1. Background
Compared with other tracks (DeFi, content, etc.), games are the key to the large-scale application of blockchain technology, because games have many audiences, and good token designs are easier to use and support in games, and There is also relatively little regulatory impact.
However, games also have high requirements for blockchain technology, such as scalability requirements. If the scalability (TPS) cannot keep up, the game may freeze, which will seriously affect the users gaming experience. For example, the CryptoKittie game that appeared in 2017 once caused serious congestion on the Ethereum network, which not only affected the user experience, but also further led to high gas costs for the entire Ethereum network.
Scalability (TPS) and gas cost issues have become the key factors that hinder the implementation of blockchain technology in the game industry.
Since the launch of the CryptoKittie game, the exploration of the application of blockchain technology in the game industry has never stopped. Web3 games have gradually become one of the main tracks of blockchain technology application cases, and more and more mainstream Game manufacturers have also begun to use blockchain technology to develop game products, and the Web3 game infrastructure Immutable emerged in this context.
2. What is immutable
Immutable is the leading Web3 game project in the industry. The platform simplifies the creation process of Web3 games through pre-built solutions.
Immutable X is a two-layer solution specially designed for GameFi, jointly developed by Immutable, the development company of the well-known chain game Gods Unchained, and Starkware, one of the four kings of Ethereum Layer 2. It is the first ZK- rollup is a second-layer protocol for transactions and transfers of NFTs, with instant transaction confirmation, zero gas fees, and huge scalability, it can process 9,000 transactions per second.
Immutable X is a project focusing on NFT and Gamefi in the second layer protocol of Ethereum. Immutable is a very good infrastructure platform for both game users and game developers. Game developers can use Immutable to provide Tools to quickly build Web3 games. Currently, more and more well-known projects have settled on Immutable, and Immutable has become the first choice of many game developers.
3. Advantages of Immutable
As an infrastructure project based on Ethereum, focusing on NFT and Gamefi, what makes Immutable the first choice for game developers? What are its main advantages?
1. High scalability
As we all know, the scalability (TPS) of the Ethereum mainnet is low, especially for projects with high immediacy requirements (such as games and NFT projects). The user experience on the Ethereum mainnet is relatively poor, which seriously limits The development of the Ethereum ecosystem. The emergence of Ethereum Layer 2 can make up for the lack of scalability of the Ethereum main network to a certain extent.
Immutable, an Ethereum second-tier project focusing on NFT and Gamefi, can provide a transaction speed of up to 9000 TPS with the help of StarkExs zero-knowledge summary (ZK summary), which is much higher than other mainnets. This sets the stage for higher transaction volumes that may come from multiple gamers.
The reason why immutable has such a high scalability (TPS) is that it uses related Rollup technology. The main principle is to package a large number of computing and storage transactions that consume performance in batches under the chain, and then Unify to the Ethereum main network for data availability verification, which can greatly improve scalability.
2. Zero Gas NFT casting and trading
The high gas fee of Ethereum reduces the user experience of Web3 games. For example, when casting and trading NFT in the game, you need to pay a certain gas fee, and you have to sign and pay the gas fee at almost every step. For game players, the threshold for use is still a bit high.
As an infrastructure platform for Web3 games, Immutable takes a different approach and does not charge gas fees for the issuance and transaction of NFT.
For a user, as long as they use Immutable X, they can pay zero gas fees when trading NFT, which will greatly reduce the entry process for players who are not familiar with Web3 transactions, lower the threshold for players to use, and thus help promote the development of Web3 games. break out.
High scalability and zero gas costs are important factors for many game developers to choose the Immutable platform.
3. Security
Security has increasingly become one of the main issues facing the blockchain industry. For example, exchanges, cross-chain bridges, etc. continue to report that assets have been stolen, causing great losses to the platform and users.
While some projects choose to launch their own blockchains or sidechains as a means of enforcing the scalability limits of Ethereum, these alternatives do not inherit the security of Ethereum, which is less secure and decentralized. The degree is also lower than that of Ethereum.
Especially for Web3 games, the platform tokenizes the users game props. In Web3 games, the users game assets can be traded. Therefore, it is also an urgent task for the platform to safely keep the users game assets. demand.
Although there are many public chains at present, Ethereum still does the best in terms of comprehensive security, degree of decentralization, and ecological development. Immutable is built on the basis of Ethereum, and of course it inherits the underlying security of the Ethereum mainnet, and Immutable has chosen zkRollup technology. Unlike Optimistic Rollup, zkRollup uses validity proofs to achieve instant withdrawals, which makes it instant Sex and privacy are also better.
4. The protocol order book integrates liquidity
Immutable can provide collective liquidity across games by building an order book function at the protocol level, which is also one of Immutables significant advantages.
