Why Blockchain Space?
Blockchain Space has the potential to become the de-facto operating system for Guilds. Every guild, no matter how large or small, needs a way of managing its scholars. It needs to keep track of digital assets, revenues, player performance and payrolls. Blockchain Space is building those tools to enable guild managers to efficiently and effectively run their businesses. It is a product that the guild manager will be logging into every single day — in short, it is the system of truth.
An operating system is basically something that runs the guilds. We expect that such tools will enjoy very high utilization; guild owners and managers will be using the product every day. And this is incredibly important as it will allow BlockChain Space to accrue value over time, by adding other things into that operating system.
So what does that mean? If you are a guild manager, you may need capital to expand your business. Of course, the guild manager could try discussing that with his local bank manager, but I imagine that would be a very uphill battle. Now, BlockChain Space, on the other hand, is in a great position to facilitate all sorts of financial products. They have free distribution into thousands of guilds and already have access to all of the underlying operating data to make informed credit decisions.
BlockChain Space understands the new economy around Guilds and has produced a solution that is highly specific to the needs of the community. This has enabled them to already acquire customers at a rapid clip, with over 2,600 guilds already using some tools. We think that traditional business operating systems like Salesforce or Workday would have a hard time replicating those specific requirements or acquiring customers. In short, BlockChain Space has a solid first mover advantage and is likely to see very high user retention.
In the longer run, the Guild Management Software is really just a Trojan horse into the rapidly growing Guild economy and the real value is likely to accrue from embedded financial services. BlockChain Space is also a FinTech play. Payroll and payments will be first, but over time, why wouldn’t they be able to offer checking accounts, or insurance products, credit cards or payday loans to thousands of guilds and their hundreds of thousands of scholars. "Hey, you are low on money today, why not play Axie today? We will double your rewards." They will be able to underwrite these financial services better and more efficiently because they have more data about the guild and members than anyone else. Talk about real customer ownership.
What are Play-to-earn Games?
The gaming industry has proliferated across Consoles, Mobile and PC’s and incorporates different business models, from the original pay-to-play, to free-to-play, and most recently to play-to-earn (P2E).
P2E games are cryptonative, where players can earn money or other rewards simply for playing the game. The industry is in a nascent stage — less than 1% of games are hosted on a blockchain — but it is growing rapidly — and is one of the most exciting areas of the blockchain industry.
According to DappRadar, there were 1.5 million Unique Active Wallets (UAW) that connected to any type of Dapp on a daily basis in 3Q21. Games were the key driver of usage within the industry growing at 140% QoQ, with P2E games attracting 750 thousand daily UAW.
NFTs are a key feature of blockchain games. In contrast to traditional games, NFTs allow players true ownership rights over their playing items. These in-game NFTs generated $ 2.3b in trading volume in Q3.
In short, P2E games allow players to earn an income stream from playing games, in addition to capital appreciation from ownership of their digital items. The income earning potential is driving rapid adoption of P2E games and this economic backbone provides an environment for guilds, communities, and esports to flourish.
What are Guilds?
Nevertheless, it is not always easy for potential players to start playing and earning income — there can be steep upfront costs, such as buying three Axies to start playing Axie Infinity. This is the idea behind Guilds, which onboard, train and lend NFTs to players in exchange for a cut of the player’s earnings.
There are thousands of different guilds in existence, which players can look to for a scholarship. Most of the guilds are centered around a Discord server, which is a communications platform developed for the gaming community. Within a guild’s Discord, there are many resources and channels allowing players to learn about the games, access resources, communicate with other players, and most importantly to connect with guild managers.
YGG’s CEO Gabby Dizon equates guilds to “a jobs board for the metaverse,” and there are now several well-funded, large-scale guilds in operation. Guilds like YGG, UniX, Avocado, and Crypto Gaming United (CGU) are onboarding thousands of players, aiming to recruit scholars who will play well and bring in high earnings.
However, the vast majority of Guilds are small businesses, typically focused on onboarding players in their local communities through word of mouth.
Whatever the size of the guild, the challenges are the same in terms of assessing and screening potential players, testing skills and knowledge base, training, support, and rewarding and compensating players.
Different guilds have different processes for managing their operations. However, they all need a set of common tools that help to effectively and efficiently scale:
- Back office solutions — Accounting and CRM
- Talent Management — onboarding and retaining players
- Performance management — KPIs, metrics, benchmarks
- Payment — payroll solutions
- Financial — solutions to accelerate expansion
- Learning — a platform to share and learn best practices
What does BlockChain Space do?
As far as we see it, BlockChain Space has the potential to be the de-facto operating system for Guilds. So far, they have developed tools, or are close to delivering solutions, that will help all Guild operators to run their businesses more effectively.
The key products and services include:
- The GUILD DISCORD BOT starts by collecting key performance data for each scholar and helps the guild manager to understand each player’s real time earnings, top earners, average earnings, and performance measurement. Guild managers can work faster and smarter with a clear view of the underlying team performance, and are able to communicate and respond to team requests directly within discord.
- The GUILD OWNER DASHBOARD is an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) that, when released, will help guild managers with many of the typical HR/Accounting functions that all small businesses require. The dashboard can be used to manage all of day-to-day activities and interactions, such as automated payments, applicant onboarding, and business planning and forecasting.
- GUILD DATA BANK a cross-guild data platform providing best-in-class data for Guilds, investors, and game developers.
- GUILD FINANCIAL BANK. Initially, the financial bank could provide loans to guild owners to help them grow, or to facilitate investment into guilds from third parties, or even to support M&A activity between guilds. Longer-term, we expect that BlockChain Space will offer many more FinTech products to the growing universe of Guilds and scholars.
Tokenomics — the $Guild Token
$GUILD is Blockchain Space’s native ecosystem token that will be used for community governance as well as a utility for transactions carried out by Gamers, Guilds, Game Titles and Investors.
$Guild will be the required currency for purchasing software services through BlockChain Space, gaining access to tournaments, advertising, and for investment into guilds.
Value will largely accrue to the ecosystem from commissions on financial transactions — payroll payments, loans, fees on deals between guilds or investors — in addition to accessing the software services.
Team & Investors
BlockChain Space will be carrying out its initial Token Launch Auction between 8–11 December via Copperlaunch.
BlockChain Space has already raised funds:
Seed Round — $ 3.75m investment round led by 3Commas Capital, Animoca Brands, Spartan Group, Infinity Ventures Crypto and others. The round also attracted leading angel investors and advisors, including Aleksander Larsen (Axie), Gabby Dizon (YGG).
Strategic Round — $ 2.4m round led by Morningstar Ventures, Crypto.com, Alameda Research and others.
Blockchain Space has also partnered with some of the largest Guilds to integrate the tools into their platforms: Merit Circle, MetaSports, Unix Gaming and Yield Guild Games.
