DeGa Labs Building an Avalanche Subnet for their Latest GameFi Project

DeGa Labs, the blockchain software development company building the Web3 economy, is now creating an Avalanche subnet called PirateVerse Chain for their GameFi project – PirateVerse to run on. 

Avalanche blockchain is a popular layer 1 competitor known for its low-cost and fast transaction processing time. This open-source platform is used for launching decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and enterprise blockchain deployments in one interoperable, scalable ecosystem.

Already, hundreds of DApps are currently building on Avalanche, and at the peak of the market activity, it amassed a total of $13.7 billion in assets, according to DeFi Lama. On Avalanche, developers can create applications and custom blockchain networks with complex rulesets either on private or public subnets.

Avalanche basically features three built-in blockchains, viz. Exchange Chain (X-Chain), Platform Chain (P-Chain), and Contract Chain (C-Chain) — all of which are validated and secured by the Primary Network. The Primary Network is a unique subnet, and all members of all custom subnets are required to be a member of it, which can be achieved by staking a certain amount of AVAX.

DeGa Labs is taking advantage of Avalanche’s ability to create sub-networks as it enables a vast ecosystem of scalable, app-specific blockchains to thrive, including DeFi and NFTs. While Avalanche is an L1, its subnets allow for richer functionality, much like an L2 but far superior as it is decentralized and built for efficient scaling.

Building Subnets 

Scaling continues to be an essential issue in the cryptocurrency industry as networks cater to the millions of new users entering the space. Ethereum’s high gas fees and Solana’s outages further call for the need for scaling solutions, especially for the future of DeFi. 

Here, Avalanche takes a unique approach with subnets, diverting away traffic that would otherwise congest its main chain. By simply building on top of the existing Avalanche Network, Subnets optimize traffic using a native token for gas.

A subnetwork or subnet is basically a dynamic set of validators working together to achieve consensus on the state of a set of blockchains. 

Each blockchain is actually validated by one subnet. A subnet, meanwhile, can validate many blockchains, while a node may be a member of many subnets. A subnet further manages its own membership and may even set validator requirements such as passing KYC/AML checks, holding a certain license, and being located in a given country. Application-specific conditions like large amounts of RAM or CPU power to prevent low performance can also be set for validators.

The architecture of Avalanche’s subnet makes regulatory compliance manageable. By creating subnets where only specific validators can join, Avalanche will enable organizations to keep information private and reduce the burden on validators by only focusing on those blockchains that they care about.

When it comes to Virtual Machines (VM), which define the application-level logic of a blockchain, Avalanche does it all behind the scenes so that builders can focus on just building their applications.

Unlike Ethereum VM (EVM), which has low performance and imposes restrictions on smart contract developers, Avalanche VMs (AVMs) make defining a blockchain-based decentralized application easy. 

Moreover, Ethereum requires working with a limited, new, and unfamiliar language like Solidity. At the same time, developers can write VMs in Go with other languages that will be supported in the future.

P2E Adventure Game

This year, the Avalanche Foundation announced a 4 million AVAX or $290 million incentive program to help develop subnets. With the “Avalanche Multiverse” program, they intend to grow its subnets and expand use cases. Everyone can function on Avalanche without congesting their main network from DeFi, games, and NFTs to institutional blockchains.

Many projects like Crabada and Camelot are launching their own subnets, including DeGa Labs called PirateVerse Chain. The subnet is for their NFT play-to-earn (P2E) game – PirateVerse. 

Built by NFT Games Studio Tazo Games, PirateVerse is a fantasy adventure game where players battle it out in epic PvP arena-style pirate ship combat as they compete for ocean superiority and treasure. Warfare is waged with customizable NFT pirate ships, which can be upgraded with new weapons, items, and abilities gained through the play and conquest of other pirates and their territories.

The spoils of the game go to the winner in the form of in-game PVG tokens. Users of the game also get to earn while offline and continue to reap the rewards with only a single investment.

Every asset in the game is an NFT, each having unique features and attributes and real-world value. By utilizing blockchain technology and NFT marketplaces, PirateVerse enables decentralized, self-governing asset ownership. 

The Big Plans

This past year, GameFi became one of the hottest sectors in crypto, where users earn money just by playing a video game. It involves real in-game currency and assets, including the characters, outfits, and weapons, which can be bought and sold in the real world. 

The nascent GameFi is unlike the currently popular video games, which are housed on centralized servers owned by a gaming company. In traditional video games, players have no actual ownership of the items accumulated. It has no real value in the outside world either. 

Today, GameFi is one of the fastest-growing segments in the video game industry. It leverages the power of decentralization by relying on blockchain technology. So, what’s so special about GameFi? It is a blend of “game” and “finance,” which involves blockchain games that offer economic incentives to play them. As such, the games have their own model and game economy. 

DeGa Labs is focused on building this future which involves new monetization opportunities and taking crypto mainstream by incubating and investing in promising GameFi and Web3 and DeFi projects. 

PirateVerse Chain is already progressing in this direction, having worked on its mechanism involving a PVF token. Users use this token for in-game experience, gas fees, and in-game earning, such as receiving tokens through rewards. PirateVerse will also reward those dApps that run on its chain and have the highest number of users. 

Validators of the network further stake PVF tokens and receive rewards in return. PirateVerse is estimated to have 11-13 validators in their subnet. This mechanism ensures a block time of 3 seconds and gas fees to cost as low as 0.0001 USDT.

The team has decided on Q2 2022 to launch PirateVerse Chain’s testnet, and the mainnet is anticipated to go live in the subsequent quarter. For now, the project has launched an in-house Blockchain Explorer called PirateScan and an AMA DEX PirateSwap, and a bridge.