ANN: ** CKG ** Crypto-Kingdom Gold

[ckgmanager]

Crypto-Kingdom is the first MMO RPG to have an ingame cryptocurrency. We use XMR as the accounting unit, and the game has already absorbed 35,000 XMR (10,500 USD) (0.5% of XMR supply) of user balances in the system. It is now going online with a custom gaming software, with the intention of gaining much more players and visibility and use for XMR and crypto in general.

Crypto Kingdom Gold (CKG) is a novel concept, it is an ingame luxury resource that simultaneously acts as the share of the whole game, and is entitled to dividends from the profits. After the initial emission period that has funded the development of the game so far, the emission will be based on the amount of time actually spent playing the game (Proof-of-Play), which is designed to disperse the ownership to the players slowly over time. Keeping the emission tied to measurable economic activity also serves to keep the value stable as the inflation is automatically lower during periods of low activity.

During its 4-month history, CKG has been actively traded in the ingame exchange and now is moving to a leading Crypto exchange, hence this ANN.
Type: Centralized token
Governance: Rules can be changed by the majority of the owners (similar to a share of a company)
Algorithm: PoP (Proof-of-Play)
Max Coins: 1,000,000 (Initial), unlimited (PoP)

• * Launched: 2014-10-10
• Game started: 2014-10-18
• Ingame Exchange: 2014-10-27
• Dividends started: 2014-12-21
• Initial emission period ends: 2015-3-4
• Major Crypto Exchange: 2015-imminent
• Online version playable: 2015-March
• PoP emission starts: when online version is released

The history of CKG emission, price and marketcap in the ingame exchange
https://i.imgur.com/NakZtBT.png

Emission schedule:
2014-10-10 to 2015-3-4   Initial emission period

1,000,000 CKG is premined according to the rulebook, initially 10,000 CKG/day, later 5,000 CKG/day (reward halving occurred in 2014-12-9), to HM_The_King character account. HM_The_King, a character played by "rpietila" in BCT, has a rule-bound duty to sell/distribute half of it during the Ancient Era and keep the rest as the King's gold balance. The methods of initial distribution have been giveaways, bonuses, bounties, auctions and direct sales. Currently (2014-2-24), 461,208 CKG belong to others than the King.

The initial distribution method was chosen to achieve the following objectives, which were achieved during the initial distribution period soon about to end:

1. To fund the development (the King has paid the development of the online game from his pocket, and the proceeds from the gold sales have helped a lot).

2. Make it possible to have an ingame exchange from the early on ("King's coinshop" has been operating since 2014-10-27, always providing flat rates for both buying and selling CKG at a commission of 5-6%, see graphic above).

Approx 2015-3-15 onwards   Perpetual emission period
Once the Version 4: Online goes live and playable (estimated in March, 2015), new gold will be generated to all players in relation to the time spent playing the game (Proof-of-Play, PoP). The emission speed is tied to how much the game is played, it is not a fixed amount per time elapsed, as with most coins. The formula is:

Daily emission = 0.025 * total_hours_played / ( (XMR/CKG) * (USD/XMR) )

The perpetual emission will only start with the release of the online version. It is able to accurately keep track of the hours played and also enforce a captcha authentication prior to any gold is credited to the characters, ensuring that only actual human people playing the game receive the gold. An example of how much the emission would be, can be given with 2 scenarios:

A) No growth. 50 people play on average 0.5 hours per day and gold and XMR price stay where they are in 2015-2-24:

Daily emission = 0.025 * ( 50 * 0.5 ) / ( 0.3 * 0.4 ) = 5.2 CKG/day (annual inflation of 365 * 5.2 / 1,000,000 = 0.19%)

B) The game achieves success. 10,000 people play on average 0.25 hours per day, with the success causing the CKG price to rise 10-fold:

Daily emission = 0.025 * ( 10,000 * 0.25 ) / ( 3 * 0.4 ) = 2,083 CKG/day (annual inflation of 365 * 2,083 / 1,000,000 = 76.0%)

Gold becomes more valuable when there is more activity in the game (explained below). The parameters of the PoP distribution have been chosen such that in the event of a major success, the time spent in playing the game becomes very large, but also the gold price rises because the rising dividends encourage demand. This curtails the inflation.