Through this function, a users order to buy or sell assets on an NFT market will be listed on all NFT markets powered by Immutable. That is, when a user places an order on an NFT market, the order will also be displayed on other NFT platforms supported by Immutable.
Platforms powered by Immutable include the NFT marketplace of American video game retailer GameStop, and game marketplaces registered on Immutable. This liquidity integration can improve transaction depth and provide users with a better transaction experience.
Listing NFTs from newly launched games on existing game NFT marketplaces is a powerful marketing advantage as it significantly increases their exposure, and this integration of liquidity across games is particularly attractive to new developers.
Moreover, this liquidity integration will become stronger as more projects join the Immutable platform, and the network effect will make the Immutable platform more and more attractive. In the future, there may be a platform with high scalability and security like Immutable, but users may not switch from one chain to another unless there are special advantages, which is the power of network effects.
Thanks to the agreement order book, game NFT transaction volume and revenue will double year-on-year in 2022, and as the ecosystem develops, the ensuing network effect is expected to further promote liquidity integration.
5. Payment by credit card
On the Immutable platform, in addition to gas-free casting, it also attracts mainstream game players by supporting credit card payment, which greatly reduces the entry barrier for the mainstream player market.
For example, at the end of last year, Immutable X announced a partnership with payment company MoonPay to launch the NFT Checkout feature, allowing users to mint and purchase NFTs using debit or credit cards.
When minting or purchasing NFTs on Immutable X, users can log in to the wallet and select Pay with Card. After completing the transaction, the NFTs will be transferred to the users wallet.
Plus, for builders, Immutable X provides professional and simple APIs and SDKs to allow new games to be launched faster.
4. Team
Immutable was co-founded by a pair of young brothers in Australia. Brother James Ferguson is the CEO. He studied law at the University of Sydney from 2011 to 2016. After graduation, he founded three companies and started Immutable in 2018. Robbie Ferguson, 5 years younger, also studied at the University of Sydney, but dropped out to serve as general manager due to the establishment of Immutable. CTO Alex Connolly is also one of their colleagues. He dropped out of the University of Sydney and founded Immutable with the Ferguson brothers.
In addition to the IMX infrastructure, Immutable also has a game studio, which is responsible for the operation and maintenance of Gods Unchained, as well as game publishing. Another game project promoted by the platform, Guild of Guardians, is published by Immutable Game Studio.
Although the core team is young, it has hired many senior figures in the industry and has solid capital behind it.
5. Financing
So far, Immutable has announced 5 rounds of financing, with a total of US$280 million in financing.
1) In July 2018, two financing rounds were announced, both led by Continue Capital and Nirvana Capital, with a single amount of US$2.4 million;
2) In September 2019, it completed US$15 million in Series A financing, led by Galaxy Interactive and Prosus Ventures;
3) In September 2021, a Series B financing of A$82 million was completed, led by BITKRAFT Ventures and King River Capital;
4) In March 2022, a US$200 million Series C financing was completed, led by Temasek.
Immutable has more than 20 investment institutions, including coinbase, galaxy digital, nirvana capital, continue capital, etc.
6. Token economy
IMX is the native ERC 20 token of the Immutable X ecosystem, with a total supply of 2 billion.
1. IMX token distribution plan
1) 51.72%: Used for ecosystem development, these tokens will be used as user rewards, developer rewards, liquidity provision rewards and marketing activities, etc.;
2) 25%: spent for project development, these tokens will be used to support the development of Immutable X, carried out by immutablepty.ltd;
3) 19.28%: used for private placements and public offerings.
4) 4%: As a fund reserve, it will be used in the future for initiatives related to the development of the ecosystem, mainly for exchanges, marketing activities and other initiatives that the foundation believes are beneficial to the ecosystem.
2. IMX token usage
IMX tokens can be used to reward users and pay trading commissions. People can put their IMX assets into the pledge pool to get rich pledge rewards. Holders of IMX tokens can also vote for governance. The number of IMX Tokens held determines the voting rights, and the voting rights increase with the number of Tokens. increase and increase.
The following are the three core functions of IMX Token:
cost:
The 20% protocol fee for each Immutable transaction must be paid in $IMX, users can choose to pay this fee directly with IMX tokens, if there is no current $IMX, Immutable will convert the fee by purchasing $IMX on the open market (reserve no seamless user experience), that is, you do not need to hold IMX tokens to trade on the protocol.
Pledge:
All fees paid in IMX are sent to a staking reward pool where by staking your IMX tokens you have the opportunity to earn rewards if you meet the eligibility requirements.
Governance:
IMX holders can vote on governance proposals, including how to allocate Token reserves, developer grants, the future development direction of the Immutable X protocol, etc. The voting weight is proportional to the number of tokens held by the user. The more tokens, The greater the voting power.
