Blockstars

What they believe

Blockstars believes that blockchain is the next massive, disruptive set of technologies that will enable totally new consumer experiences and fuel natively digital ecosystems. And just like with previous technology disruptions such as those associated with the PC, Internet and Mobile, the accelerant for the mass adoption of these technologies will happen at the intersection of Gaming, Online Communities and Social Experiences. But what will be different this time - what is inherently different about blockchain technologies - is that these transformative consumer experiences will eventually not be controlled by centralized corporations. They may not even be created by centralized corporations. No - what makes blockchain technologies unique is that they are inherently de-centralized. And that means that the best, most engaging, most interesting future consumer experiences will be owned, operated and directed by their respective communities - by the people who care the most.

Already we are seeing innovative and exciting experiments (and that is absolutely the phase of blockchain adoption we are in at this time - a very early, very experimental phase) in this space. Axie Infinity has pioneered the Play-to-Earn model, with huge communities of players earning a living in the Philippines, and now far beyond - the vast majority of the >$2B economic activity generated in Axie has been captured by the players. Vine co-creator Dom Hoffman's Loot project insta-spawned an entire community of amateur game developers, eager and excited to create experiences and game designs based on just a series of randomly-generated words. Bored Apes is an exclusive club with a blockchain-unique membership and social structure. CryptoPunks, Meebits and Autoglyphs creator Larva Labs is now repped by United Talent Agency, on the verge of taking mainstream pop culture by storm. And ConstitutionDAO got oh-so-close to buying the last privately-held copy of the United States Constitution by raising over $40 million in under 7 days.

What they're building

Blockstars is a deeply social, deeply immersive and deeply engaging music management simulation game on the Solana blockchain.

Why did they choose to build a management sim?

Because Blockstars believes that the management simulation genre, where the goal is to be a good manager, and the goal is (typically) to accumulate progressively more resources, is the absolutely perfect model for a game designed from the ground up to be Play-and-Earn. Management sims reward players for being strong economic stewards - but until now, those rewards have been purely make-believe. Now, blockchain technologies fundamentally flip the script, and allow players to actually benefit from the actions they take (or don't take) in-game, to benefit financially from "putting in the time" that so many of us gamers do with our favorite games, currently for "free" (in fact, we pay the devs for the privilege of playing their games!). While many (if not all) genres of games can benefit from what blockchain technologies enable (most notably, true ownership and real scarcity), we believe that management sims are the purest and cleanest genre of game to fit into the Play-and-Earn mould.

Manage the in-game economy well and reap the real-world rewards, it really is as simple as that.

Why did they choose music as the theme?

Because music is universal. Music transcends all cultures, all languages, all regions of the world - and we truly believe in a vision of making crypto accessible to everyone. Crypto and blockchain technologies are not (and should not be!) limited to just rich countries, or English-speakers, or those with particular knowledge of a specific niche. Quite the opposite, in fact - just like many developing nations leapfrogged landline telephone infrastructure by going straight to mobile networks, we are seeing the same dynamics at play with blockchain technologies. El Salvador has adopted Bitcoin as an official currency. Axie Infinity is enabling many Filipinos to earn three times the national minimum wage. Blockchain more broadly is bringing financial inclusivity to parts of the world where the notion of a stable & frictionless financial infrastructure previously seemed like a pipedream.

Everyone in the world has music - and as a result, we hope to make Blockstars as accessible as possible to everyone around the globe, and in so doing, be a part of making crypto mainstream everywhere.

Why did they choose the Solana blockchain?

Because Blockstars believes that Solana is the best place for game developers to build, with the best that blockchain enables, at this moment in time. Solana recognizes that games are the on-ramp to blockchain for the mainstream, a vision that we strongly believe in as well.

Blockstars could have chosen a layer-two solution on top of Ethereum, and the vast majority of the alternative partners we considered were indeed layer-twos, but in the end they choose Solana due to not only low costs, but fast & scalable infrastructure and, perhaps most importantly, a very supportive team. Blockstars believes that Solana is a partner for the long haul, and with our multi-year roadmap, that is what we need.

They also believe that their players will benefit from the technical decisions the Solana blockchain has made - for example, building on the Rust language. As Anatoly Yakovenko, creator of Solana, said: "This [Rust] is a language that is as fast as C, gives me all the modern type safety of Haskell, and it works." This could be said of the rest of the Solana technical stack as well - ensuring reliability and security without sacrificing speed and scalability.

