Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: At the Colony, we are religiously building two things. One is top notch professional grade gaming peripherals and secondly, we are building the infrastructure that facilitates what we call click to earn. And this is where we leverage on cryptocurrency and NFTs to make monetization fun and seamless.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: We are moving past speculative projects and into a phase where real ip, high fidelity gameplay and sustainable user engagement are becoming the norm and entering the scene backed by very, very reputable players in the game.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: We also want to enable token holders to make decisions on product development because most of the hardware companies these days, they operate behind closed doors and if you go online right, there's a lot of like, good opinions and advice from the community.
But it's not an open community where, you know, you can vote, you can discuss and we really want to try to make that happen.
And it'll be a first.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: I see three major trends over the next three to five years for Web3 gaming. First one is token design revenue linked versus in game token utility.
Second one is Web2 licensed IP versus Web3 native IP. And then the third one is hardware and peripherals integration into onchain identity.
[00:01:45] Speaker C: Hi everyone. Welcome to today's AMA event with Blockus. My name is Andrew and I'll be your host for today. We're thrilled to have you all here. As we dive into the world of web3 gaming. Blockus is building the infra layer powering next gen Web three games, empowering game studios to build faster, reduce costs and focus entirely on delivering exceptional gameplay. This is the seventh in a series of AMAs where we'll connect with key players in the gaming industry. Whether you're a developer, gamer or Just curious about Web3, we're glad you're here. We're especially excited to have the Colony with us here today. The Colony is a gaming project that integrates Web2 and Web3 technologies, allowing players to earn rewards through mouse clicks. The project emphasizes the use of professional gaming mice and features a token economy centered around Ant.
Now, before we dive in, please make sure to follow us on egg, which is lockest, and LinkedIn, which is blockusgg. For future events, industry news and updates on what we're building. Feel free to share the space links during the event and if you have questions for Jess or Alan, feel free to drop them in the chat. We'd love to hear from you.
Now, let's kick things off.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for the intro, Andrew. So, a little bit about myself. My name is Alan. I actually come from a talent acquisition background with well over a decade of experience in that space.
So before working on the Colony, I spent the majority of my time and career building successful recruiting agencies and helping teams from different industries and regions identify suitable talents.
So that was what I did as my main career. Outside of my main career, I'm a pretty religious trader across all assets. But ever since 2017 I've been exclusively trading crypto and in my spare time, you know, I do a lot of sports, basketball, tennis, golf. I also have a very nerdy hobby of assembling computers. Actually me and one of my other co founders at the Colony, we got a YouTube channel going on building computers and reviewing gaming gadgets and yeah, recently I've been more into gaming myself because, because of building the Colony and that's a bit of my summary and myself amazing.
[00:03:52] Speaker C: I'm actually building my own PC myself right now, but more on that later.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Hey everyone. I'm the founder at Blockus for everyone who follow us.
I'm an old character in the lore. I've been in tech for 10 years. First seven working in tech, last two to three founding and building blockus.
For the first seven years I mainly really focused on consumer and two sided marketplaces with B2, B2C type of models where there's a marketplace that sits in the middle between different small to medium sized businesses.
So in Airbnb's case, the hosts of the Airbnb and in Roblox's case game studio sets live on Roblox and the consumer. So in Airbnb's case, the guests and then in Roblox's case the game players.
I've been building blockas for the last two, three years. Been a pretty exciting journey. Started in the dead winter of crypto right after the FTX collapse. That's a separate lore for another time.
And now to the pretty good market where everything is hitting all time high and sentiment is returning. So this is a really, really great time to build.
Outside of building block, I'm pretty tapped into building, building the company to be honest.
So I'm chronically online in all time zones, glued to my telegram and my crypto Twitter. That's probably something to be improved when I do try to, I do try to touch grass generally by walking around the city and I try to, to go scuba diving, but I haven't in at least half a year, if not a year.
I should probably touch more grass, but yeah, that's me.
[00:05:44] Speaker C: Amazing. I haven't gone scuba diving yet.