In the event of success, the early buyers profit of both of the rising dividends and the rising gold price, even though the dilution causes them to lose the absolute majority of gold existing. (This is a deliberate design decision, to keep the game ownership and power distributed to the players, and more players means more distribution is required.) In the event that success has not yet happened, there is nearly no inflation hence no dilution and no price pressure.


Governance in CK
CKG is not a crypto asset, it is a centralized resource token, representing a right to vote and a claim to the dividends of the Town, the central corporation character in the game, a role that is in most similar games held by the company that is administering the game.

Crypto Kingdom has no game company behind it, the highest authority to decide the rules of the game belongs to the Town Council, which is elected ingame by the gold holders, via representative majority vote.


Finances in CK
Crypto Kingdom has a realistic economic engine simulating the economy as it happens in the outside world. Players contract workers (NPC characters) to achieve output, and to do this efficiently, they need tools, machinery, buildings, land and other capital goods. Capital goods must be purchased, built or claimed, and this typically is an upfront investment. The workers must be paid daily.

The money invested goes to distribution pools which provide the returns to the businesses. As an output of the economic activities, the players gain money, science and culture points, resources such as building stone, and increase in levels giving them a more challenging and rewarding game with new possibilities.

At the close of the Ancient Era (2014-2-24), the daily turnover ("GDP") of the game is about 500 XMR (180 USD). In addition is the investments to land and buildings: the total value of buildings constructed during the Ancient Era is about 50,000 XMR (18,000 USD) and the value of land in the game currently is about 100,000 XMR (36,000 USD).


Dividends on CKG
The town receives a "tax" on GDP, which is currently 10%. In addition, it receives a larger cut on buildings (about 30%), new land (about 50%) and promotional items (up to 100%). Town is therefore making money, and this money, which in the standard case would go towards the game company costs and profits, in the case of Crypto Kingdom, is returned to the Town owners (CKG holders) as weekly dividends.

CKG has been paying dividends since 2014-12-21. The weekly dividend is based on the town surplus that week and has ranged from 0.23%-1.50%, making the average annualized gain (APR) = 54%. This has happened over the period of 9 weeks which has seen almost no increase in the number of players or activity. With an increase in either, the Town profits proportionately.

During this time, the Town has also accumulated and set aside a buffer fund of 16,000 XMR (6,000 USD) to be used for further technical development. The initial development of the game version to be launched now, is already fully paid.


People
Crypto Kingdom is designed by Risto Pietilä (rpietila). The general project manager "CEO" is Riccardo Spagni (fluffypony). Other prominent game characters who are also financially involved, include NewLiberty, Karl Hungus, DjJacket, David Latapie, saddambitcoin and smooth. The full list of characters, and in fact all the other history and economic information of the game so far, is public and can be found from the following link.


Resources
The game thread OP has links to all the resources.

[saddambitcoin]

Great news! I just bought another 1000 CKG to celebrate.

[rpietila]

The listing to the major crypto exchange is scheduled to happen when the Online version is released, or possibly before.

Since the ingame gold market is continuously operating, it is possible to buy gold already, which might be a good idea as the current number of owners is only about 80. Buying gold now requires the following procedure:

- Contact saddambitcoin (above) for registering your character to the game. You need to tell your BCT id, name in the game, sex and age at start (default=20 years).

- He will give you a XMR payment ID.

- Maximum amount of gold that can be bought at once is 3,000 CKG (~1,000 XMR / $350) but there will always be gold for sale, the price will just be revised higher (similarly King's coinshop is always buying gold but continuous dumping lowers the price).

- Contact administrator (in the game thread, or game IRC, or saddambitcoin, ...) to make the purchase.

- At present, all gold balances are public in the game database (CHAR tab, column "F"). In the Online version, they will be private as a default, although if your gold is in a form of a public item (such as a gilded dome of your palace), it will be public.

[jehst]

the daily turnover ("GDP") of the game is about 500 XMR (180 USD). In addition is the investments to land and buildings: the total value of buildings constructed during the Ancient Era is about 50,000 XMR (18,000 USD) and the value of land in the game currently is about 100,000 XMR (36,000 USD).

