The Next P2E Unicorn, Will Be Crypto Unicorns

Quick TL;DR history lesson for the project (this is NOT everything)

• 10k Unicorns currently exist, across 6 different species — some have Mythic parts (most rare) — Players will breed to create new Unicorns
• 30k land plots currently exist — 1 million will exist in total, but these will be acquired in game by players then these can be bought and sold
• $UNIM was minted through the Dark Forest and staking your Unicorns. This mini-game just finished and we are unsure if/how more $UNIM will mint before the game launches. This $UNIM could be used to receive Shadowcorn Eggs (the PVE characters in CU)
• $RBW was airdropped to holders and strong community members. $RBW was also sold publicly through a balancing liquidity pool. $RBW currently has staking at 1 month intervals, up to 12 months, with bonus for length of stake.

That is a very brief TL;DR to how we got to today, but I want to discuss the future more than I want to discuss the past. In order to understand my thoughts, I encourage everyone to read their whitepaper V2, V1 is available to see the changes made (this is important transparency)

Why Do I LOVE the UNICORNS?

Centralized Rainbow Marketplace 

In Game Market

Rainbow token marketplace has been described as a peer2peer marketplace set to a bonding curve. After hearing the team talk about it, I do not think this description describes it appropriately. Essentially, there will be unique bundles of items and berries in the market each day. Players can buy or sell a given asset. More buys = price goes up, More sellers = price goes down. This could be linear or exponential, either way, it creates parity and incentive to drive utility to all types of materials. 

Example: Say all berries start at 5 RBW. 10 people buy Cloud berries to boost Cloud Unicorns at 5 RBW each. These berries become more expensive in the marketplace to 7 RBW. In order to buy the Cloud berries a few buyers had to sell Flower and Candy berries and those berries are now 4 RBW. Say I farmed Cloud berries and was going to use them to breed, but instead, I can go sell these at a premium of 7 RBW and go buy Candy berries at 4 RBW. This nets me 3 RBW of profit and I still have berries to use to boost today or save for a different day. 

Why this is important: I would describe the marketplace as a centralized liquidity pool that uses supply and demand to help set price for the market. Say all classes are being bred but Moon is being ignored. The team can lower the price of Moon berries to try and incentivize buying behaviors and encourage players to breed Moon class Unicorns. 

“But isn’t centralization bad?” In some scenarios, yes centralization is bad, but this marketplace model will allow the team full flexibility to balance the game while it is in Alpha. Also — the player owns all of their in game assets and can always sell for $RBW in the marketplace. $RBW is an on chain token that can be converted to fiat or other tokens. This means ALL ITEMS ARE LIQUID — this should prevent item dumping and low ball short sellers. Now, this also means it is not a FREE MARKET. I am not thrilled about this in the long run, but in the short term, it is GENIUS.

Rainbow Marketplace only takes $RBW!

That is right folks — the governance token is the currency. 

Brief $RBW Tokenomics update: They began with 5% (50 million) of $RBW being released via Public Sale and Airdrop. They then began staking which has been slowly releasing more $RBW. There will be 1 billion tokens max and these are governance tokens for the DAO of CU. 

So — this token has a LOT of utility across the game:

• Staking
• Voting
• Currency
• Breeding
• Entry Fees to P2E

This token will be used EVERYWHERE and easily accessible to all players. I do see value in short term increasing because there will be a lot of demand from all areas of the game. The total amount of tokens in market will be 200 million by March of 2023, but some will be staked and some will be locked in the treasury. Either way, I am excited for the future of $RBW.

Utility and LEVERS!