By taking a bold step to create a new layer 1 blockchain, the Solana team enabled the community to benefit from learnings built on both first principles and the shoulders of past giants alike. Their DEVE team is proud and excited to build Blockstars on the Solana platform to help bring that future into the present.

Overview

Blockstars is a music management simulation game, in which players put together Bands of musicians called Blockstars, who write, record & release Singles, package their greatest hits into Albums, go Busking & Gigging, put in the time & effort to improve their skills and ultimately work towards the goal of earning enough money to start & upgrade their own Record Label - which in turn unlocks a whole new game loop in which players sign up & nurture the next generation of Blockstar talent.

Gameplay is based on the real-world passage of time, centered around the 24-hour clock. The game is designed & balanced to allow both experienced players as well as complete beginners to compete for spots on the leaderboards, based on a variety of factors that enables competition across many varied play styles (so yes, you can of course still min-max your way to a top spot on one of the leaderboards if that's your jam, but there will be multiple different ways to compete, win & earn).

Winners of Limited-Time Events across various categories of competition earn rewards in the form of $ROC, the game's main SPL token on the Solana blockchain. $ROC is used for major game actions (such as minting, buying & selling Blockstars and other in-game NFT assets, as well as determining governance structure), and is being designed to be resilient to inflationary pressures that some other Play-to-Earn games have experienced through careless economy design. There is a second, in-game utility currency called $ROL that is used day-to-day for basic game actions.

Blockstars

Each Blockstar is a truly unique individual, with a unique personality (modeled on the Myers-Briggs framework), a unique skill set and an (initially) unknown Potential Ability, which is unlocked & discovered through gameplay. The various personality types determine not just how skilled that particular Blockstar can be - but they also determine how compatible that individual Blockstar is with every other Blockstar in the ecosystem, and therefore how good their Chemistry is going to be as members of the same band.

Each Blockstar is player-owned as a unique NFT on the Solana blockchain, and is minted with a random, programmatic, pre-determined starting set of characteristics of varying degrees of rarity. However, unlike most other programmatically-generated NFT drops that we have all become so familiar with, Blockstars don't just have varying degrees of cosmetic rarity. Blockstars also incorporate rarity into multiple other facets, which have an impact on gameplay as well as how "useful" a given Blockstar will be.

Marketplace & Trading

All in-game assets, including Blockstars, Limited Edition Items and Record Labels can be sold on the Blockstars marketplace, as well as any other third-party Solana-based NFT marketplace such as Magic Eden, Solanart, DigitalEyes, Solsea, Metaplex and FTX's NFT marketplace (with new ones popping up all the time).

Every player owns their NFTs, and each in-game asset has been designed from the ground up to be portable across the metaverse. Each Blockstar will come with its own .fbx file(s), so that players can animate them if they so choose, and play with them anywhere in the metaverse. If players wish to use their Blockstars as avatars in another interoperable NFT-based world, then they should feel free to do so!

Gameplay, also, has been designed from the ground up to gracefully support transfers of each of the in-game assets to someone else, or out of the game entirely - so, for example, if one player sells their Record Label with a dozen or more bands signed to it to another player, then the game is designed to handle that scenario elegantly, with the new owner assuming the contractual obligations of the previous owner, at least until agreements are renegotiated.

Marketplace Actions

All in-game assets are subject to the following actions:

1. Place an asset for sale at a fixed price, for an unlimited period of time.

2. Buy an asset that is placed for sale at a fixed price.

   1. The asset will be automatically transferred to the wallet of the user who pays the preset price.

3. Place an asset for sale as an auction, with a minimum starting price, a reserve price and a limited time.

4. Bid for an asset at auction.

   1. When the auction time expires, the asset will be automatically transferred to the wallet of the user who has made the highest bid - as long as the reserve price has been met.

5. Make an unsolicited offer on another player's unlisted assets.

6. Accept, reject or ignore any unsolicited offers made on your assets.

   1. If an offer is accepted, the asset will automatically be transferred to the wallet of the purchasing player.

All assets in the in-game marketplace are represented in $ROC, $SOL and USD, and all transactions are carried out over the Solana network.

