Here it is: the long-awaited announcement about Playible’s future plans. We’ve decided to move to NEAR Protocol following UST’s unfortunate depegging and the subsequent LUNA crash.
But before we get into that, the entire team wants to acknowledge its massive debt to Terra. From founders and developers to our communities and friends, we sincerely thank every single person who made it worth calling Terra home.
We’ve been with Terra since the beginning. We were incubated in the Delphi Hackathon and had wonderful personal relationships with the most integral members of the Terra ecosystem. They’re the smartest people we’ve ever met, and we wish them all the best wherever they end up building (please, stay in touch!).
This decision was difficult. Our entire team was heavily invested in the Terra ecosystem, both financially and emotionally. We believed in its commitment to a decentralized future, and we still do. But it’s time for us to pursue a different path. I’m sure we’ll meet again.
The last few weeks have been quiet, and we’re aware that it has been frustrating for some. We spent that time internally discussing the pros and cons of various new blockchains, meeting with web3 founders and communities, mulling over the generous opportunities presented to us, and reconsidering Playible’s payout structure to avoid future possible points of failure and keep our users safe.
We left no stone unturned because you deserve it. We thank you for your commitment to Playible through these turbulent times, and we promise that we will come back stronger than before.
Okay, let’s answer some of your questions.
Table of Contents (Skip To)
What Is NEAR Protocol?
NEAR Protocol is a layer 1 solution built on a sharded, proof-of-stake, user-friendly blockchain. Its core values are sustainability (certified carbon-neutral), cost-effectiveness, security, user-friendliness (human-readable accounts from the start), interoperability (EVM compatibility and existing bridging solutions), and pragmatism (built using general purpose languages Rust and AssemblyScript).
The platform was built by former Microsoft and Google employees Alexander Skidanov and Ilya Polosukhin. And in 2022, NEAR Protocol raised hundreds of millions of dollars from industry leaders Tiger Global, Republic Capital, FTX Ventures, Hashed, Dragonfly Capital, and others.
But enough about what NEAR Protocol is. Why is it perfect for Playible?
Why Did We Choose NEAR Protocol?
As we’ve mentioned, this was a tough decision to make. The innovation and opportunity in the web3 space is boundless. We couldn’t make a bad decision, but we wanted to make the best decision: and for us, that is NEAR Protocol.
Here’s why:
- Grant Allocations
- Fast and Cheap Transactions
- Easy, User-Friendly Wallet Creation
- Built on Rust
- EVM-Compatibility and Non-Exclusive Partnership
- Miscellaneous Benefits
Grant Allocations
NEAR Protocol has been incredibly responsive to Playible’s unique situation. NEAR Protocol’s team offered us a generous, milestone-based grant allocation (free, non-investment funds) to join their ever-expanding family of builders. This will help us cover development and transitional costs, as well as keep Playible’s war chest healthy during a potentially shaky crypto bear market.
Fast and Cheap Transactions
Without getting too technical, NEAR Protocol is one of the fastest and cheapest blockchains in the world. DoomSlug (more information here) achieves practical finality after only one round of communication. Ethereum takes 35 rounds. And NightShade allows NEAR Protocol to use shards rather than sidechains to process blocks, which allows it to eventually process around 100,000 transactions per second. Ethereum 2.0 is supposed to use sharding in the future.
Easy, User-Friendly Wallet Creation
NEAR Protocol uses a human-readable wallet address by default. Forget about a 42-character hexadecimal public address. With NEAR Protocol, you can just use bob.near. And creating a NEAR wallet can be done by saving a seed phrase or attaching an email address. Simple wallet creation is hugely important to onboarding the next generation of fantasy sports players to web3.
Built on Rust
NEAR Protocol uses Rust for its smart contracts. This will help our developers more quickly migrate Playible’s mint and game contracts and get you playing fantasy sports contests sooner.
EVM-Compatibility and Non-Exclusive Partnership
Aurora is NEAR Protocol’s layer 2 scaling solution with EVM-compatibility, and it will help Playible eventually go multichain. Aurora’s goal is an interoperable future where the gaps between blockchains, developers, and users are bridged. Eventually, you’ll be able to enter Playible’s contests from whichever blockchain suits you best. NEAR Protocol has also been vocal about its support of our multichain future, and we do not have an exclusive, binding partnership to only build on NEAR Protocol mainnet. And NEAR Protocol has an easy-to-use bridging solution called Rainbow Bridge that is already connected to Ethereum with more blockchain support coming soon.
Miscellaneous Benefits
NEAR Protocol has also offered to help Playible with marketing plans, smart contract audits, developer resources, and community or protocol introductions.
What’s Next for Playible?
It’s the question at the forefront of everyone’s mind: what is next for Playible? Or in web3 terms, wen game?
We’re saddened to say that MLB (baseball) is postponed until next season. It’s simply not possible to build new mint and game contracts on a different blockchain and have enough of a season for it to be worth it for our community.
Instead, we’re focusing on NFL (football) and should be ready for the start of the season in September.
Here’s what you need to know about the migration:
What’s Happening With the MLB Starters Packs I Purchased?
All MLB Starter Packs can be traded in for NFL Starter Packs. Or, you can wait for the next baseball season and trade them in for new MLB Starter Packs at that time.
The team has decided to personally take on the burden of any lost funds due to swap fees, UST depegging, etc. and back all MLB Starter Packs (again, tradeable for NFL Starter Packs) with the full $200 value they had when minted.
More information on the migration process will be available in coming weeks.
What About the Money I Spent on the Secondary Marketplace?
All UST or LUNA spent on the secondary marketplace will be fully refunded in USDC based on the asset’s value at the time of purchase to those that submit the appropriate crypto wallet address to us in a timely manner.
More information on the refund process will be available in coming weeks.
One Last Note on Payout Structures
We can no longer rely on inconsistent, potentially dangerous yield strategies for contest prizes. Removing this possible point of failure will help increase Playible’s long-term sustainability and benefit our community in the short-term as we make this difficult transition.
We will pay out 100 percent of all funds generated during our initial pack sale on Terra. Each NFL or MLB Starter Pack represents $200 in prize pool funds.
Athlete NFTs will now have use limits, or a total number of contests that Athlete NFTs can enter before they must win back new uses from our freeroll contests, and each use has an attached dollar amount. As long as your Athlete NFTs have uses, you’ll be able to enter prize-variable fantasy sports contests to win stablecoin prizes. Prizes will be determined based on the total number of entries the contest has.
When an Athlete NFT’s use limit reaches zero, you’ll still be able to use it in our freeroll fantasy sports contests, where winners will receive additional uses, which can then be used in our prize-variable contests again. These additional uses will be monetarily backed by Playible and will not dilute existing prize pools.
Moving forward (next season), Playible will pay out 80 percent of all funds generated during pack sales. And 20 percent of all funds will go toward the team for development costs.
Additional information on NFL rules, scoring, gameplay, contests, and more is yet to come.
We want to thank everyone for sticking with us during this transition, and we can’t wait for the next generation of fantasy sports to launch on NEAR Protocol.