Introduction

DeRace is an innovative NFT horse racing game platform that fuses blockchain technology with horse racing entertainment. This platform allows players to purchase, breed, and raise NFT horses in a virtual environment, and host races at their own or others’ racetracks to earn real economic returns. DeRace’s decentralized operating model ensures fairness and transparency while prioritizing player privacy and data security. Furthermore, DeRace has garnered support from notable entities like DAO Maker, Reblock, crypto.com, Binance NFT, and strategic investors.

In a 2021 interview, DeRace’s founder Adomas discussed his background, the company’s philosophy, future vision, and the game’s development direction. Adomas shared his initial motivation for the DeRace project and his passion for blockchain and decentralized gaming. He mentioned that DeRace addresses the demand for games with gambling features by combining video games and gambling elements. Most popular video games do not directly offer gambling services; instead, their digital assets are gambled within the game or on third-party platforms, with ownership controlled by the game creators.

Adomas pointed out that in DeRace, players will own and breed their racehorses, participate in horse racing competitions, and earn rewards. This design blends the competitive elements of traditional games with the transparency and decentralized features of modern blockchain technology, creating an entirely new competitive platform. Adomas also discussed how NFT technology is applied to the game to ensure each racehorse’s uniqueness and true ownership. Moreover, he emphasized DeRace’s goal of building a diverse and sustainable ecosystem that attracts different types of players.

The Video Gaming Industry Landscape

The video game industry is a rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar market with a global reach across all age groups and cultures. In recent years, technological advancements have transformed video games from mere entertainment products into platforms for socializing and competition, offering rich interactive experiences and new economic opportunities. As the gaming industry continues to expand, innovative models like “play-to-earn” have gained popularity, changing how players interact with the game economy.

The NFT Market

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have shown tremendous potential in recent years across various domains, including art, collectibles, and gaming. As unique digital assets stored on the blockchain, NFTs can verify the uniqueness and ownership of digital items, increasing their scarcity and value. Furthermore, NFTs serve as economic incentives, encouraging creators and players to engage in creation and trading within a transparent and secure environment, opening up new markets and investment opportunities.

DeRace Combines Video Games and NFTs

DeRace is the first decentralized horse racing platform built on blockchain technology, where millions of horse racing enthusiasts can purchase, breed, and raise NFT horses, and host races at their racetracks to earn profits. DeRace seamlessly combines the interactivity of video games and the competitiveness of horse racing, perfectly integrating these two multi-billion-dollar markets through blockchain and NFT technology.

Pitfalls of Traditional Horse Racing

Impact of the Horse Racing Industry

The horse racing industry is a multi-billion dollar global sports market with millions of spectators. In the United States, it is one of the most watched sports, and in the United Kingdom, it is the second most popular sport after football. According to Steve Elliot of Alltech, the economic impact of the horse industry is immense every year - involving around $300 billion and 1.6 million full-time jobs.

Source: Equine Business Association

Economic and Technological Challenges of Traditional Horse Racing

Although the traditional horse racing industry contributes significantly to the economy, it also faces numerous challenges. First, the industry has long been plagued by fraudulent and corrupt practices such as the use of stimulants, bribery, and race manipulation, issues that have been exposed in the BBC documentary “The Corruption of Racing.” Additionally, the operating costs of the horse racing industry are high and inefficient, particularly on international horse racing betting platforms, where fiat currency transactions are often hindered by slow verification and high transaction fees. Currency exchange issues for international transactions further add to the costs, especially when players choose to use platforms located in different countries or regions, creating another barrier.

Ethical and Moral Challenges in the Horse Racing Industry

With increasing global awareness of animal rights, the traditional horse racing industry is facing growing ethical and moral challenges. The sport of horse racing is being challenged on animal welfare issues, and high costs and geographic limitations are gradually shrinking its audience. These factors are driving the industry to seek new forms of entertainment, with virtual horse racing emerging as an attractive sustainable and harmless alternative.

DeRace’s Game Mechanics

Player Roles and Interactions

In DeRace, players can take on the roles of horse owners and racetrack managers:

• As horse owners, players can use $DERC to trade horses and purchase unique NFT racehorses, which can participate in races, breed, lease, or trade.
• Under DeRace’s “govern-to-earn” model, players can also own and operate their racetracks, hosting various races to attract other players to participate and bet. This increases activity on the platform and creates profit opportunities for players.

NFT Racehorses

In DeRace, a genetic algorithm (GA) generates unique NFT racehorses, ensuring each horse’s genes have unique random variations. This genetic diversity not only enriches the variety of horses but also adds uncertainty and competitive fun to the outcome of each race. The outcome of races is partially determined by random number generation technology (RNG), maintaining fairness while enhancing the realism and spectacle of the competitions.

Each horse has not only visible external features such as gender, color, shape, and breed but also hidden attributes that affect race performance, primarily speed and endurance. These traits determine the rarity, performance, and competitiveness of the horses on the racetrack. Speed and endurance are critical to winning races.

All data for each NFT racehorse is publicly visible, allowing players to inspect a horse’s appearance, racing history, and pedigree, all stored on the blockchain. Pedigree information enables players to trace each horse’s lineage and better plan breeding strategies to optimize future racing performance.

Additionally, DeRace introduces a rarity level system for NFT racehorses, with levels determined by the number of races a horse has participated in, wins, and activity on the platform. Higher-level horses command higher prices and are more competitive on the racetrack. This system incentivizes players to actively participate in races, level up their horses, and increase their market value.

In summary, DeRace utilizes blockchain technology and genetic algorithms to create a dynamic and highly interactive horse racing ecosystem, where the diversity of NFT horses and the unpredictability of races offer players continuous challenges and excitement.

