1LUNC is 1USD
1LUNC became #1 by being the first crypto project to release its native token, 0x1LUNC, earlier this year — and in early May it was listed on CoinListings. Although a lot of people seem excited about its future — including myself — few have gotten as far as claiming that the future of blockchain gaming is bright for 1LUNC. But I think there’s still room for growth here.
Here are four reasons why.
#1. More than just an NFT
In my opinion, what makes one LUNC more valuable than another should be the way they help gamers maximize their ROI. For example, with higher LP prices, you get much better rewards per time spent. This incentivizes users to keep playing and spending money. If players can increase their win rate even further — say 2-3X — then they will be eager to spend money instead of having it go straight into game revenue. On top of high LP incentives, players won’t stop wanting new games. They’ll want to play them regularly. In fact, this drives developers to take advantage of those market forces to create additional features and make gameplay easier. The value proposition here is quite simple: if a player wants to win 3+ times per week, he or she (or someone else) has all the incentive to do so. That could mean adding an extra layer of difficulty to existing ones like “faster movement” or making some kind of progress bar; but these would only make things harder, not easier. By changing a player’s behavior, a developer could easily make the difference between a good player experience and a mediocre one. Of course, everyone likes getting faster movement — the point is for every user’s ROI to be maximized. When a player has a very short attention span, increasing his or her speed will improve his or her enjoyment significantly.
#2. No need for any third parties
This one might be more difficult to prove, but we can use an analogy to illustrate the potential benefit of removing the middleman/marketer from a certain process. Imagine you own two fast food restaurants. One produces hamburgers, and the other sells fries. An intermediary gives you both burgers and fries, which you give away to your customers. You can easily do everything through cashback programs. Your burger shop needs no marketing. A single word: convenience, right there. And the same holds true for digital assets like LUNCs. Most smart contracts already have tools built up that give us the most basic information that can guide us to buying, selling, minting, and redeeming tokens. Allocating a specific portion of each transaction fee to buy or sell tokens is as easy as calling out a function that takes a number of inputs. Even if you didn’t build crypto’s utility with permissionless blockchains, you can still implement a feature like “buy now — free shipping” without too many complications or external costs. Because nobody uses any of the traditional methods that come along with ownership of physical goods. Instead, the company simply allows anyone else to purchase the product — whether that’s a customer or a business partner. The cryptocurrency model eliminates third-party fees altogether. We don’t have to pay sales commissions, delivery fees, or labor costs because our transactions work directly with others. There’s no barrier to entry — anyone who agrees to invest in our space can freely access LUNC rewards for both purchasing and trading LUNC. The entire economic system that governs how digital assets move in and out of hands is completely transparent, which means that anything can happen, which is exactly what happens when a participant buys something worth 50 dollars. The benefits far outweigh the cost. Not to mention, the whole thing doesn’t have to compete with any centralized authority. Each party works with his or her own rules. It removes the threat of regulatory oversight. These systems aren’t perfect, and will require time to evolve and perfect. However, once the world understands that this approach isn’t entirely impossible, it will become standard operating procedure. Furthermore, once it becomes a more common occurrence, people will start using the approach more and more often, creating demand for LUNC. So, while it might sound counterintuitive, I think it makes sense for a decentralized NFT model to take priority over a centralized marketplace at least based on what this article has demonstrated. Hopefully, it will inspire more projects to follow suit. Just don’t forget about me when you tell me to send 10,000 LUNC next time!
#3. GameFi changes the fundamentals, forever (or until it gets old)
The reason I’m writing about gamification and fun in general is that I see it happening quite quickly. Gamification happens for different motivations — from improving the quality of life, increasing productivity, learning skills, and developing leadership skills. With the emergence and success of platforms such as Roblox, Minecraft, etc., the concept of game design exploded and spread across the internet. As developers themselves began incorporating elements from popular video games into their creations, it seemed that gamification had hit gold or maybe even reached full maturity. Nowadays, there’s nothing like trying to beat a computer game (or try not to fall asleep before checking how many bricks have been collected from the building to add to your level) to demonstrate the impact of metaverses and gamification even further. From the viewpoint of consumers, they no longer have access to the services they used to enjoy years ago. Gone are the days when a person could simply walk down to a local arcade game store and ask for a console or download a demo game. Or when taking the leap to open an online account for yourself. Before, you could have created your own private server or hosted your account without anyone knowing. Today, if you want to get started, it is all about finding the right tool to create content, especially after launching a platform like Twitch or YouTube, where millions of viewers and subscribers watch dozens of videos every day. While not much has changed in terms of the underlying technology since 2010, I believe that the scope of the Internet itself has shifted dramatically. Yes, large corporations hold sway over society today, but also smaller enterprises do. People don’t care about companies bigger and more successful than Facebook or Apple anymore. Everyone wants to connect with friends and family — and that’s what social media did so well. Games allow individuals from anywhere to share their virtual lives with hundreds or thousands of people simultaneously. Thus, the power of gamification goes beyond entertainment. It shows off the human spirit and ability to solve problems or meet challenges. For instance, according to research by McKinsey & Co (opens in new tab), 90% of employees say team cohesion is critical to achieving organizational effectiveness and reaching shared goals. Teams that lack meaningful communication and trust show less commitment to working together, while those that have strong team bonds and trust in each other display greater collaboration and creativity. Similarly, the desire to know more about our surroundings can affect our personal lives in the real world where we spend more time interacting with people than ever before, whether we are doing it virtually or offline. Unfortunately, companies that are currently trying to capture all of this require significant resources and manpower since it requires humans to actually be present in multiple locations at once. Meanwhile, new games like Fortnite (opens in new tab) serve as a clear demonstration of the possibilities that a small organization can achieve when it harnesses innovation via gamification. Through the creation of individual virtual identities and avatars, a player can customize these identities and develop relationships with others within the community, helping him or her feel connected to others in this virtual environment. What’s interesting about Fortnite is that it brings players closer to their teammates without needing to join or leave the arena to interact. Therefore, in order to maintain connection with loved ones, gamers must actively participate.
#4. Virtual worlds
You’ve probably heard of Minecraft (opens in new tab). Since 2008, this project has provided players with a place to create and trade buildings, land, or other spaces with others. Players around the world have grown restless as the game has matured and expanded beyond the original premise. As more and more people became interested in getting involved, they created more features and made adjustments to the gameplay, resulting in even larger communities. Eventually, Minecraft attracted a considerable amount of celebrities such as Beyonce and Justin Bieber who made appearances on the game for promotional purposes. Aside from providing an opportunity for players to interact with one another, this activity gave famous creators — such as musicians and actors — opportunities to be seen publicly and gain brand recognition. To sum up: it’s not about the fame and popularity, but rather the actual content.
It’s easy to imagine how this scenario will change in the near future. At the moment most companies are afraid of breaking the status quo or coming under scrutiny in relation to excessive profits and massive acquisitions. After all, any decision made by investors is bound to generate a huge backlash. However, as mentioned above, owning a piece of land on Earth is pretty rare nowadays. Sure, some players have access to plots of land to buy, but not everyone does. Others might never even get on a plane or drive around the countryside seeing if they can discover new lands before settling down to settle down. Moreover, the price of land in places like North America or Asia might be prohibitive. Yet, there’s no shortage of empty plot of land out there waiting to be filled by somebody with enough guts. Indeed, there’s plenty of properties that could be repurposed for digital asset mining and development. Who knows whether this will be possible or not? Perhaps