SEC - Page 106

Central banks globally are increasingly exploring blockchain technology, with the European Central Bank (ECB) being a recent participant.

The ECB recently completed a blockchain experiment for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) with Zama, as announced by Nigel Smart, the firm’s chief academic officer.

During a panel at FHE Summit 2024, Smart stated, “We did one with the European Central Bank on liquidity matching. […] And a number of applications on CBDCs have been actually to remove the central bank out of the equation and replace it with a blockchain.”

Liquidity matching, the process of aligning a bank’s inflows and assets with its outflows and liabilities to ensure sufficient funds to meet obligations, is crucial.

However, Smart highlighted that liquidity matching is challenging for multiple parties transacting on the same blockchain network.

He elaborated, “Then the issue is if you have multiple entities on the blockchain and it’s all encrypted stuff, how do you do liquidity matching? That’s a really big issue.”

Smart, a prominent cryptographer, is developing fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) solutions for blockchain and artificial intelligence at Zama.

FHE allows computations on encrypted data without decrypting it, enhancing data security.

READ MORE: Bitcoin Poised for 300% Gains by 2026 Despite Current Downturn, Analyst Predicts

In early March, Zama secured a $73 million Series A funding round to advance the firm’s FHE stack and provide developers with more tools for data privacy solutions.

Multiparty computation (MPC), which enables multiple parties to compute shared data without revealing the actual data, also shows promise.

Smart noted that the MPC-based experiment with the ECB was successful, but scaling to support the entire European economy will require more time.

He said, “We did an experiment with the European Central Bank where we essentially ran the Finnish economy through an MPC engine, and we could keep track. We could actually keep up with Finland, which is good, but not on the European scale yet.”

Smart added that the financial sector is increasingly exploring MPC technology, which could lead to more use cases for large financial institutions.

This growing interest in advanced cryptographic solutions signifies the financial sector’s drive towards greater security and efficiency through technology.

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The blockchain gaming ecosystem has slowly faded from the spotlight in 2024, as other ecosystems, such as artificial intelligence and memecoins, rise to prominence. Regardless, Web 3 gaming remains a powerhouse in blockchain, with the total market capitalization standing at $15 billion, as of writing. The constant developments across the space majorly influence this – as the once simplistic one-click games become more playable and interactive and can now fairly compete with their Web 2 counterparts. 

Games like Axie Infinity have pushed Web 3 gaming to greater heights, setting the standard on what play-to-earn (P2E) game models should be. As such, new games entering the blockchain gaming realm need to be of a very high standard to capture the attention of players, investors and partners. One such game, My Pet Hooligan, built on Unreal Engine 5, is doing exactly that with its enhanced gaming model that is unique for a blockchain game. 

In contrast to previous Web 3 games, My Pet Hooligan introduces cutting-edge technology, artificial intelligence, AAA-quality gaming models, and an exciting realm that offers better asset rewards. The question that arises is how well My Pet Hooligan will fare in a stacked Web 3 gaming market. 

In this piece, we delve into the technology, gameplay, community, and potential of My Pet Hooligan, comparing it to the best of Web 3 games – Axie Infinity. 

Axie Infinity: The Rise of Playable Web 3 Games

Axie Infinity is a Web 3-based gaming ecosystem that combines the aspects of traditional gaming, crypto, NFTs, and blockchain. Set in a metaverse named Lunacia, Axie Infinity allows players to buy, breed and battle creatures (Axies) for an opportunity to earn real money rewards. The game utilizes an in-game cryptocurrency called AXS, which allows players to purchase and trade Axies and use them in battles to earn rewards. 

The play-to-earn game was launched in 2018 by Trung Nguyen, Aleksander Leonard Larsen, and Jeffrey Zirlin. 

The associated assets and transactions are conducted via the Ronin sidechain, a Layer-2 EVM-compatible blockchain built to scale Axie Infinity. Ronin is home to most digital assets used in the Axie Infinity ecosystem, and the project team is expanding the network to allow third-party game development studios to launch additional games.

Strengths

• Marketplace: Axie Infinity includes its marketplace that allows players to directly purchase and sell items, as well as collectible digital creatures. 
• Unique Gameplay: Players in the game can buy, earn and breed their digital creatures to advance in the game. 
• Early-to-market: One of the biggest strengths for Axie Infinity is launching in 2018, years before the GameFi craze during the pandemic years. 
• Vibrant community: The game has attracted nearly 1 million community members across its social media pages – X (formerly Twitter), Discord, and Telegram. 

Weaknesses

• Sustainability: As is with early blockchain games, Axie Infinity struggled with inflation as more players joined the game, setting back the price of its $AXS token. 
• Complexity: The game requires prior knowledge in the blockchain space, which provides a barrier for new players, who require a significant amount of time and effort to understand fully. 
• Cost barriers: Axie Infinity requires players to have a starting capital to buy Axies. Some of these digital assets can cost hundreds of dollars. 

Technology & Market Performance

Axie Infinity is a P2E game that uses a delegated proof of stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism, with its assets and transactions housed on the Ronin sidechain. Ronin is a layer 2 EVM-compatible blockchain aiming to scale Axie Infinity and conduct faster transactions with minimized fees. The network is secured by 22 validators, 10 of which are operated by community members with the highest total combined RON stake. The remaining 12 are classified as Governing Validators and are operated by parties selected by the project team. 

