3.11 Tokenomics
Introduction
As the adoption of blockchain technology gains speed, a growing use case involves something known as non-fungible tokens (NFT). In short order, NFT’s provide a means to embed references to real world items directly into a blockchain, so that a specific item can be verified for its ownership, be that a house, corporate shares, song tracks video games and art (the list is constrained only by imagination!). Because NFT can provide a proof of ownership, they allow users to collect, trade, buy and sell the items recorded in the NFT, and with that they allow the items in the NFT to have a real world value associated with them. It is for this reason that we now see art NFT trading for ever greater amounts of real-world money. Tokenomics is a phrase that can describe how such NFT (tokens) generate financial gains in the real world, in effect how these tokens provide recognisable economic benefits (token + economics = tokenomics).
Token Ownership
The game metaverse of Mektropolis is based on ‘tokenomics’ powered by the Ravencoin (RVN) cryptocurrency, which is a secure, respected and long-established blockchain that operates with a fully decentralised and consensus-based governance system, that is to say Mektropolis has no control or interest over this blockchain and as a consequence, your NFT belong to you so long as you keep them in your own RVN digital wallet.
In this regard, and quite unlike many other game-based token systems, any assets and or RVN that a player holds from their dealings in the Mektropolis metaverse really do belong to the player, and not to Mektropolis. We believe this to be a much fairer and safer approach for our players, instead of the mechanism used by a number of other game environments, where player dealings may be attached to a private blockchain or tokens that ultimately belong to (or are under the control) of the game creators. Even if the makers of Mektropolis go bust and disappear, your tokenised assets and RVN will still be in your RVN digital wallet, to use as you see fit. If you would like to know more about RVN and its independent foundation, you can look here.
Tokenomics
The game of Mektropolis has a built-in user trading area, or market, in which NFT from the game can be freely bought, sold and traded between players. This aspect of the game metaverse operates as a free-market economy, meaning that players can set their own prices and sales and trades are likely to favour the rarer and more desirable tokens. There is no maximum value set for a trade, and as such it is quite possible that substantial sums of RVN can change hands for some trades. RVN is of course a currency that can be used directly to purchase real world items, or changed into a traditional fiat (paper) currency to allow shopping at a local level.
Although the theoretical maximum number of RVN in the world is 21 billion, not all RVN have yet been released (mined) and furthermore, RVN is a deflationary currency in that the act of creating NFT ‘burns’ RVN from the available supply, currently at a loss of 500 RVN each time. As such, even though it is impossible to predict the future value of any cryptocurrency, there is a natural tendency for RVN to appreciate in value due to its growing scarcity over time, and this is one of the key reasons we selected RVN – because we believe it has a demonstrated capacity to sustain its value over time.
