The gaming sector has been relatively quiet since the Axie phenomenon during the last cycle, with no new blockchain games sparking widespread discussion. Market participants have observed that “play-to-earn” models, as exemplified by Axie, lack sustainability. A major topic of ongoing exploration for entrepreneurs and investors is how to enhance game enjoyment while still allowing players to earn.

Southeast Asia once led the development of blockchain games and attracted significant venture capital. A recent example is Ancient8, a blockchain game infrastructure that recently launched on Coinbase. Ancient8 raised $4 million in seed funding in January 2022, led by Dragonfly Capital, Pantera Capital, and Hashed. In June of the same year, it secured an additional $6 million from Makers Fund and C² Ventures, with participation from Pantera Capital, IOSG Ventures, Folius Ventures, and Sky9 Capital.

Teams that maintain sufficient cash flow and continue development throughout the bear market are rare, especially those that endure through cycles to launch their Token Generation Event (TGE) in the current cycle. What sets Ancient8 apart?

What is Ancient8?

Ancient8, a blockchain gaming guild based in Vietnam, initially aimed to create more economic opportunities through blockchain games. However, since September last year, it has shifted its main focus to the Ethereum Layer 2 network, Ancient8 Chain, which launched its mainnet in February 2024. On July 17, its token A8 officially began trading.

Ancient8 Chain is a game-centric, community-driven Ethereum L2 solution supported by OP Stack and enhanced by Celestia for improved performance. It is designed to address scalability and adoption challenges faced by Web3 games and consumer DApps. By prioritizing modularity, Ancient8 Chain reduces gas fees.

The OP Stack modular components include data availability (DA), ordering, consensus, execution, and governance layers, offering fine-grained control over various aspects. Ancient8 integrates these components to enhance composability and scalability. With full compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), developers can seamlessly port existing Ethereum projects to the Ancient8 Chain.

Reduced gas fees for on-chain interactions provide a user-friendly experience. Additionally, Ancient8 integrates Celestia to introduce DA-optimized modular design to the chain.

In summary, the composability, scalability, and EVM compatibility of Ancient8 greatly facilitate developers in building and developing applications on its platform

Game Studio Complete Suite

Ancient8 not only utilizes its Layer 2 technology for foundational support but also offers a comprehensive range of services for projects and players.

These include:

NFT marketplace Doji

Game launchpad Space3

Gaming community hub Ancient8 Gaming

Advertising service platform ReneVerse

Identity and social platform A8ID.

Unlike most Ethereum Layer 2 projects that provide limited support primarily in funding and technology, Ancient8 considers all aspects, including launch, distribution, advertising, and partnerships, facilitating the rapid incubation of projects.

According to data from its official website, Ancient8 Chain currently has nearly 1.5 million accounts and 1.724 million addresses, with an average block time of 2 seconds. The number of active accounts has been steadily rising since the mainnet launch, fluctuating around 20,000.

Tokenomics

A8 is the native governance token of Ancient8. Token holders can participate in voting, proposals, and capture the value generated by network growth. The token is also used for network gas fees and staking. The fund council plays a key role in promoting the adoption of Ancient8 Chain and its decentralized governance.

The total supply of A8 is 1 billion tokens, with allocations as follows: 32% for the ecosystem, 20% for the team, 15% for the treasury, 10% each for seed round and liquidity provision, 6% for the private sale, 5% for the public sale, and 2% for advisors.

In terms of unlocking, seed round, team, advisor, and treasury allocations will start unlocking after a 12-month cliff, while the private sale allocation will unlock after a 6-month cliff. Public sale, liquidity provision, and ecosystem funds unlock immediately.

Airdrop and Staking

Currently, A8 token claims are open until August 17 at 17:00. Eligible users include:

Holders of Hairy The Bene NFTs

Holders of Zone Nine NFTs

Participants of Ancient8 Testnets V1 and V2

Active users on the mainnet

Users featured on the mainnet leaderboard

Various content creators, badge holders, and ecosystem engineers

Users who claim and stake their tokens on the airdrop site before August 17 will receive a 400% multiplier on their points, and these staked tokens will not require a lock-up period.

Currently, Ancient8 offers two types of staking options for token holders. One is flexible staking with no lock-up period, allowing users to deposit and withdraw at any time. The other requires a lock-up period, with options of 30 days, 60 days, or 180 days. The more tokens staked, the higher the points earned. Additionally, the longer the token lock-up period, the greater the multiplier on the points earned.

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