CoinMarketCap takes a deep dive into GameFi, a hub of blockchain game finance that features yield guilds, a game aggregator, and a gaming accelerator and launchpad.
GameFi works on the play-to-earn model and can be termed as a platform for blockchain gamers, investors, and traders with an active interest in the world of NFT gaming.
The platform is a digital NFT gaming marketplace that hosts popular play-to-earn game projects for players to participate, investors to invest, and new NFT game developers to register their creative games for increased exposure.
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What Are Play-to-Earn Games?
In the gaming industry, the play-to-earn business model is the most recent innovation. It's a business strategy that supports the idea of an open economy where players are rewarded in the form of tokens and NFTs for bringing value to the gaming metaverse. It is likely to offer new concepts and retention models that haven't been seen before to the current gaming industry.
This is a significant change in the gaming industry since in-game assets were previously restricted to centralized protocols, and players were banned from trading or selling their digital assets outside of the platform. Play-to-earn games have exploded in popularity, especially in developing nations, where local jobs and income possibilities are few but most individuals have access to a computer and an internet connection.
This is also a potential reason GameFi has the majority of their team members based in Vietnam, as more Asian countries continue to excel in the field of NFT gaming.
Team of GameFi
The project lead of GameFi is Hai Duong who was ranked in the list of Top 20 Cyber Security Innovators in 2019 by Technology Innovation magazine. Other team members include:
- Lexia Nguyen: Head of operations at GameFi. Lexia has a wealth of knowledge and expertise from various industries to develop a well-rounded view of how every department fits into the bigger picture and that perspective enables her to lead GameFi into its next phases of growth.
- Hieu Ha: Head of security at GameFi and a social media personality with over five years of experience in the cybersecurity world.
- Linh Do: Head of quality at GameFi with 10 years of experience in quality assurance and work experience at major tech companies, including Microsoft and eBay.
- Hong Dinh: Business analyst at GameFi with experience in outsourcing and blockchain projects.
- Ha Thanh: Designer at GameFi with five years of experience in brand design, illustration, and UI & UX visuals.
- Hoang Le: Developer at GameFi with several years of experience in software development and blockchain.
- Hoa Thanh: Developer at GameFi with eight years of experience in experimental and real-world large-scale deployments.
The advising team of GameFi consists of three members currently:
- Hatu Sheikh: Advisor at GameFi and the co-founder of Dao Maker with ample experience in analytical roles, marketing, and entrepreneurial ventures.
- Danilo S. Carlucci: Advisor at GameFi and the marketing & ecosystem advisor at Polkastarter with a major interest in the blockchain investment landscape.
- Thi Truong: Advisor at GameFi and the founder of Icetea Labs with experience in handling blockchain projects such as Faraland, Bunicorn, and others.
The Ecosystem of GameFi
GameFi’s ecosystem is the unique aspect on which the NFT gaming hub stands and provides a platform for gamers, investors, and traders to enjoy the benefits offered by the innovative concept, popularly called play-to-earn gaming.
Gaming Aggregator
Game Aggregator has been designed for gamers who are interested in popular blockchain games and want a storage location for their in-game assets (and NFTs). The gaming aggregator can also be used by players (of any game) to track their play-to-earn yields and rent, sell, or exchange their in-game items and NFTs on the GameFi marketplace. In summary, GameFi has a dashboard that offers its users the top NFT games which they can use to trade items and track their play-to-earn yields and item net values.
Gaming Accelerator
To facilitate play-to-earn gameplay mechanisms, GameFi accelerator provides tools and templates that are pre-built to implement blockchain components. It also provides factory contracts for NFT's, token economics, and a play-to-earn mechanism that can help teams of various blockchain projects to accelerate their targets of development, feature roll-outs, and other important upgrades.
Yield Guild and Scholarship
GameFi Yield Guilds is a unique feature of the project as it provides a passive income-generating source for users. To earn rewards, users have to participate in different various gaming finance vaults set up in the GameFi Yield Guilds.
It provides a lot of earn-without-playing features, which users can use to:
- Gain early & exclusive access to newly-launched high-profile game projects
- Lend their game items to other players and gain a percentage of their earnings
- Participate in staking activities to earn in-game rewards
- Participate in yield guilds to earn passively
Working on the same mechanism (more or less) as the model of scholarship in Axie Infinity, GameFi has partnered with Yield Guild to provide (new) players with in-game NFT assets which they can use to participate and pay a set percentage of the profits back to the guild. The person who receives the scholarship is called a scholar, and at present, their earnings are split among a 70/20/10 model where 70% of the profits go to the scholars, 20% to the community manager, and 10% to yield guild games.
Game Launchpad & IGO
GameFi Launchpad will serve as the first launchpad to hold Initial Game Offerings (IGO) events for popular and upcoming game projects. The purpose behind IGOs is to get early access to gaming assets and become an interaction point for GameFi community gamers. At present, GameFi offers two IGO's to its users, one is a $KABY pool and the other one is Deathroad IGO. Both IGOs provide an initial offering of their tokens which gamers can use to enhance their blockchain game-oriented experience.
