Play2Earn has been making waves in the cryptosphere in the past few months with Axie Infinity taking the lead. I'm sure many people like myself are thrilled to know that we can earn tangible crypto-assets by simply enjoying a game and participating in the community. Gods Unchained's economy seems to have a bright future, and I'm here to give you my take on it. I will try to reference official sources as much as possible, such as the Whitepaper and official statements by the team.

Disclaimer: None of this is financial advice - always do your own research.

The Centerpiece of the Economy: $GODS

$GODS is the currency that is central to the game's economy. It is primarily given to users by playing in the game and participating in events.

$GODS Uses

Currently, it is used for forging (converting plain Core cards to the Meteorite class) and buying items on the ImmutableX marketplace. With just these two functionalities, the $GODS token fares no better than any other cryptocurrency like ETH. However, the upcoming features that are promised by the team promise an increasing value proposition for $GODS:

• Staking: Users will be able to earn even more $GODS tokens by staking. The $GODS tokens that are distributed to stakers are taken from Forge fees and purchases from the Gods Unchained store.

$GODS tokens consumed by The Forge will be allocated to the $GODS Staking Rewards Pool. These tokens
will then be distributed to all users that qualify as active stakers (see: 3. $GODS Staking Rewards Pool).
Gods Unchained Whitepaper, Page 20

From the statement above, we can see that the value proposition of $GODS staking is heavily reliant on the success of the Forge. Currently, using the Forge is not a good use of $GODS as we can buy Core cards on the marketplace for cheaper than the cost of forging. In the long term, I anticipate that the prices of cards that can be forged on the marketplace will closely match its forging cost. The team seems to have more ideas for the Forge, so we'll have to keep a close watch on this space to see the success of $GODS staking.

The Gods Unchained store is the first point of contact when new NFT expansion sets enter the ecosystem. The cards from these sets are then traded between users on marketplaces that utilize Immutable X’s Layer 2 technology. Involving the $GODS token in these functions is a key factor in giving the token meaningful utility, which is why 20% of all primary sales and 20% of secondary trading fees in Gods Unchained will be paid for in $GODS.
Gods Unchained Whitepaper, Page 21

The Gods Unchained store, which I suppose is the store that sells expansion packs, will also provide staking rewards to $GODS stakers. This stream of income is reliant on more card packs being sold, which is also reliant on the number of expansions being released. Current pack sale figures (US$10m over Genesis and Trials expansions) don't seem to suggest that this would be a significant part of the staking rewards since cards are usually cheaper to buy individually on the secondary marketplace. Perhaps this figure might change in the future if the team introduces new items to the store like cosmetics.

• Governance

Depending on how huge Gods Unchained becomes, people might fight for more voting powers in governing the direction that Gods Unchained takes. This is highly dependent on the success of the Gods Unchained game as a whole - see AXS, the governance token for Axie Infinity, to see a successful example of how governance tokens can become highly sought after if the game becomes successful.

Earning $GODS

Currently, $GODS can be earned in a few different ways:

• Selling cards and items on the secondary marketplace
• Through limited time events like Blessing of the Gods
• Through the retrospective airdrops

And in the team's roadmap, daily P2E is planned, depending on the class of cards in your deck. (Diamond class cards will have a larger earning power as compared to Meteorite)

In my opinion, I think the ways of earning $GODS are good - it does not unnecessarily dilute the token pool with random large giveaways. Instead, it incentivizes long-term support of the game, which I am a big fan of. Long-term supporters of the game are less likely to dump $GODS tokens, and they play a big part in supporting the health of the game.

Thoughts on $GODS

So far, everything that I have described about $GODS is nothing too special when compared to other P2E games - after all, the success of $GODS is driven by its demand economics much more largely as compared to its supply economics. So what's the key difference, and why do I think this is the key differentiating factor for Gods Unchained?

In my opinion, it is because Gods Unchained is aiming to be game first, crypto-game second. If you notice, the value proposition of the $GODS token is heavily dependent on the success of the Gods Unchained game. A game where players only play to earn and dump their token gains will not succeed in the long run, and Gods Unchained is, in my opinion, one of the only games that can stake a claim to being a good game that regular people will play. Regular people can play the game without knowing about cryptocurrencies, and they are able to progress in game without spending any money, just like any other card games like Hearthstone. This is the reason why I am excited for Gods Unchained and its economy.

I originally wanted to write more about the card economy in Gods Unchained as well, but I feel like that would require another entire post on its own. Maybe next time 😂 I hope you enjoyed reading my take on the $GODS economy!