We'll start with a few questions for Alan. Could you Maybe explain the core goal and vision of the colony. And same thing with Jaz. Could you explain the core goal and vision of blockas for us? Maybe you could start.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe I can. Just a brief intro on what we're doing right now. So the Colony is the first ever project to create Web3 gaming hardware. So essentially what that means is we are enabling monetization of your gaming data with gaming hardware as the initiation and tracking point.
So at the colony we are religiously building two things.
One is top notch professional grade gaming peripherals which at the moment we have our sleeper mouse which made its beta debut already.
And secondly, we are building the infrastructure that facilitates what we call click to earn. And this is where we leverage on cryptocurrency and NFTs to make monetization fun and seamless.
[00:06:51] Speaker C: Amazing.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So the vision for blockus is to interconnect the open economy and how we achieve that is through our vision, seamless web3 gaming.
Every day we work towards making blockchain technology fully abstracted away from the consumer experience.
Whether that's transacting in game through stablecoins, GAS sponsorships so users don't pay, which is A standard in Web2 or better infra with fully abstracted away wallets.
[00:07:21] Speaker C: Amazing. Both very exciting projects, very exciting developments happening. So definitely make sure to have keep tabs on both bloggers and the Colony. We will move on to how do you view the current development of Web3 games? And I think this question is also very open ended, so feel free to chime in at any time. Would Jasmine, would you like to take the stage for this one first?
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Yeah, sure, I can kick it off. I have a pretty long answer about this because I've given this a lot of thought. Right.
I think I've been in this for two, three years, really seen a lot of the past development cycles and you know, see a lot of pretty much all of the industries, studios and players mid flight right now. And I think it's really exciting. And mainly web3 gaming is finally hitting an inflection point.
We are moving past speculative projects and into a phase where real ip, high fidelity gameplay and sustainable user engagement are becoming the norm and entering the scene backed by very, very reputable players in the game. Pun intended.
The tools are also maturing for Web3 infrastructure as a whole. So like I mentioned, GAS sponsorships, embedded wallets and compliance. Rails with stablecoins are solving key UX and regulatory hurdles and we're seeing traditional gaming studios cautiously enter the space. For example, sega, officially licensed is Sengokoshi Taisen Three Kingdoms War IP to a game studio to release on Oasis the chain resulting in the April 30 launch of Kaisen Battle of Three Kingdoms.
And the game is currently doing very well and it had over 1 million people wait list before its initial launch.
So they're drawn by the potential for asset liquidity, cross game economies and new monetization loops. And this is a great thing to see for web3 gaming to mature and hit an inflection point and have these highly reputable players come in and test the waters.
What excites me Most is that Web3 is no longer a genre, it's becoming an infrastructure layer powering new types of game design. Now, about the Colony in particular, what really stands out about the Colony for me is the custom mouse integration.
I'm especially excited about the potential for collaboration with PvP shooters like the Pubgs of the world, where precision hardware inputs can meaningfully enhance gameplay.
So a custom mouse that feels Tactile, responsive and web3 native isn't just novel, it's powerful. It evokes the precision of classic titles like Counter Strike and CS Go, where every millisecond matters. So the Colony taps into that tradition while unlocking new frontiers with web3.
[00:10:38] Speaker C: Amazing. Very well worded response, I think. Very exciting to hear about Sega's new launch as well for their game. Alan, do you have any thoughts to add on?
[00:10:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, Jess's analysis was very technical and factual, so you can tell she has a lot of experience in the industry.
My take on the current development of Web3 games is more on my own feel, so I feel like the whole industry is accumulating experience slowly and setting the stage for mass adoption in the future.
And there are a lot of positive signals. Right. So like Jess mentioned, there's legacy names coming into the market.
There are new platforms and tools that exist to help with Web3 gaming infrastructure. I'd normally like to rate how good Web3 games are by seeing how games can integrate Web3 features in a more frictionless manner.
Because at the end of the day, to me at least, gameplay is the most important in a game. If gameplay and web3 features can coexist with no sacrifice, then I think we're moving and we're doing well. So there are some examples of games that have been achieving this, for example, like off the Grid and Maplestory, and I'm sure there's going to be a lot of other flagship names that come into play that will nail both gameplay and Web three features at the same time. So when both of these happen, I think we're in a good spot.