Source: NFT Horses | DeRace Whitepaper (gitbook.io)

The DERC Token System

$DERC Token Information

The $DERC token is primarily issued on the Ethereum blockchain as the native DeRace (now zkRace) gaming ecosystem token. However, due to the relatively high transaction fees on the Ethereum mainnet, the zkRace development team introduced zk-rollup Validium technology to reduce transaction costs.

Additionally, the in-game NFTs were initially released on the Ethereum mainnet. By adopting zk-rollup technology, zkRace can now achieve more cost-effective transactions on Ethereum’s L2 layer while ensuring transaction transparency and data integrity.

Notes:

• DeRace rebranded to zkRace, aiming to significantly expand its vision and functionalities, and has converted its token from $DERC to $ZERC to match the rebranding to zkRace.
• The new $ZERC token will replace $DERC at a 1:1 ratio, keeping the total supply and other variables unchanged.
• The new $ZERC token aims to become the core of the zkRace game and its zk-rollup Validium layer 2 solution, providing higher security, efficiency, and dynamism to support the zkRace ecosystem.

Source: DeRace Tokenomics | CoinGecko

• Private Rounds: 28% (33.6M tokens)
• Liquidity/Privacy Adoption Incentives: 25% (30M tokens)
• Marketing/Ecosystem: 15% (18M tokens)
• Development: 11% (13.2M tokens)
• Team: 10% (12M tokens)
• DAO Maker Platform SHO Raise: 6% (7.2M tokens)
• Partners/Advisors: 5% (6M tokens)

Source: DeRace Tokenomics | CoinGecko

The $DERC was issued in August 2021 with a deflationary supply model and has been fully unlocked.

Uses of the DERC Token ($DERC)

• In-Game Currency: DERC is used to purchase horses, pay entry fees for races, and distribute prize money on the DeRace platform.
• Trading: All in-game horse and item trades must be conducted using DERC.
• Store of Value: DERC is an ERC-20-compliant token that can be traded on the Ethereum blockchain.

Ways to Earn DERC

• Breeding and Trading NFT Horses: Players can earn DERC by breeding or trading NFT horses.
• Participating in Races: Participating and winning races at the racetracks can earn DERC.
• Hosting Races: Operating your racetrack and hosting races is another way to earn DERC.
• Participating in Promotional Activities: Including sales analytics and predictions, referral programs, reward programs, bug reporting, and watching ads.

Benefits for DERC Token Holders

• VIP Early Access: DERC token holders enjoy various VIP early access benefits, including early access to platform features, NFT asset drops, and first testing of new features.

DeRace’s Business Model

Every transaction on the platform is subject to a fee. The fee amount depends on the type of transaction:

Source: Monetization | DeRace Whitepaper (gitbook.io)

DeRace allows players to earn revenue within the game through various methods. Players can own and operate their racetracks, generating income through hosting races, advertising, breeding and trading horses, and direct participation in races. This not only provides players with rich opportunities for engagement and earnings but also offers numerous benefits to game developers, including increased revenue, an expanded player base, and improved player engagement and retention.

Furthermore, DeRace plans to expand into the mobile app market, transforming the platform into a mobile game and listing it on Google Play and the App Store. This will help expand the user base, more effectively track user data, and create new monetization opportunities.

DeRace also plans to integrate with gambling providers, collaborating with online and offline casinos, horse racing streaming platforms, and other gambling businesses. Additionally, DeRace plans to provide APIs for horse racing streaming platforms and gambling venues, allowing them to integrate DeRace races into their existing solutions and offer exclusive operational rights for specific races to partners. These collaborations will further expand DeRace’s market reach and revenue potential.

Brand Reinvention - From DeRace to zkRace

DeRace rebranded to zkRace, with the vision of becoming a leader in the Web3 gaming space, providing a layer 2 zk-rollup Validium solution for the gaming ecosystem, catering to the diverse needs of players and developers.

zkRace chose to adopt the zk-rollup Validium technology to achieve higher scalability, transparency, and performance in gaming. This technology, based on the principle of zero-knowledge proofs, allows zkRace to reduce the load on the main chain while maintaining data integrity. The specific advantages include:

• Scalability: zk-rollup Validium can process a large number of transactions without increasing the load on the Ethereum mainnet, thereby accelerating in-game transaction processes.
• Transparency: This technology ensures that all operations within the game can be verified, providing a high degree of data transparency and enhancing players’ trust in the game.
• Cost-effectiveness: Compared to executing operations directly on the main chain, zk-rollup Validium reduces transaction fees, allowing players to participate in the zkRace ecosystem at a lower cost.
• Data Integrity: Through zero-knowledge proofs, the zk-rollup Validium technology ensures the data integrity of all transactions and activities within the game, preventing fraud and tampering.

The new $ZERC token will replace the previous $DERC token and become the core medium for all transactions and fees within the zkRace ecosystem. This transition marks zkRace’s expansion from a traditional NFT horse racing game to a more comprehensive Web3 gaming infrastructure platform.

Conclusion and Market Outlook

DeRace combines innovative game design and economic models, providing an interactive virtual horse racing experience and creating a diverse economic ecosystem by integrating blockchain technology and NFTs. Players can purchase, breed, and race NFT horses in DeRace, earning rewards through participating in races, operating racetracks, or trading horses.

Furthermore, DeRace’s expansion plans include developing mobile apps to bring the platform to a wider market and increasing user engagement and profitability through third-party partnerships that incorporate gambling and betting elements. Through its innovative game design and economic model, DeRace has proven its potential in the rapidly growing GameFi market, combining gaming, gambling, and horse racing, and predicting its potential and future development in the crypto gaming market.