This is actually very impressive. There are very few altcoins that have non-speculative uses, but here with XMR/CKG we have gaming activity worth tens of thousands of dollars. Litecoiners would probably be happy to see that someone in the world bought something with litecoin once a week.

Question: How will CKG be transferred from player -> exchange? There's no private key, right? Is it done in-game?

[rpietila]

the daily turnover ("GDP") of the game is about 500 XMR (180 USD). In addition is the investments to land and buildings: the total value of buildings constructed during the Ancient Era is about 50,000 XMR (18,000 USD) and the value of land in the game currently is about 100,000 XMR (36,000 USD).

This is actually very impressive. There are very few altcoins that have non-speculative uses, but here with XMR/CKG we have gaming activity worth tens of thousands of dollars. Litecoiners would probably be happy to see that someone in the world bought something with litecoin once a week.

Questin: How will CKG be transferred from player -> exchange? There's no private key, right?

Thank you. A certain Prince in the game just ordered 2,000 XMR (700 USD) worth of buildings to be constructed to commemorate the ending of the Ancient era. The buildings are very work-intensive, about 25% of the cost is architecture work, so 500 XMR (170 USD) pays a lot of virtual architecture 

The number of cost & profit items that is calculated daily to get the "year change balance" payments to characters is 500+. Naturally the calculations and even the resulting payments are in the game database, ie. "offchain". With any luck in finding new players, we are easily talking about 100,000s of offchain XMR transactions per day (and quite many onchain, as well). This is more activity than with most coins.

Sending CKG will happen the same way how internet banks, etc. do it. Your signing in to the exchange website / signing in to the game, and the passwords involved, are the key to using it. Then you can just send gold to your game account->exchange account and vice versa. The CKG does not have a private key.

[David Latapie]

Crypto-Kingdom's logo, by fluffypony and his designer



You can also comment on it on the moneroeconomy forum
http://moneroeconomy.com/forum/crypto-kingdom-logo

True to my importance policy, a dedicated ck subforum will be created (and existing threads move to it) if there is enough demands (read: threads). Until then, you can create ck-related threads on the general discussions forum.

As a remainder moneroeconomy is the site for every ventures related to monero and his handled by the Monero Economy Workgroup (whereas getmonero.org is the official website and deals with the cryptocurrency itself and his handled by the core team).

[jehst]

Crypto-Kingdom's logo, by fluffypony and his designer

Nice logo. You guys have been very quiet about the online version. No screenshots or trailers or anything. I'm curious to see what it'll be like.

[rpietila]

Crypto-Kingdom's logo, by fluffypony and his designer

Nice logo. You guys have been very quiet about the online version. No screenshots or trailers or anything. I'm curious to see what it'll be like.

It will not be completely unlike the current version. This game is not graphical by design, we aim to create the early-1990s feeling remember?

The change will be that currently doing anything at all, either requires you are an admin and know the spreadsheet database function by heart and are willing to spend up to 5 minutes for doing a thing by inserting code rows to up to 4 different tabs, or need to contact an admin and explain what you want done, (and pay for it).

In the coming version, there is a button that you press, and behold - it happened! 

[jehst]

Crypto-Kingdom's logo, by fluffypony and his designer

Nice logo. You guys have been very quiet about the online version. No screenshots or trailers or anything. I'm curious to see what it'll be like.

It will not be completely unlike the current version. This game is not graphical by design, we aim to create the early-1990s feeling remember?

The change will be that currently doing anything at all, either requires you are an admin and know the spreadsheet database function by heart and are willing to spend up to 5 minutes for doing a thing by inserting code rows to up to 4 different tabs, or need to contact an admin and explain what you want done, (and pay for it).

In the coming version, there is a button that you press, and behold - it happened! 

When you said that the game would be reminiscent of Civilization (1991), I assumed it might eventually look like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/CivilizationAmigaAGA.png

[Ale]

Crypto-Kingdom's logo, by fluffypony and his designer

Nice logo. You guys have been very quiet about the online version. No screenshots or trailers or anything. I'm curious to see what it'll be like.

It will not be completely unlike the current version. This game is not graphical by design, we aim to create the early-1990s feeling remember?

