DAOrayaki | Defi Kingdoms a game, a DEX, a liquidity pool opportunity.

DAOrayaki DAO Research Grant

9 min readMar 23, 2022

Fund Address: DAOrayaki.eth

Voting Result：DAO Committee Yes

Grant Amount：130USDC.

Category: DeFi Kingdoms, GameFi, DeFi, NFTs & Collectibles, $JEWEL, Heroes, Axie Infinity, Decentralized Exchanges (DEX), Professions, Classes.

Contributor：REDKAZ@Daorayaki

Brief Overview About DeFi Kingdoms

DeFi Kingdoms is a game built on the Harmony Blockchain, with a whole ecosystem of features including a Decentralized Exchange (DEX), its native $JEWEL token and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) that consists of Heroes, Equipment and Kingdoms, all delivered in a pixel-based format. With its nostalgia inducing layout and smooth background music, the game aims to make Decentralized Finance (DeFi) safe and accessible to newcomers.

Overall look

One of the reasons that games like Axie Infinity seem to generate so much hype is because they serve as an easy to understand on-ramp for Web3 concepts. More clearly put, the best crypto games distill difficult crypto concepts using a familiar interface to give users a clearer idea on what the technology can actually do. The idea of a utility-based NFT as an in-game item that can be owned, traded, or sold, feels compelling. One game with a lot of recent traction is DeFi Kingdoms, which is built on the Harmony blockchain. In short, it’s a crypto gaming project that gamifies the concept of a decentralized exchange (DEX). Its native currency, Jewel, sits at a $1.1B market cap.

Since release, the game has shot up to the number 1 position on the Harmony Blockchain Decentralized Applications (Dapp) list, with a Total Value Locked (TVL) of close to USD$140 Million, surpassing other popular projects such as EnterDao and BakerySwap. While the game has upcoming features such as battling and quests, its current available features revolve around its functions as a DEX, liquidity providing and staking of its native token $JEWEL. Though there are currently 199 token pairs, the highest Annual Percentage Rate (APR) pairs usually involve the $JEWEL token.

The JEWEL token is used to purchase useful items and unique NFTs such as Heroes and Kingdoms in the game, as well as various in-game items. Not only is the token used in-game, it is also used for liquidity mining to earn more through staking. JEWEL is also a governance token so holders will have a say in the growth and evolution of the project.

Coming phases will release Collectable Hero NFTs with multiple utility cases (including PvP and PvE, and early unlocking of pool rewards) and the release of a limited supply of lands that can be developed and used for resource gathering and NFT equipment crafting.

$JEWEL & Decentralized Exchange

At the core of DeFi Kingdom sits the $JEWEL token. It’s best to think of JEWEL as a combination of a traditional crypto token and an in-game currency like you’d see in a game such as World of Warcraft. Everything in-game is powered by JEWEL. The community’s roadmap is governed by token owners. Proceeds from the token’s transactions go to developers, player rewards, and community funds. Buying NFTs and earning financial rewards require players to be holding JEWEL. It’s the lifeblood that powers the game’s ecosystem. Players can acquire JEWEL by either purchasing it via the game’s decentralized market (which is designed to look like an actual market), or earning it through alternative means. The token can even be staked in game to earn liquidity provider rewards, including higher yield JEWEL returns to be spent on more features within the game. None of these components are new underlying innovations in DeFi but the way DeFi Kingdoms has presented them to the user — as a game — is unique.

How does it work?

DFK is still in development. However, there are already fully functional features that gamers can participate in with the ONE and JEWEL tokens. ONE is required for gas fees during in-game transactions. JEWEL is the native token required to buy in-game items and complete specific tasks. Gamers have to go to particular locations or talk to specific individuals to complete a task.

DFK highlighted entities

- Marketplace: This is the DEX of the game. It is quite an important place since JEWEL can only be traded here. Gamers can interact with the “trader” to swap different tokens for JEWEL.

- Bank: This is where JEWEL can be staked for xJEWEL. The bank rewards you with a number of xJEWEL equal to the JEWEL you deposited divided by the Bank Ratio at the time. This process ensures that one xJEWEL always equals more than one JEWEL.

- Garden: This is the game’s liquidity pool where gamers can stake a pair of two tokens (JEWEL + Token of Choice) to gain rewards.

- Tavern (Not Open Yet): The NFT marketplace where gamers can buy their Hero NFTs to play the game.

