Hello Raiders!

It’s been a wild few weeks. Thank you to everyone who has picked up a Raider, migrated it to Polygon, and run through our test dungeon. We hope you’re enjoying the gear for your Orcs and Tammys, and we can’t wait to release our first full dungeon for you to dive into.

Along with our rapid development of the game, we’ve also been hard at work figuring out the right tokenomics and in-game economy for Crypto Raiders. After a lot of theory crafting, studying past successes, and debating how to ensure this game can be both fun and profitable, I think we’ve figured it out.

We’re creating a new paradigm for video game economies, blending the best of gaming and the new world of decentralized finance. Read on to learn more about our plans for the Crypto Raiders economy in the coming weeks, and how you can get involved.

Background: What is Crypto Raiders

Crypto Raiders is a novel Play-To-Earn dungeon crawler built on the Polygon blockchain. It draws on decades of best practices around building a compelling RNG-based RPG, while adding in new economic elements made possible by Polygon and Ethereum.

Over the past few months, the Crypto Raiders team has made exceptional progress and established itself as a leading, up-and-coming NFT-based video game.

The initial release of 7,500 in-game Characters has sold out. The secondary market price for characters on Polygon continues to rise, with the current floor at 3.6x the mint price, and with over 370 ETH ($962,000 in today’s prices) in total trade volume.

In addition, the first test dungeon has been released, in which players can earn loot for their characters. This dungeon has been run thousands of times in the last 2 weeks, with character prices on the secondary market already adjusting based on the gear they’ve acquired.

With our initial gameplay and NFTs being received so positively, Crypto Raiders is in a unique position to be among the first blockchain-based video games to create a thriving Play-to-Earn economy attracting players and investors alike. We can learn from and emulate the success of breakout games like Axie Infinity and Decentraland, while also capitalizing on advances in the blockchain, NFT, and DeFi ecosystems since their releases.

To facilitate that economy, we’re releasing two Tokens tied to the Crypto Raiders ecosystem: $AURUM (Latin for “gold”) and $RAIDER.

These tokens are not launched yet. Do not get tricked by any fakes that might pop up!

In this post we explain the tokenomics, value, benefits, and goals for these new tokens. We also share some of our future plans for the game, and the additional utility these tokens will provide in the future.

$AURUM

$AURUM Tokenomics

$AURUM will be a variable supply token with an initial mint of 1,000,000,000. In order to balance the game economy we reserve the right to mint and burn $AURUM as needed, as well as to adjust the prices of various activities $AURUM is used on such as character creation and dungeons.

$AURUM Utility

$AURUM is our in-game token. It will be used for running dungeons, recruiting characters (our version of “breeding” from other games), and future value-creation activities such as crafting, enchanting, and PVP duels.

It will also be the default currency in the Crypto Raiders marketplace, planned to launch in the next three to six months.

Earning $AURUM

$AURUM will be earned by completing dungeons and future quests. The more difficult a quest or dungeon, the more $AURUM a player stands to earn. Certain Character models also earn bonus $AURUM, such as the 7,500 genesis characters who have a 30% $AURUM bonus.

$AURUM can also be earned passively by staking $RAIDER tokens. See the $RAIDER utility section below for more details.

$AURUM Price Factors

Because $AURUM is necessary for most value creation activities, such as creating new characters, players can earn an in-game income by completing dungeons and other quests to earn $AURUM, then either selling that $AURUM on the market, or using it to create new Characters and Gear.

Investors who do not want to complete in-game activities, but rather want to focus on breeding characters or crafting, will need to buy $AURUM from other players, or earn $AURUM via staking.

This creates a dual $AURUM economy, similar to what we see with SLP in Axie Infinity. Players earn an income by farming $AURUM through in-game activities and then selling that gold to Investors. Investors purchase $AURUM to fund value creation activities such as breeding and crafting, which they then sell the products of to new and existing players.

