Massively Scaling Play-to-Earn with Gotchi Lending

Aavegotchi
4 min readNov 25, 2021

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The sharing economy is arriving on-chain, just in time for the Gotchiverse

Play-to-earn gaming has proven so much in such a short time. The status quo of “own nothing, earn nothing” gaming is being disrupted right before our eyes, as players demand ownership of their assets, and compensation for their attention.

Soon, game industry show floors like E3’s will be completely taken over with Web3-enabled games with earning as a core component.

But to get there, we must address the core dilemma of NFT gaming, and provide a sustainable, trustless way to get NFTs into the hands of players.

Gotchi Summoner @gldnxross explains Gotchi Lending

The Problem with NFT Gaming

A core dilemma that NFT games face is how to scale their player base to levels of a “traditional” game, while still maintaining the scarcity factor of their NFT assets.

NFTs represent digital value, and an excess of this value without demand leads to dilution for early adopters. These same early adopters are also likely to hold far more of your NFT than they can actually play, so players won’t necessary have access to your NFT without buying them for high prices from early adopters.

Mint too many, and your assets get diluted.
Mint too few, and you can’t scale your game.

What’s an up-and-coming NFT game to do?

The Scholarship Model

The Scholarship Model pioneered by Axie, YGG, and other guilds has been extremely successful, and demonstrates a clear path forward on how to get NFTs into the hands of players without relinquishing ownership of the asset.

However, the scholarship model in its current form has a major drawback, which is that it relies on trusted relationships between strangers.

A scholarship program essentially requires an HR department to manage all the players and scholars. Hopeful players have to apply and advocate hoping to “make the team” and, in effect, be hired.

In addition, the scholars must rely on the agency to pay them manually at the end of each scholarship period — a process prone to error or sometimes abuse.

It’s unlikely that this method scales to the levels we are targeting for Aavegotchi and The Gotchiverse, which is why we’ve been busy developing our own approach!

Introducing Gotchi Lending

We believe it should not be cost prohibitive to play in The Gotchiverse, so we’ve taken inspiration from Sharing Economy platforms like Airbnb and Uber. Then we’ve gone ahead and supercharged the model by applying the benefits of on-chain security and trustless execution with our Gotchi Lending system.

How Gotchi Lending works

Secure and Instant Lending

The Gotchi Lending smart contract is designed so that Aavegotchis are lent with limited rights, so that a borrower can play-to-earn in The Gotchiverse but never steal the NFT.

The trustless nature of this execution means instant approvals and a robust sharing economy, backed by the security of the blockchain.

When you book a driver on a ride-share app you don’t want to know much about the driver; likewise, the driver doesn’t want to know much about you. The matchmaking is instant and centered around a few simple terms (starting location, destination, and rate).

With Gotchi Lending, you’ll get to decide how long you want to lend it for, what, if any, fees you want to charge up front, and most importantly, a reward split between you and the person renting your Gotchi (with an optional third receiving wallet, for Guilds or DAOs).

All GHST and Alchemica earned during the lending duration are deposited into an escrow balance that splits rewards at the time of the lending agreement completion. You can advertise your gotchi with a split of 80/20; 50/50 or whatever you think makes sense. A dynamic market awaits those who find the best settings for the right Aavegotchis.

Now Everyone Can Play-to-Earn

For guilds and individuals alike, Gotchi Lending offers a seamless, massively scalable way to lend gotchis to strangers all with the security and terms they are comfortable with.

For everyone who wants to play in The Gotchiverse this means they don’t need upfront capital to play-to-earn. Anyone is able to farm Alchemica tokens, craft gameplay NFTs, socialize in a lodge, and simply just “make it”!

Gotchi Lending is coming soon to an Aavegotchi dapp near you. If you’d like to get an Aavegotchi to lend out in the future, you can visit the Aavegotchi Baazaar for a wide selection of the latest models 👻.

How Gotchi Lending Works (in one meme)

About Aavegotchi

Aavegotchis are on-chain playable NFTs staked with Aave’s interest-generating aTokens (known as maTokens on layer 2).

Compete for player rewards by earning XP, leveling up, and increasing the rarity of your Aavegotchi fren. Aavegotchi is governed by the AavegotchiDAO via the native eco-governance token GHST. Summon your first Aavegotchi and join the future of DeFi-staked NFT avatars!

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Aavegotchi

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