Runi Confused?

The Runicore Whitelist sign-up goes live tonight and damn, it is hard to understand what is meant to happen. Sure, the post outlines what to do in regard to attaching an Eth wallet, but in terms of other factors and complications, it seems to be a hodgepodge of people in a discord trying to make sense of it. It is clear if you are on a PC, far less so for those who are using mobile services. Not only that, there is also ambiguity around other factors like how many can be whitelisted, whether multiples can be ordered at one time and whether there needs to be an additional Eth wallet verification at purchasing the spot with 100 vouchers.

Also, there are some answers to some questions being asked, but they are spread across multiple posts and platforms, with some information on Hive, and other bits in Discord. With 8 hours to go until go live:

These things should be clear.

Obviously, there are a lot of moving parts in these kinds of launches that go on in the background and they have to consider a whole range of factors, including the way users interact with the game, but *communication is key, and 13 hours after the whitelist announcement post went live, the questions in the comments section are yet to be officially answered, making it even more confusing as to what is going on, as it is all speculative, based on ambiguous information requiring interpretations and assumptions.

Under normal circumstances, I would be fine on my PC, but tonight I am unavoidably going to have to attempt this from a phone using MetaMask and the in-built browser, as it seems it isn't even possible to do through Keychain. Yet still, I have no idea whether it is going to be possible to accomplish, because no one so far can answer whether there will be a separate verification required - and I don't blame them, as the people who have tried to answer, are just guessing.

And, it isn't just the card that needs to be considered here, it is also account security, as this is happening off the Hive Blockchain, which makes me a bit nervous. I am using MetaMask for the wallet management, but because of the lack of clarity around the transaction process involved, I am unable to connect my hardware protected wallet and have to use an "open" one on my phone - which sucks.

I do understand the reasoning behind this release though, as it does a few pretty cool things. Firstly, it will get expose of Splinterlands playing assets on the Ethereum blockchain, potentially opening up for more attention and support. Then, it also creates a generative NFT, as there are something like 6 billion possible combinations of what the card design will be, making the 6500 available, each unique. And then, it will be a generated NFT that has playing usecase, whilst being staked onto the Ethereum blockchain. This opens up a whole new set of possibilities within Splinterlands, as well as other projects out there which can offer all sorts of innovations using a similar process, where players will be able to design their own cards and more importantly, guilds would be able to have "Guild Skins" that brand their Team.

These types of things matter.

Customization and options are highly attractive for pretty much everyone, as people like to have something that is unique, even if it has no practical value. This is why an original Da Vinci is worth more than a print, because no matter how many prints there are, that hand-painted original is one of a kind.

Each Runicore card is going to be "one of a kind" and this in and of itself has value, as while each NFT in Splinterlands currently is unique by the associated hash, each Runicore will be visually unique too and still protected by the hash involved. And, the Splinterlands team is opening up the design license on the card for commercial use, meaning that not only do buyers own the card, they also own the unique design of their Runicore, giving the rights to sell the design, not just the asset. While there is unlikely to be a large demand for this kind of licensing arrangement now, it is going to be innovated further in time and perhaps through Land, it will become a highly attractive investment area.

Because the Runicore will appear as a unique card in-game, it is then also possible to port other graphics in also, even if they are not Splinterlands derived. This could be huge, where for example, people will mint unique assets on their land and be able to offer them as "hand-crafted" in-game visuals. And of course, the more customizable the appearance of the guilds and their assets become, the more invested people get, as there starts to be competition of environment, not just in the game. For example, setting up unique buildings for guilds can allow for unique digital cities to be built, which in time, can evolve into parts of 3rd party, 3-D worlds - taking land ownership and guild participation to a new level of usage and decentralization of the experience.

As frustrating as the communication has been on this in the last 24 hours, the actual ramifications for Splinterlands itself are potentially quite big, if everything goes smoothly. With so many releases of various things lately, I wonder if the team is spreading themselves too thin and having too much happen at once. At least for me, there is no way I can keep up with it at an information level or financially. If there was a bit more space between though, I might have half a chance.

Still - due to circumstances, I get the feeling that I am not going to get lucky and will miss out on a whitelist position for the Runicore, pushing me to the open sale, effectively doubling the price. Will I still buy? I am not sure, because I might just be so annoyed by the process so far, I won't bother - but then again...

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]