The game’s native token, $AXS launched in April 2018 and later was issued via a token sale on the Binance Launchpad in November 2020. Over the past year, the $AXS token has slightly dipped in value – to trade at $5.32, representing a 10% dip since July last year. 

My Pet Hooligan: Building an AI-based Web 3 Gaming Ecosystem 

My Pet Hooligan is the flagship interactive entertainment experience from AMGI Studios. It is a free-to-play Web 3 game that allows multiplayer competitions and socializing. The game involves players creating characters to battle against the evil overlord Metazuckbot, within the Hooliland City metaverse. Players can also fight against each other, destroy buildings and other artefacts, skate like a pro skater, hang out with friends and much more. The game developers confirmed that My Pet Hooligan will be a cross-platform game spanning PC, console and mobile. 

Insert Video: https://youtu.be/dAqHfm3yhQo

Crucially, the game offers gamers several gameplay modes that cater to unique player preferences. The three major player modes include: 

1. Coinpocalypse: This is a treasure hunt game mode that allows players to collect coins from different players and within the game. 
2. Anarchy: This is a PVP game mode that allows players to fight and compete against each other in a designated zone in an elimination battle. 
3. Hang Out: For players who do not want to constantly battle, this mode provides a setting whereby players can explore the city at their leisure, engage in activities like skateboarding, or just chill and watch content in the game’s movie theatre.

Strengths

• AI Innovation: My Pet Hooligan ranks as the first-of-its-kind blockchain game that implements AI technology to enhance the gameplay. 
• AI Entertainment: The game also offers an in-game AI entertainment studio that allows users to stream and create content and interact as their in-game avatars.  
• Team strength: One of the most important factors driving My Pet Hooligan’s growth is the strong team from AGMI Studio that has worked on popular gaming titles such as Toy Story. 
• Next-generation gaming: The game implements next-generation technologies such as AI to help bridge the gap between traditional gaming and Web 3 gaming, building exciting games for all players.

AMGI Studios was co-founded by Roger Paglia, Colin Brady, and Luke Paglia.  

Weaknesses

The only weakness of My Pet Hooligan is that the game is still relatively young in the Web 3 gaming space and hence could be susceptible to a few bugs. Nonetheless, the team works round the clock to ensure the game is running smoothly by removing any critical bugs. 

Technology and Market Performance

My Pet Hooligan is built on the KARRAT Protocol, a decentralized gaming infrastructure layer supported by its native $KARRAT token. The protocol aims to revolutionize Web 3 gaming and entertainment by integrating artificial intelligence technologies into its games. 

By integrating AI, My Pet Hooligan offers players an immersive and exciting experience across Hooliland City, interacting with other gamers and earning rewards in the process. The addition of AI-driven non-playable characters (NPCs) allows gamers to build real-time animation that establishes a living, and breathing world that reacts to player interactions.

The KARRAT Protocol not only provides gaming products but also allows game developers to build products that support other industries including retail, telecom, education, and other industries. The protocol provides tools that support the creation and adoption of these industries within their games. The decentralized communities decide how these are integrated and progressed.

My Pet Hooligan leverages the $KARRAT token within its ecosystem. The $KARRAT token launched in 2024, and despite the recent downturn in crypto market fortunes has performed relatively well. The token currently trades at $0.61, an 8% growth in the past 24 hours, having reached a peak price of $1.18 in June 2024. 

Futuristic Overview & Potential 

My Pet Hooligan development team has a solid roadmap for the coming months, showing its potential to take over Web 3 gaming. The game has introduced AI-integrated NPC characters within its metaverse, actively contributing to the immersive nature of the game experience. Advanced AI NPCs represent the next phase in the evolution of non-player characters. According to its roadmap, the game will also include AI-driven game characters training that will be modeled on organic player behaviour. 

Additionally, the game also includes staking features for NFTs, rewarding stakers with $KARRAT tokens. 

Table comparing features of Axie Infinity and My Pet Hooligan

Features	Axie Infinity	My Pet Hooligan
Barrier to entry	High due to entry costs	Low – Free-to-Play
Blockchain	Ronin	Ethereum
Gaming engine	Unity	Unreal 5
Community	Over 1 million community members	Slightly less than 300K members
Tokenomics (Total supply)	270,000,000 $AXS tokens	1,000,000,000 $KARRAT
Economic Maturity	High	Medium (Growing)

Final Words

The blockchain gaming ecosystem has seen a massive shift in attention over the past two years, with investors and crypto aficionados moving towards new technologies in the space. Nonetheless, the ecosystem continues to thrive in development and innovation. Axie Infinity has laid a strong foundation for play-to-earn models, demonstrating both the potential and challenges of blockchain gaming. On the other hand, My Pet Hooligan is pushing the boundaries with innovative AI integration and a focus on immersive, next-generation gaming experiences.

As the gaming landscape evolves, new technologies employed by projects such as My Pet Hooligan will be important in providing compelling, accessible gameplay that can compete with traditional Web 2 games.