The 404 Technology of "Token Coin Duality" Provides Insights for the Chain Game Track (Part Two)

It has been almost a month since the last article was published, and the entire 404 track has been quite sluggish due to the adjustment of the market. Leading projects have even dropped to 5200U, and the K-line drawn looks like "the most dazzling local dog wind." Conducting investment research during the trough allows one to be less influenced by external emotions, embodying a kind of "even though I was halved, what can you do to me" mentality. Let's break down our thoughts into several parts:

1. Supplement to Several Basic Concepts

Before entering a few application cases, I would like to add a few points that were discussed recently:

1. The protocol of "coin duality" is unified under the "404" category. Therefore, whether it is ERC404, DN404, or the recently released BT404, they all use the term 404.

2. What are the differences between these protocols? To summarize briefly:

ERC404 was the first to emerge, integrating the ERC721 protocol and ERC20 protocol into a new protocol, with the highest Gas fees. The first application is the project known as "Dragon One", which uses the "National Treasury Queueing Rotation" mechanism for its blind box system. This means that whenever a user transfers a Token, the NFT that is destroyed in their wallet is placed at the end of the National Treasury's NFTs, while the new NFT generated in their new wallet is the first one in the National Treasury's NFTs.

3. The probability of the five colored boxes of a certain project does not represent the ratio of the total quantity. For example, the probability of the red box is 5.86%. This does not mean that out of 10,000 NFTs, there can be at most 586 red boxes. Instead, it means that as long as players try their best to refresh and transfer between different addresses 1 ÷ 5.86% = 17 times, they should be able to draw a red box. In other words, as long as you refresh enough times, you are certain to obtain a red box, meaning that theoretically all 10,000 NFTs can be turned into red boxes.

4. DN404 and BT404

DN404 is a new protocol based on ERC404, written by the author of ERC721A. The principle of DN404 is to connect ERC721 and ERC20 through a bridge, while still being two separate protocols, thus reducing Gas fees. Additionally, it provides other developers with the flexibility to define their own rules regarding the order of drawing blind boxes. For example, the treasury can distribute new NFTs without queuing, on a first-come, first-served basis, or through random selection. The first project of DN404 is ASTX, which has always been regarded by users as the dragon of the 404 track.

The BT404 protocol has just come out, and the focus is on adding an NFT locking mechanism. Once you mint the NFT you want, you can lock it up, preventing it from being accidentally destroyed. There is also a P2P market for NFTs planned, where players can choose an NFT they want from the P2P market when they obtain a token, and the transaction fees from this P2P market are divided among all NFT holders proportionally. If BT404 can really achieve the above vision, it would be the most suitable for blockchain games. The reason chain game NFTs have far more trading volume than profile NFTs is that they need to be used. For example, if a warrior opens two blind boxes and both are helmets, they will need to sell one to exchange for armor.

2. Several Cases in the 404 Track

The best thing about WEB3 is that when a new way of playing emerges, everyone can use their imagination and abilities to continue exploring, constantly innovating in code and conducting social experiments. Next, let's talk about a few cases that utilize 404:

Lumiterra

Lumiterra was followed up as a key research project in Q3 of last year, and at that time it was still a dark horse. The team has a good background and innovative ideas, focusing on a strategy that encompasses Defi, Socialfi, and Gamefi, which has garnered the interest of institutional investors. The investment institutions behind it are also very strong, and it has now upgraded to a white horse.

Lumi launched a new set of NFT based on 404 in March, called "Lumiterra Totem 404", which is quite innovative and engaging. Since this gameplay is still in the testing phase and the code has not been open-sourced yet, we can only provide an introduction based on various fragmented pieces of information:

1. This should be the chain game that has innovated the most based on the 404 concept that we've seen so far. The team is very creative and has written their own set of contracts, looking forward to the open source.
2. The idea of transferring tokens between different addresses to mint new NFTs has changed to only being able to mint new NFTs by buying and selling tokens (trading on a certain DEX), which can increase the liquidity of the pool while also increasing the project team's revenue.
3. The Lego mechanism that incorporates NFTs features three types of NFTs: base, top, and totem. One base + one top = totem. After synthesis, 2 tokens become 1 token, which seems like a "forced halving" of assets, but don't forget this is a blockchain game. If the income generated by the totem in the game exceeds the value of the disappearing token, then it's a profit. This model of enforced deflation can stimulate the competition between players and project parties.
4. The circulation mechanism of NFTs is different from the treasury queuing mechanism of certain projects. Lumi adopts a "stack" mechanism, which means that the NFTs that are destroyed first will be the first to be minted. Of course, this will also lead to the NFTs that have sunk to the bottom being unable to be MINTed. During the testing period, the project party made an adjustment to this mechanism.

