Speed Reading Game L2 Chain Ancient8 Chain: What Makes It Unique?
The gaming track has been quiet for a long time. Since the last cycle’s phenomenon of the money-making game Axie, there hasn’t been a blockchain game that sparked widespread discussion. At the same time, market participants have realized that play-to-earn games like Axie lack sustainability. The challenge of enhancing the fun of the game while allowing players to earn money has been a continuous exploration for entrepreneurs and investors in the industry.
The Southeast Asian market once led the development of blockchain games, attracting substantial venture capital. Recently launched on Coinbase, the blockchain game infrastructure Ancient8 is one such example. In January 2022, Ancient8 completed a $4 million seed round led by Dragonfly Capital, Pantera Capital, and Hashed. In June of the same year, it secured $6 million in funding led by Makers Fund and C² Ventures, with participation from Pantera Capital, IOSG Ventures, Folius Ventures, and Sky9 Capital.
It is rare for a team to maintain sufficient cash flow and continue building throughout a bear market cycle. Even rarer are those who endured the cycle and only launched their TGE in this current cycle. What sets Ancient8 apart?
What is Ancient8?
Ancient8 is a blockchain gaming guild headquartered in Vietnam. Initially, it aimed to create more economic opportunities through blockchain games. However, since September last year, its primary focus has shifted to the Ethereum Layer 2 network Ancient8 Chain, with its mainnet launched in February 2024. On July 17, its token A8 officially started trading.
Ancient8 Chain is a game-centric, community-driven Ethereum L2 supported by OP Stack technology and enhanced by Celestia for improved performance. It is tailored to address the scalability and adoption challenges faced by Web3 games and consumer DApps. Ancient Chain prioritizes modularity to reduce gas fees.
OP Stack’s modular components cover DA, ordering, derivation, execution, and governance layers, providing fine-grained control over various aspects. Ancient8 integrates these to enhance composability and scalability. OP Stack is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers on Ancient8 Chain to seamlessly port existing Ethereum projects.
The reduced gas fees for on-chain interactions also offer a relatively user-friendly experience. Additionally, Ancient8 integrates Celestia to introduce a modular design optimized for DA.
In summary, Ancient8’s composability, scalability, and EVM compatibility greatly facilitate developers in building applications on its platform.
Full Suite for Game Studios
Ancient8 not only provides underlying support with its L2 technology but also offers a full range of services for projects and players, including:
- NFT Marketplace Platform Doji
- Game Launchpad Space3
- Gaming Community Activity Center Ancient8 Gaming
- Advertising Service Platform ReneVerse
- Identity ID and Social A8ID
Most Ethereum Layer2 projects only provide partial support in terms of funding and technology. In contrast, Ancient8 offers comprehensive support for launching, issuing, advertising, and partnering, helping to quickly incubate projects.
According to its website’s data explorer, Ancient8 has nearly 1.5 million total accounts and 1.724 million total addresses, with an average block time of 2 seconds. The number of active accounts has been rising since the mainnet launch, fluctuating around 20,000.
Ancient8 Tokenomics
A8 is the native governance token of Ancient8. Token holders can participate in voting, proposals, and capture network growth value. The tokens are used as network gas fees and for staking. The fund council plays a crucial role in promoting the adoption and decentralized governance of Ancient8 Chain.
The total token supply is 1 billion, distributed as follows: 32% for the ecosystem, 20% for the team, 15% for the treasury, 10% each for the seed round and liquidity market making, 6% for the private round, 5% for the public sale, and 2% for advisors.
For unlocking, the seed round, team, advisors, and treasury will start unlocking after a 12-month cliff, while the private round has a 6-month cliff. The public sale, liquidity market making, and ecosystem funds are unlocked immediately.
Airdrop and Staking
Currently, A8 token claims are open until 5:00 PM on August 17. Eligible users include:
- Hairy The Bene NFT holders
- Zone Nine NFT holders
- Ancient8 Testnet V1 and V2 participants
- Mainnet active users
- Mainnet leaderboard users
It also includes various content creators, badge holders, ecosystem engineers, and more.
Users who claim and stake their tokens on the airdrop claim site before August 17 will receive a 400% points multiplier, with no lock-up required for staked tokens.
Ancient8 currently offers two types of staking options for token holders: one with no lock-up (deposit and withdraw anytime) and one with a lock-up period of 30, 60, or 180 days. The more tokens staked, the higher the points earned. The longer the lock-up period, the higher the points multiplier.