Multi-Chain NFT MarketPlaces
The integration of DeFi tools into the GameFim marketplace will help it transform into a single source where players can buy all in-game items and assets they need to participate in different games and events. The multi-chain NFT marketplaces will host NFT auctions, and become a source of selling, trading, buying, and discovering various in-game items and assets. NFT transactions on the marketplaces on GameFi will be carried out via an exclusive exchange mechanism and all of this is done via smart contracts to ensure accuracy and reliability. Users of GameFi can buy NFT in-game items from hundreds of sellers in various NFT marketplaces.
Mini Games For New Users
Not everyone is accustomed to the world of NFT games. To fill this gap between new users and the NFT-gaming experience, GameFi features multiple mini-games that new users can play and get accustomed to the world of NFT gaming.
Auction House For NFT Items
Similar to a traditional Auction House in the real world, GameFi has an Auction House marketplace where valuable in-game items can be auctioned. Bids are placed from interested investors and the item is sold to the highest bidder.
$GAFI Token Launch
As each day is passing, GameFi is gaining more popularity than ever as new players are signing up for the gaming platform to earn rewards from its play-to-earn concept. Owing to the immense growth of the NFT gaming world, the official GameFi token will be launched on Sep. 10, 2021, with the ticker symbol “GAFI”.
Use Cases of GAFI Token
There are five major use cases of the GAFI token:
Staking
Stake GAFI to get GameFi’s tiers and join IGO (Initial Game Offering) on GameFi’s launchpad.
Governance Activities
Similar to other blockchain projects that provide governance activities, GAFI token holders can stake their tokens on the GameFi ecosystem and gain voting rights to important decisions, such as suggesting new features, choosing the next upgrade, and determining the general direction in which the project is heading, among other things.
Exclusive Discounts
GAFI token holders will be given exclusive discounts in the NFT marketplaces that they can use to buy NFT items and enhance their strategies in the games available on the GameFi platform. They will also receive discounts on trading and yield fees.
Supporting GameFi’s Liquidity
The fees charged by GameFi are in the form of GAFI tokens which will be used to support the token's liquidity overtime on the secondary market
Ecosystem Fees
GameFi charges a variety of fees including trading fees on the marketplace, acceleration fees for launchpad and accelerator, and yield fees for the earning program. All of these fees are invested back into the GameFi universe to accelerate its growth in the long run.
Upcoming Upgrades on the GameFi Platform
GameFi recently announced its partnership with a leading brand of blockchain and gamification, named Animoca Brands, which aims to make digital property rights a common element in the gaming world. By partnering with GameFi's ecosystem, Animoca brands will contribute to the upcoming products and features of the platform. It will also help the NFT gaming world to scale up and partner with leading gaming projects, worldwide.
The GameFi’s roadmap features the launch of a marketplace, yield guild, scholarship program, minigames, and an auction house. These features are aimed at scaling the popularity of GameFi to a global level and attract major gaming brands to partner with the NFT gaming hub.
GameFi IDO Event
The token generation event of GameFi is currently in action, where participants are ranked in relation to their $KSM contributions and completion of tasks. Phase 1 of $GAFI IDO consists of 120 participants and phase 2 consists of 150 top-ranked IDO participants, where each of them can buy $100 worth of GAFI tokens. The IDO pool is open from September 4 and will close on Sep 9, 2021. The winner of the IDO competition will be announced on September 9.
The price of one GAFI token is set at $1 and the vesting schedule is set at 25% at TGE, then another 25% at the 3rd, 5th, and 7th-month mark.
To join the $GAFI IDO event, participants must contribute $KSM to the PolkaSmith crowdloan and complete the tasks given in the $GAFI IDO campaign on Gleam to achieve a bonus point which is an optional task. The final step is to create an account on the GameFi Launchpad and complete the KYC verification.
There are still some other ways to join GameFi IDO without staking KSM like:
- Joining the community pool on GameFi Launchpad
- Joining the GameFi IDO on Red Kite and DAO Maker
Future of GameFi
With the top NFT games already present on the GameFi platform and plenty more being added on a constant basis, the project holds immense potential. The popularity has grown to the extent that GameFi has helped the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) platform to surpass Ethereum w.r.t the daily transaction count.
In the future, GameFi and other platforms that emulate this idea are going to witness immense growth due to the simplification that this project has introduced for the NFT gaming sector. GameFi can be termed as the PS4 or Xbox for the NFT gaming industry, as users can make an account on the platform and enjoy the best play-to-earn blockchain games.
In summary, GameFi uses appealing themes and gameplay elements to inspire people to participate and produce value while having fun, allowing them to escape the traditional DeFi experience and create a play-to-earn attitude that attracts both investors and gamers. And at this rate, the door for other genres to enter the mix is wide open for both investors and players to enjoy GameFi in the not-too-distant future.
This article was updated on Sept. 14 to reflect some team members' work history.
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