MBDs- Monster Backed Dollars
I may have just created an actually pegged asset... Can we just shoot the shit for a second on Monster Backed Dollars?
What am I talking about?
Ok, I've joked about creating Aggroed Backed Dollars. It would be a commodity that would live on the blockchain and always represent exactly $1. We can't do that with SBDs at this point because there are a lot of variables in the system and shit is super complicated. There has been some debate over the reverse conversion, but it isn't pretty. There isn't a clear consensus on what to do with it. People want a stable currency because it's good for merchants. Bloggers want a high SBD because it's good for post payouts. Investors want a stable currency that sometimes spikes like crazy. There are multiple stake holder groups and they want different shit.
So, it's ugly, and the fate of SBDs are unclear.
Steem Monsters
I created Steem Monsters with @yabapmatt to just have a game... we thought this thing would do well. We had no idea it would explode like this. Yaba says he thought it might happen... I did too, but not alpha, and surely not before the intro post closed. We're nearing $30k USD! This is fucking unreal.
So, I'm going to increase the price per starter kit. I don't know when. I'm not in a rush. Probably after each major milestone I'll increase the price. So, next major one is auction house... when that's ready I'll up it. But the booster packs I have zero intention of raising the price on any time soon. $2 is fair. I'm not here to overcharge... but if that's a stable price point then there's some stuff we can do with it.
MBD
Let's say we open up the option to buy a large volume of packs. Maybe put in a discount to sweeten it some. Price of Steem spikes and you want to take it out of volatile steem, but you don't want to put it in SBD because that's volatile too, and you don't want to move it into an exchange because you're gonna lose some anonymity, and you don't want to cash it out to USD using coinbase because you're worried about tax implications... Maybe you're willing to use tether and Bittrex, but you also have some concerns about that.
Just hear me out for a second. We're building an auction house. What if you could buy 20k packs at a discount. Then you could hodl them when the price of steem is high, sell them when it's low, and now you basically have a hedge against fluctuating prices. Let's assume some buyers dried up... you could start unpacking the cards and buying and selling legendaries etc. You probably wouldn't want to do that for 20k packs... but it could theoretically be an option. The fact that we'd be making bank on cards would allow us to pump tournament payouts through the roof and that would keep demand for cards and the game quite high.
Packs become the new $2 bill. I'm just spit ballin' here. But if we have thousands and thousands of users this could be a way to lock a currency price in place and it's digital asset backed. How's that for a crazy idea? Wanna trust your savings to bulk purchases of Steem Monster Booster Packs otherwise known as MBD?
Just concerned about the inflation in packs?
You'll issue packs forever, and they will hold no limited uniqueness. The cards wont either, because the more sbd or steem someone has the more packs they can buy. They will then push the market value of cards down because they are not limited.
And if you are going to limit the amount of cards the value of both cards and packs will go up...
or?
I'm really concerned about this. I want there to be a cap on cards. Why not cap the cards that are out now..and then make a new set also with a cap. Continue to make different "seasons" like basketball cards with limited print.
The whole point of blockchain and gaming IMO is in fact the limited items. In regular games the developer could just drop items whenever thus making certain hard earned items worthless in seconds. The whole point of blockchain gaming is that there is a limit to the amount of items/token, so they do in fact hold some value. And this limitation secures the work and investment of the gamer.
I believe the cap of items is KEY in blockchain gaming. Or else you as a developer can just decide to listen to someone cry about how they have so little monsters and then decide to just lower the price or reissue a lot of packs. This happened in WOW if im not mistaken. And the old school players literally got fucked when all the hard earned items now were inflated due to the fact that developers dropped millions of the same items because of nagging from crybabies who did not want to do the hard work, but instead get shit for free.
scandinavian has a point...i AGREE totally with everything he says....@aggroed try to take into consideration establishing a limited amount of items...i believe this will add value to the game!!!
You make some excellent points there, I’m interested to see what @aggroed and others have to say in response. I got into SteemMonsters early and spent quite a bit because I like the idea/game but also because I hoped I would have an advantage by doing so.
Thanks man
I understand that the cards can have value in other ways than just being limited. But I think in the end there has to be some scarcity. We see what always happen when things don't.
I really hope they decide to cap it at some point and with the community help issue NEW model year/vintage year of cards. In that way they will also make sure interest is kept. Imagine collecting a lot of these cards right now. And then production is shut down. New cards are issued. What happens? First of all, investors and early adopters will love to jump on to the next model year of cards. At the same time those old cards are now scarce and are leveled up and many very unique and there wont be any more of them. These old cards can still definitely kick new card ass..but what will happen in the future? No one knows..Are these new cards better? bla bla..
So thats the general idea I hope they will look at. Find ways to secure peoples investment and make people feel they own something unique and that not everyone will get their hands on. Issue NEW card series with new monsters and summoners which will gain attention..etc etc.
I completely agree with you. I wait with interest to see what happens.
Pretty certain we will do some of this later. I'm not imagining it for the Alpha. We have to get a community here if we want this to be successful long term. I can't see limiting myself to how many people can play. For now card scarcity will be driven by combinations.
I think we need to make things like skins, and have the cost of skin be a fully leveled card. Again, to induce some scarcity.
You're right that some value will be brought by scarcity, but number of people in the community will also be a huge factor. So too will prize pool dictate value. The legendaries are worth even more if they can help you earn thousands of SBD.
I don't think it's as simple as limit cards = money for everyone. Lots of ways to make this baby work.
Thanks for the answer @aggroed! Good points
I agree with that completely. I probably did not make it clear that I was not proposing a cap on cards just yet! I'm thinking 6 months in, a year in. I absolutely understand your argument about community and not limiting people.
But like I said..you're not limiting anyone as long as new cards are coming out. If you put a cap on THESE cards in 6 months as a new set of cards is coming out you will not only help keep value and even raise value on the old card packs..but see interest in the new one.
But I'm sure you guys are doing a lot of the right things. I just wanted to make sure you are really thinking about this aspect. Now I know you are!
Hehe, that's a unique peg indeed. It will be interesting to see if anyone actually invests into unopened packs.
This idea is really good and no surprise alot of people already bought into it. With this one can peg its earning into an exact amount anyday anytime in respective of the volatile nature of the market
It's a very good idea sir!
You nutty, nutty people :)
Go for it and create your own SMT (Steem Monster Token) worth 2$.
Oh sure why not. That might even make currency fun XD
(I only have a very vague idea what you're talking about as is I'm no good at this stuff)
A friend of mind was telling about the game in msp 2 days ago, I love the idea already.
I need to get some packs no matter how little before the price go higher... Hahagaha
This will surely be great as the price of SBD has gone uptrend and with this, it will be really cool to get an asset that one can bank on. We need a fix asset we can bank on.
Will make sure i get my hands on this @aggroed
The idea of making packs as a "currency" is very intriguing, but you have some good arguments. Already has a name MBD :D
We have to consider that buying packs makes us dependents of luck, and that is a variable that traders don´t like to depend on... At least not me!