[00:12:07] Speaker C: Amazing. I think the common point here to make is that we're seeing an inflection point, as Jess said, and I think that there's going to be an all time high and an increase in popularity in the future, in the near future. I have a few questions specifically regarding the colony as well. What inspired the team to create this project?
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Yeah, this is a pretty funny one actually.
I don't know if you guys have heard the saying that all great projects, they start from the garage or from the basement. So we actually started out in the attic by trying to put a gaming mouse together for fun, me and my other co founder. But obviously that didn't turn out too well. But eventually we got the idea of selling OEM Moses on Amazon and I think it was about wanting more and getting greedy. So we ended up making our own mold and making our own mouse and obviously after that we hit a wall as well because there are so many big players out there in terms of gaming hardware, the likes of Logitech and Razer, and without a gimmick or a special feature, there's really no way to penetrate that market. Just so happens that I'm pretty deep into Web three casually. So we thought about the idea of, hey, let's instill Web three elements into hardware. Can we do that? Hence we experimented with Click to Earn and luckily the experimentation worked well and it's a concept that we can explore further.
[00:13:43] Speaker C: Yeah, that's pretty cool to hear. I've never heard of a Web three specific, really any piece of gaming hardware. So I think it's pretty cool to have that as your origin story. Really. How does the colony position itself between Web two and Web three as a whole?
[00:14:00] Speaker A: Yeah, so in terms of Web two, right. It's very simple. We want to make, you know, quality gaming hardware. We want to provide, you know, another option on the table for gamers, but with a twist. Right. And that's as simple as the ability to earn while using your gaming hardware. For Web three, it's a little bit more complicated. Our positioning is all about pioneering the infrastructure that enables Click to Earn and making it fun. So if we have to talk one step further, we want to be able to track gameplay patterns in specific games and monetize accordingly. So that's something, you know, we're not at the stage of exploring yet, we're just exploring normal clicks. But that would be the end goal. And of course we can achieve all this with the help of blockchain, crypto and data analytics.
[00:14:57] Speaker C: I think it's really nice to have that sort of support for both web 2 and web 3 as well.
Speaking on sort of the origin story of the colony, what is the meaning behind the name, the colony?
And maybe if you have a story or maybe some core philosophy regarding why you chose this name, it'd be great to hear more about it.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: Yeah. So it started off like brainstorming. Us brainstorming. Hey, which animal are we going to use? Right.
In the beginning, it's always like dogs and cats. You know, that market is saturated. So we decided to ditch that at the end. We chose an ant because, you know, we feel like an ant resembles, you know, a strong community because they work hard together, they're small, but they accomplish a lot. Right. So we feel that that narrative fits us well. And the fact that we're trying to build a community hardware brand, I think that fits in really well. Meaning that, you know, the community, if the community works hard together, you know, we can sell a lot of mouses and keyboards and reaping good profits.
And of course, ants live in the colony. So we're calling our metaverse the colony.
[00:16:06] Speaker C: Pretty cool. Pretty cool.
If anyone has seen those videos of ants using themselves to build a bridge over a river or a stream or something, definitely check it out. I think very inspiring to frame it on community building that of ants. Blockas does not have a. Have a mascot yet, but maybe have one soon. We'll see. Regarding gameplay and player experience, what are the basic requirements for players to start using your hardware to start earning? Rewards.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: Yeah, so there's actually like, there's a journey to this thought. Right. So in the beginning, you know, of course we thought the requirement would be, you know, you have to use our mouse, use our, use our hardware and use our NFTs to be able to collect your earn. But obviously having a barrier to entry that high would be difficult for user acquisition. Right. So we're going to lower it. Anyone can play it. If you have a computer, all you need to do is download our software and you can start clicking with your own mouse. You don't need our NFTs and you can start earning. The trick here is, if you want, you know, a, an exponential increase in your earnings, then you would need to have our hardware or our NFTs to play.
So, you know, there's different levels but, you know, everybody can, can start earning immediately.
[00:17:31] Speaker C: Great. I think I, when I build my PC, I will get started on that too. What role does speaking on Adding on to your response, what role does a gaming mouse play in that experience? Experience. And what specifically are like, the benefits, other benefits of using your hardware?