We expect the $AURUM token to be highly liquid with a fluctuating price. While the price will increase as the game becomes more popular, we do not intend for it to represent the CryptoRaider economy’s value as a whole.

For that, we have the $RAIDER token.

$RAIDER

$RAIDER Tokenomics

$RAIDER will be a fixed supply token with an initial mint of 100,000,000. The team will have no power to mint more $RAIDER.

$RAIDER Utility

The $RAIDER token represents the Crypto Raiders economy as a whole, but it also provides some in-game uses.

Holders can stake $RAIDER to earn a share of all $AURUM spent in the game. $RAIDER stakers will be rewarded daily based on in-game activity, earning $AURUM which they can sell on the market, or use for value-creation activities like running dungeons, breeding, and crafting.

$RAIDER staking is locked for three to twelve months:

Three month lock: 100% reward rate
Six month lock: 200% reward rate
Nine month lock: 300% reward rate
Twelve month lock: 400% reward rate

A player who has long-term confidence in the CryptoRaider ecosystem can stake their $RAIDER tokens for 12 months, earn a 4x multiplier on their staked amount, and receive daily passive rewards in the form of $AURUM.

$RAIDER staking will also convey additional future utility, such as:

Voting in governance and other decisions.
Special access to staker-only dungeons, gear, and releases.
Partner drops and releases.

Earning $RAIDER

Besides buying $RAIDER on the market, players and investors can earn $RAIDER by staking $AURUM-MATIC and $RAIDER-MATIC Sushi LP Tokens.

Of the initial 100,000,000 $RAIDER minted, 50% will go towards incentivizing these liquidity providers. Those 50,000,000 $RAIDER will be split evenly between the two pools, with the $RAIDER distributed on a 4-year schedule.

That means at launch, the daily emissions for each pool will be 17,123 $RAIDER tokens. These rewards will be split among all LPs, proportional to their share of the liquidity pool tokens deposited.

There will not be a lockup on LP staking. Only on $RAIDER staking.

$RAIDER Price Factors

As the fixed-supply token representing the platform, we expect the value of $RAIDER to increase as the perceived value of the Crypto Raiders game and economy increases.

While there will eventually be 100,000,000 $RAIDER in circulation, on launch day there will be less than 1,000,000 unlocked, with the rest steadily trickling out from LP rewards and Vesting contracts over four years. As more of these tokens are released, there will naturally be some inflationary price pressure, depending on how demand grows with the growing liquid token supply.

But unlike other platform tokens, the $RAIDER token brings in-game utility with it, primarily through passive $AURUM earning. Because of this, we expect less sell pressure on the $RAIDER tokens as they’re released. They’re not merely a reward for LP staking: they provide significant value to anyone bullish on the Crypto Raiders ecosystem or anyone playing the game.

Initial Allocations, Vesting, and Pricing

The initial 100,000,000 supply of $RAIDER will be allocated as follows:

50% to incentivize LP staking, distributed over 4 years.
20% to the founding team, locked in a 2 year vesting contract.
15% to employees and contractors, also locked in a 1-year vesting contract when awarded.
10% to the treasury for bug bounties, community giveaways, and future needs.
5% reserved for future investors.

The initial 1,000,000,000 supply of $AURUM will be allocated as follows:

75% to the Rewarder contract for rewarding Dungeon and Quest completions.
20% to the treasury for employee rewards, bug bounties, community giveaways, and future needs.
5% to initial $RAIDER staking rewards, until in-game $AURUM-based spending rewards kick in.

The Crypto Raiders team will provide the initial Sushi liquidity for both $RAIDER and $AURUM. The initial price for $RAIDER will be $0.01, and the initial price for $AURUM will be $0.001.

This puts the platform at a total diluted value of $2m which we believe to be very conservative given the nearly $1m in volume done in the last month alone. We’ve always put our community first, and we want believers in Crypto Raiders to share in the rewards as we grow.