Players who were fortunate enough to MINT the totem NFTs in March have already seen a 2-3 times increase in value so far. Meanwhile, Lumi will begin its second test on April 17, and the 404-type monster NFTs are said to be launching soon, along with a new swap mechanism.

Yuliverse

Yuliverse is a WEB3 social + location-based game that has been active for over two years, which can be understood as Pokemon Go in the WEB3 space.

Their team was also one of the first to try the 404 asset gameplay, launching the OG 404 asset in mid-March, with a total of 1000 units, of which 300 were reserved for Yuli's original OG users, 200 were used for the liquidity pool, and 500 were publicly launched through a whitelist.

Compared to the more complex Totem 404 gameplay of Lumiterra, the OG404 assets of Yuliverse are relatively simple. The project is based on the DN404 protocol, without complicated rarity and NFT synthesis splicing, merely serving as a carrier for the OG Pass, along with a coin exchange gameplay.

According to the official introduction, OG404, as the highest identity in the Yuliverse ecosystem, has the strongest rights, including the airdrop of the token $ART, resource advantages in the game, ERC ecosystem Defi Staking, etc. Although the details have not been announced yet, players who entered the mint through the whitelist early (mint price 0.2E) have already earned about 3 times (the current NFT price is around 0.6E).

The reason for choosing DN404 instead of ERC404, after discussions with the project team, is mainly based on two considerations: first, compared to ERC404, DN404 can save about 50% in Gas Fees due to the advantages of its underlying architecture; second, the project team behind DN404 is more proactive and comprehensive in supporting projects that adopt the DN404 standard, both technically and at the community level.

Overall, Yuliverse's layout in the 404 track is relatively simple, and it hasn't delved deeply into the gameplay mechanics of 404. It serves merely as a preliminary attempt to issue a new type of asset, intended to reward loyal users who participated early as OG and in the gaming ecosystem. With the mutual empowerment of 404 assets and the Yuliverse gaming ecosystem, there is more room for imagination compared to other isolated 404 projects.

BinaryX

Having fully experienced the last wave of bull and bear markets, BinaryX (BNX) has always been an active player in the chain game scene. Recently, BNX launched a new game called Project Matthew in March this year, capitalizing on the popularity of ERC-404. This game is built on the BNB chain ( BSC ) and has released the ERC-404 token MB4, which comes with game utility.

A brief introduction to Project Matthew:

1. It is built on the ERC-404 standard.
2. Determine the different MB4 IGO quotas that investors can purchase based on the number of BNX coin holders.
3. A total of 40,000 404 Token MB4 were issued, of which 90% are available for players to mint, and 10% are allocated for initial liquidity, with an issuance price of 0.05 BNB.
4. 404 NFT allocates different weight airdrops based on the rarity of the generated NFT, but it turns out there is no empowerment in the game.
5. By burning different amounts of 404 Token MP4, players can acquire the premium asset Land of Project Matthew (the lower-tier asset land can be obtained by consuming BNX), thus participating in Play to Earn and earning the game token MC.

Overall, the common assets of the new game are exchanged using BNX tokens (designed to achieve the purpose of consuming the main token BNX). The IGO of ERC-404 tokens also used the soft staking method of BNX tokens, fully empowering the BNX tokens. Therefore, the purpose of the game Project Matthew is to provide consumption for the main token BNX, similar to how a certain game provides consumption scenarios for the main coin.

The addition of 404 assets in the Matthew game feels somewhat abrupt. We speculate that the Matthew game was almost ready, just in time for the explosive popularity of ERC404 at the end of February, and then they awkwardly added a 404 concept. Therefore, Matthew's 404 is a direct copy of another project's open-source code, without any innovative modifications. Even the gameplay closest to the game, "opening blind boxes," has merely empowered different levels of airdrops, and surprisingly lacks any empowerment within the game, which is a bit puzzling.

Therefore, overall, the release of the ERC-404 token MB4 by BinaryX did not innovate at the protocol level, but merely added new games at the application level and a series of nested models, which is what BNX, an old player in the blockchain gaming space, is best at. After all, players have spent real money to buy the 404 token MB4, and have also consumed MB4 to obtain high-level assets in the game.

As long as you dare to introduce innovation, it's a good thing.

3. Can the 404 track take off?

Finally, let's summarize a bit. 404 is the only innovation since the beginning of this bull market that we feel can shine a bit. At least it has incorporated game mechanics into the protocol, and it can be smoothly integrated into the game economic system. Coupled with some characteristics analyzed in the first part of this article, we still have high expectations for the future development of 404. This is also the reason why some institutions that have researched NFTs more, such as NFTgo, are heavily investing in the 404 track.

The innovation of 404 is currently only reflected in application-based projects and cannot inspire confidence in the funding aspect from a larger narrative perspective. This is also the reason why the so-called "Dragon One" and "Dragon Two" are still in the stage of self-entertainment. However, upon further investigation, this round of the crypto bull market has, up to now,