The change will be that currently doing anything at all, either requires you are an admin and know the spreadsheet database function by heart and are willing to spend up to 5 minutes for doing a thing by inserting code rows to up to 4 different tabs, or need to contact an admin and explain what you want done, (and pay for it).

In the coming version, there is a button that you press, and behold - it happened! 

When you said that the game would be reminiscent of Civilization (1991), I assumed it might eventually look like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/CivilizationAmigaAGA.png

https://i.imgur.com/WgdjN87.png

https://i.imgur.com/I8BQZzM.png

[jehst]

That looks pretty good.

[rpietila]

That looks pretty good.

Yes, it is optimized for smartphones, 15x10 plots/quadrats per screen, just the right size that you can see and touch them easily. In the PC screen we want it to look the same, which of course is heavily pixelated 

Clicking any of the quadrats (the current extent is 8,100 quadrats, so there's some exploring) will get you to the main screen for that building. The owner can use it to try to sell stuff to you, or host dice games, or a tavern, or just a chatbox. 

[saddambitcoin]

I bought another 1000 CKG.

PS. After every 3000 CKG gets bought or sold from the King's Coinshop, the price goes up (or down). At this moment, only 818 CKG remains for sale at 314,000 moneritos each. If you think the game will take off, there's no better time to invest than the present.

[sphericon]

I bought another 1000 CKG.

PS. After every 3000 CKG gets bought or sold from the King's Coinshop, the price goes up (or down). At this moment, only 818 CKG remains for sale at 314,000 moneritos each. If you think the game will take off, there's no better time to invest than the present.

I'm interested in learning more about the game, and potentially getting some of the CKG. How would I go about either of those? Has the game been released yet? It sounds like there are 80 people involved in the game, but it's still pre-release?

[Mineotaur]

Watching.

[cryptodaknight]

So this project is very interesting. Is there a roadmap of how this is going to progress, like from graphical RPG to maybe a more indepth gaming experience for graphically, and or missions, quests, objectives, ect?

Watching this and waiting on response to get property, and gold. But would love to see where this goes.

Is it a work in progress approach, or are there set objectives as how to play this game will unfold?

[rpietila]

So this project is very interesting. Is there a roadmap of how this is going to progress, like from graphical RPG to maybe a more indepth gaming experience for graphically, and or missions, quests, objectives, ect?

Watching this and waiting on response to get property, and gold. But would love to see where this goes.

Is it a work in progress approach, or are there set objectives as how to play this game will unfold?

I designed the game originally in October, last year. I made a release schedule for about 7-8 versions, to be released in 6 week intervals. The version now to be released, with proprietary gaming engine, is Version 4: Online.

We do aim to add a very wide array of things to do, and open sandboxes, which empower the players to develop and do things.

We don't aim to add graphics. This will be a game of depth, a tribute to the games as they were 25 years ago.

The list of features were decided for the first 7 versions in the beginning, but still it feels more a work in process in practice. We change the course upon need.

[saddambitcoin]

Initial emission period ends tomorrow! Any speculation on the price of CKG?

I think it's possible to hit 1 XMR = 1 CKG or higher

[rpietila]

Initial emission period ends tomorrow! Any speculation on the price of CKG?

I think it's possible to hit 1 XMR = 1 CKG or higher

It is already at 0.46 XMR, up about 50% from the start of this thread.

The gold is reasonably well distributed among dozens of people. For an asset that only has a marketcap of $160k, the situation is quite good and especially fully transparent with every balance listed publicly on the character name with very few sockpuppets and "foreign investors".

The oldies have still not been eager to diversify, it's mainly only me selling, according to the rules I have to sell until I have 500 kCKG left.

My balance is now 509 kCKG, when the obligation to pay 32k upon the launch of v.4 is taken into account.

If you want to buy gold before the listing, it is possible by contacting saddambitcoin (above).

[saddambitcoin]

Initial emission period ends tomorrow! Any speculation on the price of CKG?

I think it's possible to hit 1 XMR = 1 CKG or higher

The oldies have still not been eager to diversify, it's mainly only me selling, according to the rules I have to sell until I have 500 kCKG left.

My balance is now 509 kCKG, when the obligation to pay 32k upon the launch of v.4 is taken into account.

Any insight on what you plan to do after you have only 500 kCKG left? It seems there is only 4k gold left before that happens.