3. Token price performance
According to the statistics of Coinmarketcap, the current market value of IMX tokens is more than 600 million US dollars, and the current market value ranks 54th. The current IMX tokens in circulation account for 56%, and the market value of the full circulation is 1.1 billion US dollars. The historical highest price of IMX tokens is $9.5, and it is currently $0.57, which is a 93.94% drop from the highest point.
7. Status quo of ecological development
According to an article on the official blog, last June Immutable X development company Immutable launched a $500 million development fund, Immutable Ventures (Immutable Developer and Venture Fund), dedicated to supporting Immutable X-based Web3 games and NFT projects.
The fund will allocate grants and investments comprised of a combination of IMX tokens and cash to gaming projects built on the Immutable X platform, and will work with developers, IP holders and strategic partners to provide support that promotes Immutable X Development of the protocol.
1. Data on the chain shows active platform activities
Revenue
Based on the aforementioned strengths, Immutable has launched games such as Gods Unchained and Illuvium, both of which generate steady revenue.
At the beginning of 2023, Immutables monthly revenue was around US$300,000, and in May its revenue reached nearly US$600,000. Recently, its revenue has declined due to the impact of the crypto market environment, but its revenue in July still reached In the context of the overall downturn in the NFT/GameFi market, this level of income is quite good.
Since Immutable recognizes 2% of NFT trading volume as revenue, this also indicates a high level of activity on the Immutable platform.
Compared with other competing protocols, Blurs Revenue fluctuates greatly, while Immutables Revenue is growing steadily.
IMX holdings
Since the launch of the IMX token, transaction volumes have grown steadily.
The surge in transaction volume has coincided with the launch of high-profile games or NFTs, the most recent transaction surge occurred on July 31, when the RPG game Ember Sword launched the Alpha Land Sale, Ember Sword attracted a lot of attention, only alpha game testing 12,000 players from more than 50 countries participated.
The number of holders of IMX tokens is also growing.
In addition to Ember Sword, the Web3 game Cross the Ages is also very popular in Web2. It once ranked first in the strategy game of the French App Store and remained in the top 5 for more than 4 consecutive weeks. Immutable continues to launch interesting games, Bring new users into the ecosystem.
TVL
According to the statistics of defillama, in the NFT marketplace TVL, immutableX is second only to Blur Bids, and the TVL is also growing no matter in the last 7 days or the last month.
According to the statistics of the l2beat platform, in the Ethereum Layer 2, the TVL of Immutable X ranks seventh.
2. More than 150 games have been launched
The aforementioned advantages have facilitated the introduction of numerous games to its platform, and Immutable is developing Web3 games itself. In addition to Web3 games, Immutable also cooperates with leading Web2 companies such as GameStop, Warner Games, iLogos and Mineloader to introduce Web2 games to the platform.
These additions include IMVU, which has 7 million monthly active users, Cross the Age, which is firmly ranked No. 1 on the App Store, Undead Block, Kiraverse (beta), Aglet, and Immortal Game.
According to the data posted by immutable Twitter, there are currently more than 150 games in the ecosystem, covering a wide range of game types, including RPG, FPS and other types.
Although the cryptocurrency market is still in a bear market, Immutable is still actively developing new products, such as announcing in March this year that it would cooperate with Polygon to develop EVM-compatible zkEVM. In addition, Immutable is also working on improving user UI/UX, which is an ongoing obstacle to the mass adoption of Web 3 games.
3. Immutable has launched the Immutable zkEVM testnet
Immutable has launched the Immutable zkEVM test network. Existing smart contracts and Solidity code can be directly migrated to Immutable’s zkEVM testnet environment for free.
Immutable plans to continue to improve the testnet experience while driving the mainnet launch, with the Immutable zkEVM mainnet currently scheduled for Q4 of this year.
According to Immutable, more than 20 gaming companies have partnered with Immutable to support the launch, including GameStop, TokenTrove marketplace, online game publisher Kongregate, game designer iLogos, and more.
At least 12 games have begun building their Web3 games on zkEVM, including CoinArcade, Galaxy Commanders, Medieval Empires, MetalCore, Meta Toy, DragonZ SAGA, Rune Realms, Shardbound, Infinite Victory, EF Defense, SimWin Football. MetalCore announced a beta release on Immutable zkEVM on September 15th.
8. Summary
In short, Immutable has attracted more and more game projects to the Immutable platform with its high scalability, strong security, Gas-free NFT minting/trading, and integrated cross-game liquidity. Currently, more than 150 different types of Web3 games are being built within the ecosystem.
Although it is currently in a bear market, Immutable is still working hard to launch new products, constantly optimize the platform user experience, and launched the Immutable zkEVM test network. The release of zkEVM will bring more games to the ecosystem and promote the long-term development of the platform. . Immutable will become one of the most important Web3 game infrastructure platforms.
Immutable is a high-quality project worthy of our attention. HotairballoonCN will continue to pay attention and share the latest information in time.
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