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, the hardware itself is simply a hardware.
That's why I emphasized earlier that we're going to try our best to make quality hardware.
The meaning of quality would be, you know, the best chips, the best sensors inside the. Inside the hardware, a very strong mold that doesn't squeak, that's.
That lasts very long. Right. Those are the things that we pay attention to to ensure that we have one of the best mouses in the market. The Click to Earn part, the sleeper comes the mouse comes with a serial code for activation. So essentially, you know, once you purchase our mouse, you can activate through the serial code and after that you can, you can use any mouse to do Click to Earn. So to answer your question, our mouse is just, you know, a quality hardware in theory. It has nothing to do with the Click to Earn. So that opens up the door for everybody to participate as well.
[00:18:45] Speaker C: Great. It's really insightful. Thank you for that wonderful explanation.
I think we'll move on to the core gameplay of the colony. What interactions or sort of experiences do you have that help keep players engaged in the long term?
[00:19:03] Speaker A: That's a really good question.
Simply because, you know, Click to Earn. The name of Click to Earn, that can sound very boring, right? Because if you mentioned Click to Earn, you're just thinking, okay, so I'm clicking the mouse, I'm spazzing it and I'm earning points and that's it. Right? So of course we thought about this and we tried to make this more exciting. So we have crafted a game around Click to Earn with the help of our NFTs. So we call our NFTs the Super NFT because it's got some dynamic attributes like, for example, health, attack, speed, defense, etc. So I'll give you an example on how that all ties into Click to Earn. So if your NFT has a higher attack, it means that the points you make per click is more.
So if your health is higher, it means that your health depreciation per click will seem less compared to others. So there will be a multidimensional way to tackle the Click to Earn game rather than just spamming and spazzing buttons.
And these attributes on the NFT that I mentioned can be adjusted by wearing what we call equipments, which are also called NFTs. And the equipments will be acquired through a lootbox ecosystem.
So not only do we want to make like to earn fun, but we want to use a unique way to earn. You know, create a scarcity effect of our NFTs through equipments. There's lots of ideas to be explored but that's one way we're tackling the game right now.
[00:20:39] Speaker C: Fascinating. I think that, you know, having so many ways and possibilities to upgrade different parts of your NFTs is also very unique in itself. Regarding more on your token, how is the token economic model designed to balance players earnings and the project's long term growth? And do you have any mechanisms to manage any inflation or deflation?
[00:21:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So although it's not 100% confirmed yet, our token will most likely be a revenue sharing token.
So there will be two phases. There will be a initial phase just pre TGE or post tge.
Click to Earn rewards will be our token distribution event.
After that, Click to Earn will be the key that unlocks the redistribution of profits from our hardware sales. And the amount of tokens you hold will directly correlate with how much profit sharing you get.
So I didn't mention previously that we're trying to build a community hardware brand. Essentially what that means is we want to enable profit sharing on all our hardwares and we also want to enable token holders to make decisions on product development because most of the hardware companies these days, they operate behind closed doors and if you go online there's a lot of good opinions and advice from the community, but it's not an open community where you can vote, you can discuss and we really want to try to make that happen and it'll be a first.
[00:22:22] Speaker C: I think it's great to hear that you're taking so many steps to build this ant colony or this community and hoping I can also be a part of it, when I definitely will, when I will eventually purchase your hardware as well.
Regarding technology and Web3, which blockchain does the project currently use and maybe if you could explain why it was chosen and if you have any plans for cross chain or multichain support as well, that'd be great.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a really good question. Actually me and the team struggled with this for a long time.
We've been talking to a lot of, I guess, community members in the Web three space and a lot of them advised me to pick one chain because you can get chain support. But I always did see it that way because. Because I feel, especially for gaming because I feel like gamers are scattered everywhere. Right. They're on every chain. Right. And it doesn't really make sense for me for us to tackle one chain. That means I'm only tackling one specific gaming crowd. Right. So multi chain is definitely the answer. But for starters, we started on a couple of EVM chains. So we're on Eth, Avax and Arbitrum at the moment and we're just looking to go on as many chains as possible. We want to ensure that gamers everywhere have access to the colony. So that's the origin of the thought.