Additional Considerations for Token Utility & Value

When considering the value and utility of the $AURUM and $RAIDER tokens, it’s also worth factoring in our future plans for the Crypto Raiders ecosystem and the additional use those tokens will have.

Crypto Raiders Composability

Crypto Raiders lives natively on the Polygon blockchain, as will the $AURUM and $RAIDER tokens. There is no separate sidechain for playing Crypto Raiders, nor does it require any slow, expensive transfers back and forth for in-game currency and items.

This makes the Crypto Raiders economy completely composable with the rest of the Polygon ecosystem. We envision a future where Raiders can stake their $AURUM on DeFi applications like PoolTogether or AAVE, making Crypto Raiders one of the first games to truly merge the in-game and “offline” economies.

It also allows Crypto Raiders to be among the first games to push forward the open metaverse. An owner of other NFTs or tokens can receive special in-game characters, pets, buffs, or abilities reflecting their activities outside the game. An owner of a Bored Ape might get a special Monkey pet, or an Artblocks Squiggle holder might be able to wrap the pattern on their armor. By living natively on Polygon, we can easily reward users for activities done outside the game.

Crypto Raiders NFTs

While we’re incredibly excited about the DeFi aspects of Crypto Raiders, the core value will always be in the NFTs powering the game.

The current Character NFTs are already a huge success, with the floor price continuing to rise weekly. In the coming months we’ll be releasing additional Characters (via in-game recruiting), as well as the many Gear NFTs.

Once we introduce crafting and other activities, we’ll also be among the first games in which players can create items, have those items be represented by NFTs, and then sell those items on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea.

Crypto Raiders Marketplace

In the next six months, we will also release a native Crypto Raiders marketplace. This marketplace will allow players to trade Crypto Raiders native NFTs without leaving the Crypto Raiders ecosystem, and without paying a 2.5% cut to OpenSea.

This Marketplace will rely on $AURUM as the primary currency, and instead of the 2.5% fee going to OpenSea, a 2.5% exchange fee will be partially distributed to $RAIDER stakers, further increasing the value of holding and staking $RAIDER tokens.

Crypto Raiders Partnerships

We expect to see significant growth in gaming on the Polygon blockchain. The parent company, Polygon Technology, has already announced a $100M fund for investing in Polygon gaming.

We plan to make partnerships with other games we’re excited about, and explore ways to make Crypto Raiders NFTs provide some value in those games as well. This will further extend the value of the Crypto Raiders ecosystem, rewarding players and investors alike.

NFT Burn Mechanism

One concern with NFT-based P2E games like Crypto Raiders and Axie Infinity is character inflation.

Since character recruiting could increase the supply at an exponential rate, if the demand for the game doesn’t also grow exponentially the market for character NFTs could crash catastrophically.

We’ve already pre-empted that concern through our character death mechanics. In order to acquire higher value Gear and larger sums of $AURUM, characters will need to work through dungeons with a chance of death.

When a character dies, its NFT is marked as dead and can no longer be used in game. In addition, unless it has special buffs or bonuses, the gear will be lost with it. This allows us to increase or decrease the character and gear burn rate to respond to market demands, ensuring that investors and players alike can always charge a healthy price for their characters.

How to Participate

We plan to launch $RAIDER, $AURUM, and the incentivized staking pools in the next week. These tokens are not launched yet, do not get tricked by any fakes that might pop up!

The links and instructions for participating in the launch will be shared in our Discord first, then later on Twitter. So be sure to join and follow if you haven’t!

At launch, we will also be airdropping some $RAIDER tokens to everyone who has a Raider in their wallet on Polygon. Be sure to port your characters over if you haven’t. And if you’ve been along for the Crypto Raiders journey already, thank you! We’re excited to take this next step in our adventure with you.

GLHF!

Thank you to Nateliason for working with us on this token launch strategy, staking platform, and for writing this post.