- Portal (Not Open Yet): Once a Hero is purchased, gamers can summon their Heroes with JEWEL here.

Hero NFTs

Still being developed, Hero NFTs will be the central part of the gameplay. Gamers do not need a Hero to participate in the Marketplace, Bank, or Garden. However, Hero NFTs are required to participate in quests, engage in professions, and fight in PVP. Each hero has specific stats, profession, rarity, class, subclass, element, gender, and more. Additionally, Hero NFTs of a particular generation can be combined to create a new Hero. As mentioned above, Heroes are NFTs that can be bought in the Tavern and summoned at the Portal. Each Hero will require a specific amount of JEWELs and Tears (in-game crystals) to be summoned.

These heroes go by “Gen”s or generations, with the first one being “Gen 0”. 2000 Heroes were minted for sale, which sold out in 11 minutes for a total of USD$4 Million, with a further 50 being airdropped to early adopters.

They have special traits, classes, professions and can even come in a shiny version, which is purely cosmetic but implies a certain rarity. Currently, the in-game marketplace does not facilitate the buying and selling of heroes, but they can be viewed and sent in the Tavern section.

Game features

- EXCHANGE — Exchange tokens (including, and most importantly, JEWEL tokens!)

- SWIMMING POOL — Create a pair of LP to get JEWEL-LP and start mining in Liquidity Agriculture Pools

- GARDENS — Add liquidity to Gardens to unlock JEWEL token rewards

- BANK — Earn bank betting bonuses.

- HEROES — Enlist your heroes to defend the gardens and unlock your locked farm tokens faster!

- LAND — Buy land to build your own kingdom! Gather resources, build upgrades and watch your kingdom prosper!

- BUILDINGS — Decide how to improve your kingdom and show your improvements on the world map!

- EQUIPMENT — Create your own gear to give your warriors heroic power (and good looks)!

Tokenomics

As mentioned several times, JEWEL is the currency of DFK, and it is a native token on the Harmony blockchain. JEWEL can only be purchased in-game at the Marketplace. ONE token is needed to start playing the game and pay gas fees. For every JEWEL transaction, a percentage of JEWEL is portioned to be deposited into the bank to reward xJEWEL holders, added into the community treasury, returned as quest rewards, and funded to development cost. Apart from in-game uses, JEWEL is also a governance token for holders to have a say in the project’s growth.

The JEWEL token has a hard cap of 500,000,000 tokens. Among that, 10,000,000 JEWEL tokens were pre-minted and distributed as follows:

- 5,000,000 JEWEL: Allocated to fund the future development of the game.

- 2,000,000 JEWEL: Allocated to promote the project, including marketing, airdrops, etc.

- 2,000,000 JEWEL: Allocated for initial liquidity.

- 1,000,000 JEWEL: Allocated for bounties and hours for the founding team based on their work towards launch.

Team members

The 12 team members at the DFK are transparent yet anonymous. Team members have their wallet addresses, and social media handles are public. However, they go by nicknames such as Frisky Fox, Professor Tango, and Jericho Splendershoes, while no one knows who they are.

- Frisky Fox

- Professor Tango

- Xeno

- BeetleDude — been with the project for two months. First time on the stage. Been a blast to work on the project. Comes from a web development background and is mostly what he’s been focused on here. Anytime there is an issue that involves web development he is right on it. Many of the improvements that happen from our feedback are spearheaded by him.

According to the DeFi kingdoms official website the DFK team grew bigger and includes the following members:

Back-End Development

Front-End Development

Game Design & Lore

Creative/UX

Project Potential

With all the new projects popping up — it is hard to wrap your head around how one game can stand out from the rest. However, DeFi Kingdoms does just that, with a solid team, exciting potential gameplay and strong community engagement via Twitter, Discord and Youtube.

The game’s easy approach to DeFi also makes it accessible for participants who are just starting out that may be turned away by high gas fees and confusing interfaces on various other platforms.

The project also has plans to bridge to other chains eventually, which is likely to increase user growth significantly, gain investor trust and add more token pairs to the DEX.

From a financial perspective, DeFi Kingdom is leveraging the crypto gaming handbook by opting to sell a portion of its token supply in lieu of turning to VCs for funding. While this technique undoubtedly helps the team raise the cash backing they need to help scale the product into a full-time endeavor, it can be a double edged sword. The crypto space is full of plenty of investors optimizing for the quick flip, and the company might be building a community based on financial incentives rather than a true appreciation for the game itself.