Above we laid out what $RBW can be used for. But there are a lot of levers that can be pulled to stabilize $UNIM and $RBW. At launch, April 11th, if you own land and 2 unicorns, you will be able to do the following:

At the core you can work the land to upgrade the land, likely requiring $RBW and $UNIM to upgrade. You can farm berries that can be sold to the marketplace or used on breeding. As your land is leveled up, your land can hold more unicorns, which lets you do more activities. Gathering cart is a version of sending your unicorns on a quest, likely acting like a timed staking mechanism. These unicorns will return with $RBW, $UNIM, materials and items. The workshop can craft items from materials and can then use these items to sell at the marketplace or use in breeding/upgrading. One item in particular is a keystone which will be needed to acquire new land! There is currently only 30k land plots in the world, but there will be 1 million plots in the end. There will be a LOT of $UNIM burned and $RBW sent to the treasury to grow to 1 million plots. Nursery is for breeding and Stables can be upgraded to hold more Unicorns on the individual plot. 

A key point to levers is the marketplace is relatively centralized but liquid, which means there is control in the early days to prevent disarray in the overall economy. I do not think the marketplace will always be this way, but in the early days, I think it will really help stabilize the economy.

HODL Rewards?! 

Crypto Unicorns has begun rewarding individuals who hold $RBW and $UNIM in two different ways. During the first year there is a leaderboard for how much and how long you stake $RBW. You are already seeing an APR over 50% for staking, so this is just a cherry on top. For $UNIM each “season” you are rewarded on a leaderboard for holding a large quantity of $UNIM. This may sound small, but these are great ways to drive value to holders for simply holding onto a token versus selling. These rewards are not going to make you rich, but its a really nice touch to help reward collecting and holding, even if its just a token. I expect many other games will begin to copy this!

A Web2 Game With NFTs

In my opinion, CU has a great chance at success because they are one of the first teams transitioning from Web2 games to Web3. This means they understand the game development side and have had time to learn the Web 3 side. They utilize NFTs through an airlock system which moves them off chain and in game, and when you transfer them back on chain, all upgrades are detailed in the NFT. An example of this is Land, which is all level 1, you could level your land to level 5 and sell it at a premium on Opensea. 

Overall — I think CU will act a LOT like an off-chain game when playing it and that makes me very excited for its future. Breeding and new land plots will be controlled by the end user, but because certain parts of the game are centralized, the team can continue to incentivize actions they want to occur. For example, they want more breeding, hold a breeding event, rewarding $RBW or $UNIM for most breeds or first to breed a 4 part Mythic. If they want less breeding, ramp up the holding rewards or add rewards to leveling up the land or craft materials. 

Future Risks

Even though I am invested and a big believer in CU, I want to present some concerns that could arise in the short/medium term.

• Triggers can be pulled, but if people do not change their behaviors, then the economy can become unbalanced. Also — if levers are pulled, players may be upset if they just had to spend 3000 UNIM to breed, and now it costs 1500 UNIM for the sale breed. They will not be able to please everyone, but if this happens continuously, people may stop participating
• New Users — The game at launch is much more farmville, than competitive jousting/racing game. The game will need new users to see growth. I believe a rental system will be created, but scholars are not a sustainable solution in most games. I do like that their market is centralized, but may not be able to prevent over farming if it leads to over population of unicorns, as that market is free. I will watch for when they create a unicorn burn mechanism. 
• Free Market Imbalance — Land and Unicorns are in an open market. If there is too much ROI in game, we will see large guilds of scholars inflow with money. This will create major buy pressure and create very high entry points for everyone. Unfortunately, if this happens, there is not much CU can do, but it may lead to disappointed players.
• DELAYS! — the game at launch is a great MVP, probably even better than most MVPs, but without development into a full fledged game can cause players to seek other options. 2022 will have a few strong games launch, but 2023 we will see a LOT of new games competing for web 3 gamers eye balls and wallets. CU is in a great position, early enough, to start growing a strong user base, but hitting deadlines and growing the final product will be paramount to their success.

If you have read this far, I want to say thank you for reading this. Feel free to follow me DAVEvsAXIE on all platforms. Also, check out my AMA interview with Aron from 5 weeks ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh3HY7eUKYM