Governance Token ($ROC)

$ROC is the main Solana Programming Library (SPL) token used to perform the major actions within the Blockstars universe. These include:

1. New asset purchases & sales (Blockstars, Record Labels and Limited Edition Items).

2. Minting new assets.

3. Rewarding players for placing on the leaderboards of Limited-Time Events.

4. Paying out staking rewards from the treasury to players to earn passive returns.

5. Integrating the in-game economy with real-world economies via exchanges.

$ROC holders will be able to participate in key governance votes, such as the development roadmap.

Staking

Staking is a way to lock up your $ROC tokens in return for a high yield, and at the same time support the long-term success of the ecosystem.

When $ROC is staked, you are not able to use it for other purposes, but you will earn a yield. Staking $ROC allows you to support the Blockstars ecosystem and demonstrate your commitment to its long-term success - specifically, your $ROC will be staked to supplement the liquidity of the $ROC:$ROL exchange, which is what allows players to convert their day-to-day rewards into real-world exchange-tradable assets.

Gameplay Token ($ROL)

In addition to the primary $ROC governance token, there is a separate Blockstars core gameplay token, called $ROL.

The reason for having two tokens is simple - as any game developer who has worked on in-game economies with "soft" & "hard" currencies knows, in-game inflation is virtually inevitable, especially for a soft currency. Consequently, to avoid an inflationary effect on the primary $ROC token, the in-game, day-to-day Play-to-Earn currency has been separated out as its own token.

$ROL Utility

The $ROL token is used for all day-to-day activities, and is the primary currency earned for core gameplay activities. These include:

1. Paying for Concert Venue rent.

2. Paying for Building upgrades.

3. Paying for Game-Owned Recording Studio fees.

4. Paying for Player-Owned Record Label % Cut.

5. Paying Blockstars' Minimum Wages & % Cut.

6. Earning income from Busking.

7. Earning income from Gigging.

8. Earning income from Singles sales.

9. Earning income from Album sales.

Additionally, $ROL increasingly has utility outside of the game itself. For example, in late April 2022 and running into May of 2022, Blockstars ran a raffle in which holders of $ROL were able to purchase raffle tickets for $ROL. The prize pool was worth over 200 $SOL (~$20,000 USD), and resulted in over 7% of the circulating supply being sunk in a matter of just 2 weeks.

Thanks to the success of the raffle, we will be introducing additional, external, $ROL sinks to control for inflation and provide additional utility and value for holders.

Inflation Controls

Without controlling for it, inflation is inevitable, especially as the game becomes more and more successful (the more players there are the more $ROL will be in circulation). In recognition of this, Blockstars designed the game from the ground up to ensure that $ROL retains significant value as the day-to-day Play-to-Earn currency - in fact, if structured carefully, $ROL should in fact increase in value as more and more players enter the ecosystem. Here's why:

1. First and foremost, the development team is not planning to generate any revenue - zero - for itself from $ROL transactions. The sole purpose of $ROL is to reward players for their daily gameplay (the game development team will be taking a low-single-digit % cut from all $ROC-based transactions to fund continued development of Blockstars).

2. Secondly, to control day-to-day inflation, there are significant $ROL sinks built into the game:

   1. Every single $ROL transaction between a player and the game (e.g. paying for the Recording Studio fee, upgrading Record Labels, paying a Blockstar's Minimum Wage or % Cut, and so on) has a $ROL cost associated with it.

   2. Just like in real life, Taxes must be paid. There are initially two main taxes: Income Tax and Property Tax. Both are progressive taxes, meaning that the more income is generated or the more valuable a property is, the higher the tax rate will be, thereby also ensuring a more level playing field for new players just getting started and long-time players with maxed out Record Labels. Over time, additional taxes will be added as new types of assets (e.g. Land) or income classes (e.g. Royalties) are added.

3. And finally, to ensure that $ROL continues to maintain & grow in value, it will always be exchangeable in-game for $ROC (and over time, on third-party exchanges as well). As part of the $ROC token allocation, a liquidity pool will be maintained for the explicit purpose of allowing players to convert $ROL into $ROC at any time, in order to convert in-game activities into real-life earnings. The exchange rate of $ROL to $ROC will be determined by a variety of factors, but most notably by the levels of both tokens in circulation, adjusted for momentum (i.e. is circulation increasing or decreasing). To fund the $ROC:$ROL liquidity pool and maintain a steady supply, a % of the initial $ROC allocation, as well as a % of all $ROC transactions, will be set aside. Additionally, players can stake, for a yield, some or all of their $ROC holdings to fund the $ROC:$ROL liquidity pool.