[00:23:45] Speaker C: Great to hear that players out there who are on different chains can all eventually leverage the colony as well.
And I guess my next question is going back to Web2 as well. For Web2 players like myself as well, is blockchain knowledge required to participate in participate in the colony and how do you lower the entry barriers for Web3 for these new players?
[00:24:11] Speaker A: Yeah, so I also mentioned earlier, like, I think frictionless integration of, you know, Web3 features, that's really important in Web3 gaming, or actually it will be important in gaming in general at the moment. You know, we do require Web3 knowledge to play Click to Earn.
You know, as simple as when you go to our website right now, you need to log in through Metamask and of course we're going to have integrations of, you know, different login methods later on. The key is we're going to eventually make it frictionless and make it easy for Web2 users to onboard. That's always like in the roadmap, whatever it takes to make it easy. So that's our end goal.
[00:24:53] Speaker C: Great.
Really fascinating, really. Thank you for all of these wonderful responses as well regarding abstraction and web 3.
Coming from someone who doesn't have that much experience with Web3 yet, I'm excited as well to try out the colony for myself.
Regarding future plans and development, what are the colonies short term and long term roadmaps and are there any key milestones planned for the next year or so?
[00:25:21] Speaker A: Yeah, so we actually just finished building out the infrastructure a couple months ago. Maybe two or three months ago we held a event called Freezes In One. Essentially we shortlisted a very small crowd, about 100 to 150 people to test out the infrastructure, test out the Click to Earn concept to see if it works and to see if we need to make any adjustments. So actually that went really well and we're tweaking whatever we need to do to improve and we're also adding whatever we need to do to make the gameplay better. So next is going to be preseason two where we're going to try to recruit for at least 1,000 participants to test out the next version of our application.
So that's in the pipeline right now we're preparing for that. And yeah, however preseason two turns out we'll decide what to do next, but we want to take it step by step. We want to make sure we do things right. We're not in the hurry to do a token launch and try to reap as much benefits as possible. We're trying to build good infrastructure for the future.
[00:26:31] Speaker C: Fantastic.
Hopefully I'll be part of that event too. We'll now move on to this question is also open ended, so just feel free to respond as well.
I think we talked about Web3 games. Paul talked about Web3 hardware as well with Colony. What trends do you foresee for development of Web3 games in the next few years?
Jess maybe do you want to take this one first?
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. So I see three major trends for the next three to five years for Web3 gaming 1 token revenue linked versus in game game utility token divide, 2 IP licensed IP versus Web3 native IP and 3 hardware and peripherals integration into on chain identity.
So the first one Token Utility Revenue Linked versus In game currencies we're seeing a bifurcation in token design. So on one side tokens are structured like shares offering revenue share governance and exclusive perks tied to game success.
On the other tokens are deeply integrated into gameplay loops. For example with Axie Infinity Stepn pixels functioning more like soft currencies so the market is maturing in its understanding. Tokens with clearer financial rights tend to appeal to investors, while game native tokens require careful inflation control and real utility to avoid collapse. We're seeing game studios start to merge more towards the revenue linked route. But we still see those who are following the existing path of in game currencies. Now I think there is a very legitimate both are very legitimate game designs, each with its own flavor of fun.
But I do see this as a major trend in the next three to five years and the clearance differentiation between how we think about token and its utility within the actual game, linking to gameplay or completely outside of it, mainly as a revenue linked vehicle and separating the investor and player crowd.
Second thing I see is major theme is web 2 licensed IP versus web 3 native IP.
So a wave of licensed web 2 IPs are entering the space as I mentioned from Sega's Sagokushi Taikan to Maplestory Universe. So these bring brand trust and pre built audiences but must overcome integration challenges which is what Blockus is here for. Meanwhile, web3 native IPs like Axie and Pixel continue to evolve with lore and on chain mechanics from day one. So the limitation and consideration for each differs and will likely witness different infrastack as well as token design pairing appear based on the IP's identity and DNA. Based on the DNA most likely I would predict that Web2 licensed IPs will pair well with the revenue linked only Tokenomics Design and Web3 native IPs will continue with the in game currency route. That's tightly linked with gameplay.
