Crypto is the greatest massively online multiplayer game (MMORPG) of our lifetime, where speculation, ownership, community coordination, and permissionless creation form the core gameplay mechanism. The most successful applications mirror this great game, defining structured ways by which users can create, trade, and interact with assets and the rule-set of the metagame.

The game persists through continuous content expansion, thanks to permissionless extension and user generated content (UGC). Human psychology (optimism/belief) combined with permissionless creation allows the constant formation of new focal points of attention. At times of euphoria, this leads to disequilibria, cartel capture, and implosion. However, what has survived intact through multiple cycles of boom and bust is the underlying game and the entertainment derived from its participants who decide to take part. The truth is users WANT to participate - they want to own and get exposure to the possibility of exponential returns. They want to enjoy the sense of social cohesion and community from sharing wins and bonding over losses and over the survival of events that shake the foundations of this ever evolving game. 

It is our belief that this model of game (App) development - in essence microcosms of the great game of crypto itself -  is unique to crypto, fundamentally fits models of existing demand, and will see an explosion of growth in the future.

There is a long lineage of crypto applications building great experiences with this formula:

1. Axie’s core mechanic wasn’t just battling creatures - it was an economy where users could mint, trade, and breed NFTs. The gameplay was secondary - the real meta-game was optimizing asset creation and speculation. This worked because players had a direct financial stake, creating a high-engagement model. 
2. Friendtech’s assets were participation rights in group chats represented as a key. They defined a rule set by which an influencer could mint their own tokens (via buying the first key on the bonding curve) and different players could trade assets back and forth. The chat room itself was auxiliary but a core value provider linked to the keys. Keys for large trading accounts that were sharing trading alpha were trading far above those of popular influencers. This was the first step in the product playing a larger role in the value composition of the assets created.
3. Fantasy’s assets are rights to enter certain influencers in a fantasy tournament battle of producing the highest engagement tweets. The game defines a way to create more cards via official pack openings or by burning and merging existing cards, and provides an interface for players to trade these cards amongst each other. The game also provides rewards in the form of Blast Gold, Fantasy Points, ETH, and fragments that can be combined to mint more assets.
4. Solana’s asset issuance is defined by memecoins. A permissionless game creator on Solana (pump.fun) has defined rule sets by which players can easily launch an asset. However, the game has expanded to the point where external infrastructure providers are supplying key components of the experience of minting, buying, and selling memecoins. As these assets trend upward, users ascribe to them fundamental value (culture coins, etc.). If you read the VC thought pieces from Feb-May 2024, they expound on investors’ theories behind the value of these assets well.

This is why we’ve built Turbo Tap, a clear signal to developers that Eclipse’s blockchain is uniquely suited to enable these apps to thrive by providing scalable technology with strong distribution.

Crypto games are best defined as rules by which players can issue assets and trade them. The value proposition comes from whether or not there is value in the unique activities (either in returns or entertainment) that you can perform with these assets. Because the platform itself does not issue the only accessible canonical asset but relies on UGC for asset creation, the pace of growth is directly equivalent to the pace of content expansion. As memecoin valuations go up, the number of memecoins explodes, resulting in pockets of innovation and, therefore, outperformance. Contrary to the model where, as the price of the native token of a project that doesn’t allow permissionless UGC rises, the velocity with which the project must ship interesting content updates to meet expectations must also accelerate, the permissionless nature of crypto games allows other players to organically fill this demand.

Vitalik created Ethereum - the first great crypto-game platform with permissionless UGC and restarted the era of real-world MMORPGs. Collective realization is now at a point where we can put a finger precisely on the model of creation that has worked - that of copying the gamified fundamental innovations and characteristics of the grand-game of crypto itself.

At Eclipse, we are excited to support innovators who are building these next-generation applications. If you’d like to get in touch with the team, feel free to DM us on Twitter @eclipsefnd, @0xlitquidity, @0xtaetaehoho, @akachacolate, @purplepill3m, @0xsydney.

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