dev to Earn” works

Measuring what constitutes a “good game” isn’t difficult. Take from this list below — each metric is a proxy signal that generally reflects the overall quality of a game:

• Player retention: How many players after first install return on the next day, the next week, or the next month?
• Player spending: In a free-to-play game, how many players make an in-game purchase? For example, a power-up or “cosmetic” related to their profile?
• Ratio of organic to paid installs: What’s the distribution of new players from either paid ads or word of mouth (organic installs)? The more organic, the better. Think of the ratio between paid and organic installs as measuring “game virality.”

In Ready’s gaming ecosystem, it’s easy to directly measure these types of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and from there gamify the distribution of token rewards, to the best performing games. There’s a nice symbolism to gamifying game rewards for… video games!

The ecosystem is the collective entity, reflecting the interests of all the stakeholders- the devs, the players, and the content creators. The ecosystem has a mission to build a successful distributed web3 gaming platform, and controls a block of $AURA, known as the “Ecosystem Fund”, whose purpose is to invest in the healthy growth of the ecosystem. From this pool of tokens come the “Dev to Earn” rewards.

So for instance, assume 100 games are live in the ecosystem. The Ready ecosystem has decided to distribute $100,000 in “Dev to Earn” $AURA grants to the “top performing” games with the highest Day 7 player retention.

The ecosystem runs a leaderboard, showing the D7 retention for each title, and at the end of the week (or month, based on a monthly average) distributes the $100,000 in $AURA to the top 25% of the games (possibly along a power curve, where the top performers in the quartile receive a higher quantity).

From the dev perspective, in addition to making money in the game through traditional game loops- such as converting free players to make purchases in-game (the mainstay of free-to-play casual gaming on mobile), they are now receiving a second layer of token grant rewards through the “Dev to Earn” program. But unlike money, rewarded tokens reflect the dual nature of both being an “asset” (like gold) and a “security” (fractional ownership in the ecosystem).

Now the dev has the option to either a) hold their rewards because they believe the overall health and value of the ecosystem will rise over time or b) sell their tokens in exchange for money or c) some combination of both.

“Dev to Earn” and software platform tokenomics in web3

In a well-designed tokenized software ecosystem, the token serves a specific utility. In the case of Ready, $AURA’s utility at the core is to infuse all elements of the ecosystem with value.

• All purchased game assets must be infused with some quantity of $AURA on minting.
• The ensuant intrinsic value of each item provides an “apples to apples” comparison between game assets bought between different games by different publishers in the ecosystem.
• In turn, this allows the ecosystem to provide “play to own” loyalty rewards to players that agree not to sell or trade their owned assets — or “melt down” and destroy the item to extract the infused $AURA — for a period of time (say 30 days).
• These loyalty rewards serve as staking rewards, for holding items infused with $AURA. The ability to stake a game asset- while continuing to use it in-game — is a novel feature of the Ready ecosystem.
• The infusion of $AURA into the items also means that players always have the option of “melting down” and destroying the asset in the future, and extracting the underlying quantity of $AURA it contains.

The utility of token “infusion” is manifold:

• For players: it allows for rewards in exchange for purchasing game content, funded by the ecosystem. And it provides an “insurance” that if one day the game goes sideways, and the extrinsic value of the item evaporates, the “intrinsic” value pertaining to the infused quantity of $AURA will remain, and the player can recoup some (or maybe more than) their original purchase.
• For devs: the minting of items on-chain infused with $AURA reflects some capital investment. Where in the past if a game went sideways, the dev might be S.O.L.- in this case, the dev can also receive back a fraction of the infused $AURA when a player melts down the item. The dev may also have unsold minted objects, which now can be melted down, and the infused $AURA extracted. The ecosystem controls the parameters of the smart contract behind the minted object, and it can be designed to mandate some portion- say 25% of the $AURA- be returned to the original game dev who made the item.
• For the ecosystem: Infusion supports a healthy token economy. The more players are holding game assets, and the more game devs are minting on-chain game assets infused with $AURA, the healthier the ecosystem is- by definition, the tokens are “sunk” into these items, and not available for speculative trading as the holders are not sellers- they’re gamers and devs playing and building “good games.”

This type of economic thinking can be described broadly as “tokenomics” — the design of a token economy (for a deep dive on how $AURA works, the whitepaper is a good resource). In this case, “Dev to Earn” is an integral piece in Ready’s tokenomics- it’s a program designed to reward game devs for creating good games, and providing those devs with the option of becoming long-term stakeholders in the ecosystem that they helped build. It’s a powerful shift from being a “customer” of a product, to a fractional “owner” by virtue of benefiting from the product’s overall utility.

Much of the thinking behind Ready’s tokenomics design could be applied to other use cases in “software as a service.” (SaaS). In the next installment, we’ll explore the novel concept of “tokenized SaaS” and how this portents a large disruption- and opportunity- for the deployment of web3 software services beyond gaming.

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