But we'll see over a long enough time horizon we'll likely see hybrid models emerge where web3 native franchises partner with traditional studios for cross cross hibernation and cross growth and the tokenomics also to emerge. But that's going to take a couple of iterations and with gaming titles every title takes some time to develop and design. So this is probably a three to five year thing that's in the works.
The third theme I see is the hardware and peripheral integration into on chain identity. So I do think the next frontier for web3 gaming is hardware, especially peripherals becoming part of the on chain experience.
So we first saw glass glimpses of this was Stepn where real world movement and phone sensors connected on chain through sort of shoes like making steps, right. And you know this is where your hardware, you know, real life experience is tying in with your on chain activity and identity. So the next natural evolution is in everyday gaming hardware. Your mice, keyboards, headsets and even chairs.
So these aren't just input devices, they're extensions of player identity and performance.
As these peripherals start to interact with wallets and gameplay data, they open up a new layer of verifiable skill, exclusive drops and physical to Digital sync in web3gaming. I think projects like the Colony are a pioneering start and this opens the door to physical digital sync.
We're thinking of verified stats, exclusive item dropped based on gameplay patterns or even earning mechanisms tied to real world use. It's a new category of immersion that bridges tactile input and web3 ownership. So sum it up. I see three major trends over the next three to five years for web3 gaming. First one is token design revenue linked versus in game token utility. Second one is web2 licensed IP versus web3 native IP. And then the third one is hardware and peripherals integration into onchain identity.
[00:32:19] Speaker C: Thank you, very insightful.
Alan, do you have anything to add on to for this question?
[00:32:27] Speaker A: No, actually that answer by Jess was very, very technical and very informative.
I think maybe I'll answer it in a more maybe like A gamer's perspective. Right. So what I want to see is good games out there utilizing the Web3 infrastructure. Right. So when off the Grid first came out, I think that was when I thought, oh my God, the industry has taken the next step forward because web3 gaming has barely actually has never had a AAA level game come on board. Right. So that was like I think was the first one.
So it's a game that I would play right. Regardless if it's Web3 or not. And we want to see more of that coming right.
From really strong studios. Right. So that's how I judge where web3 gaming is going. If we have more games like off the Grid coming, you know, this year, next year, it shows that, you know, you, we're getting somewhere and the industry is evolving.
[00:33:31] Speaker C: Definitely. I think the, the hype is always, seems like it's always increasing right now.
So thank you for those very well worded responses, Jess and Alan.
We'll move on to answering any questions that you may have. So feel free to drop them in the chat or in this X thread.
We have one from Vast Block. Bringing Web3 to gaming hardware is an exciting step.
What challenges do you foresee in scaling this for mass adoption? And I think this question is addressed for you, Alan.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean like I mentioned, you know, many times, I think, you know, frictionless integration, right. With of Web3 features, that's very important.
It's easier said than done. So that must be a focus to achieve mass adoption. And you know, second is, you know, it's as simple as, you know, you know, just getting the hardware out there and making sure that people know about it.
That's also and always a challenge. Right. It's not easy to, you know, just you know, build a hardware and you're going to expect a million people to, to use it. That's not the case.
So that will always remain to be the number one challenge. Web two or Web three.
[00:34:44] Speaker C: Great. Thank you so much for answering.
It looks like that's it. So we'll move on to closing. Before we wrap up though, a huge thank you again to Jess and Alan for joining us tonight and sharing their insights into the future of Web3 gaming. From the project's origin to its unique blend of skill based gameplay, Token economics and Web3 integration. We've seen how the Colony is bridging the gap between web 2 and web 3 gaming.
Whether it's lowering barriers for new players, introducing on chain features or shaping a strong community driven future. Tonight's discussion really showed just how ambitious and thoughtful the Calling's vision really is.
To everyone who tuned in, thank you for being part of this conversation and to stay updated, feel free to follow us. Block Us on x, which is blockus, and LinkedIn, which is blockusgg. More events and exciting updates are coming soon, and as a quick reminder, we'll release the full audio of this anime as a podcast on our Twitter. So please make sure you're following us and follow our guests Jess and Alan for more great content. Thank you.
[00:36:02] Speaker A: Sa Ram Sam Sa.
