Duck Paper
Duck Hunters is a game with elements of a loyalty program that motivates the community to promote the Waves ecosystem and collect unique digital ducks in the NFT form.
The concept describes the architecture of an incentive system for participants of the crypto community based on NFTs (non-fungible tokens) — unique items, property rights to which are immutably stated on the blockchain. The game enables users to create their own NFTs of duck digital images, using EGG tokens, and “breed” them with a chance of getting a unique item.
Contents:
- A total of 1 million EGG tokens will be distributed to Waves ecosystem members and Waves-based product users
- 10 collected EGG tokens can be used by a “hunter” to get one of the genesis NFT-ducks
- by breeding NFT ducks, a user can create a new-generation duck
- thanks to breeding, there is a chance of getting a unique duck
- packs of unique ducks will be bought back by the game’s organizer (Waves Tech)
- EGG farming will facilitate upgraded breeding mechanics
In this document, details of the implementation of the game mechanic are described, including EGG tokenomics (EGGnomics), genesis ducks, genotypes and breeding, pack creation, buybacks and EGG farming.
EGGnomics
A total of 1 million EGG tokens will be issued, which will originally be stored in the organizer’s account to be distributed to Waves ecosystem users.
Activities, for which a user can collect EGGs, imply benefiting the ecosystem in one way or another, such as social media support, participation in the referral program, the use of Waves-based DeFi tools or one of the ecosystem’s products (Waves.Exchange, Neutrino, Swop.fi, Sign Art, Waves Association, WCT etc). Announcements of activities for EGG distribution are published on the Waves Protocol Twitter account and on the Duck Hunters Telegram chat.
The distribution of EGG tokens to users will be done in several stages. Over the first year, only 200,000 tokens will be distributed. Over the game’s first weeks, however, the distribution speed could reach 10,000 tokens a week.
EGG is not a speculative token. It is used as a game currency that simplifies the process of receiving digital ducks by players.
Genesis ducks
EGG tokens collected as rewards for activities can be used by a community member to receive one of the genesis duck NFTs at a price of 10 EGG per 1 NFT. Initially, eight types of genesis ducks will be available, with four randomly selected background colors.
This image represents one of the genesis ducks, Batman, and four possible background colors.
In the game’s earlier stages, a user has a chance of exchanging 10 EGG tokens for one of 32 genesis ducks: one of eight types with one of four background colors.
Genotypes
Each type of genesis ducks is unique due to eight attributes: head, eyebrows, eyes, beak, right wing, left wing, body and tail. For convenience, each of these attributes is referred to in the game as a “gene.” A genotype is expressed in an eight-character line, with each character corresponding to each gene.
For instance, Batman’s genotype is aaaaaaaa, with each attribute corresponding to a. The genotypes of seven other genesis ducks are, respectively, bbbbbbbb, cccccccc, dddddddd, eeeeeeee, ffffffff, gggggggg and hhhhhhhh.
A full version of the genotype also includes the background color and generation number. For instance, the genotype of Batman with a green background is aaaaaaaa-0-g, with 0 standing for the generation number and g standing for green.
A genesis duck with the genotype bbbbbbbb-0-r
In some cases, an abbreviated form of genotype can be used, such as 8a for aaaaaaaa.
Breeding
The game facilitates duck breeding, which results in producing next-generation ducks. Just like in real life, the next generation inherits one of the parents’ genes for each attribute.
With a 50% probability, each attribute (g1g2…g7g8) is inherited either from the first or second parent.
In the above example, the duck bbbbbbbb-0-y was bred with aaaaaaaa-0-r to produce a new duck, bbbaaaaa-1-b. The new duck inherited the first three genes (head, eyebrows and eyes) from the first parent and the remainder from the second parent.
By breeding the same parents, other variants of new-generation ducks could be produced with the same probability: abbbbbbb, babbbbbb, aabbbbbb, aaaabbbb etc.
The background color doesn’t have an impact on breeding. Two ducks with any background color could be bred, and the next-generation duck will get the background color randomly.
Each duck can be used for breeding only once. Once a next-generation duck has arrived, the parents are considered “sterile,” which makes the total number of ducks in the game limited, raising the value of each duck.
Duck collections
By swapping EGGs for ducks, breeding or buying ducks from other users, a player obtains a collection of duck NFTs.
Certainly, each collector wants their collection to be unique and contain rare items. For each digital duck, a duck uniqueness ratio (R) can be calculated based on the number of ducks (N) with the same genotype, using the formula:
For example, let’s calculate the uniqueness ratio for an offspring of the genesis ducks 8a and 8b with a red background — aaabbbbb-1-r.
The calculations will be as follows:
1: convert aaabbbbb to an abbreviated form: 3a5b
2: find ducks that inherit 3 genes from A and 5 genes from B. This category includes bbbbbaaa, abababbb etc, as the order of genes doesn’t matter
3: calculate the total number of ducks in that category — say, 10
4: using the formula R= 1 / Nd, divide 1 by 10 and obtain R = 0.1
In our example, the duck aaabbbbb-1-r has a uniqueness ratio of 0.1 (10%). The calculations didn’t take into account the generation number or background color, just the proportion of genes.
But the background color is important for creating packs. Four ducks with the same background color owned by the same player can form a pack, which also has a uniqueness ratio (Pu), calculated using the formula Pu = (R1 * Du2 * R3 * R4).
That is, by making a pack of four ducks with a red background, each of which has a uniqueness ratio of 0.1, a user will obtain a pack with a uniqueness ratio of 0.0001.
A pack of four ducks with yellow backgrounds.
Sponsor buyback
To stimulate a market for NFT ducks, the organizer offers regular buybacks of three most unique sets with a background color decided by voting of EGG farmers, paying 5,000 USDN and up.
The buyback procedure takes a week and works as follows:
Day 1: A new week begins. The organizer sets the week’s buyback value (5,000–20,000 USDN). Voting for the color by EGG farmers is launched.
Day 4: The background color for sets to be bought back this week is decided by EGG farmers’ voting.
Day 6: A buyback is announced, and users can submit their four-duck packs with the selected background color
Day 7: top 3 most unique sets are bought back by the organizer, and the remaining sets are returned to their owners.
This process is regularly repeated to incentivize collectors to create unique packs.
EGG farming
A user can stake EGG tokens as part of farming.
If a user stakes any number of EGG tokens, they become farmers and get access to:
- voting for the weekly buyback color
- a fast duck breeding process.
The framing option is primarily attractive to large players who could do large-scale duck breeding at their farms. Having an impact on the weekly buyback color will give them an opportunity to lobby for a color that corresponds to their duck collection.
A farmer’s vote weight is proportionate to the number of their staked EGG tokens.
Conclusion
The main goal of the game is promoting Waves by introducing new mechanics of interaction in the crypto community and incentivizing various user activities. The game mechanic combines NFT and DeFi and is implemented in such a way that users are rewarded for activities that are also beneficial for the entire ecosystem:
- crypto enthusiasts get a chance to be rewarded with EGG tokens for simple activities benefiting the ecosystem,
- major players are interested in buying EGG tokens to breed NFT ducks,
- NFT collectors can expand their packs by buying ducks of specific colors,
- the organizer (Waves Tech) is interested in buybacks to stimulate the EGG market and higher activity in the ecosystem.
The game will be launched in stages, and its mechanics could be adjusted based on players’ behavior and conditions in the duck market. To get the game’s news and updates, follow the Waves Protocol Twitter and join the Duck Hunters chat!
#WavesDucks
