Foreword

Hey, whatsup guys! I’m an entrepreneur that’s been casually following the blockchain/DLT space since 2015. I’m a big believer of the technology and think that what we’re going through right now is a truly unique time in human history.

A few months ago, I decided that it’s time I take this interest more seriously and immerse myself in the ecosystem. As many newcomers may be able to relate, learning about the insane number of opportunities that the blockchain ecosystem has to offer has been both exhilarating as well as a little disorienting.

I want to help newcomers by starting a “Beginner’s Guide” series. Most of the posts in this series will focus on monetization models and opportunities, but depending on your comments, I may also include some more general fundamental topics for people starting with zero knowledge on blockchain/DLT. But for now, I present the first of the series:

Beginner’s Guide to DeRace (Part I)

Lifestyle Type: #Gaming #Staking #NFT #Blockchain

Disclaimer: My posts will have an obvious bullish bias. However, this is NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE and you should always conduct your own research before investing your money. Information for this post is mostly gathered from DeRace Whitepaper (https://derace.gitbook.io/derace/)

Introduction

Let’s start our first Beginner’s Guide with a huge opportunity right now: DeRace. In case you don’t know what DeRace is at all: DeRace is a virtual NFT horse racing game similar to the immensely successful Zed Run game where you buy and sell “digital horses” to breed and race.

But DeRace takes things to the next level by creating an entire metaverse (or player ecosystem) for horse racing. Unlike Zed Run, where the opportunities for players to earn are quite limited, DeRace introduces several new gameplay mechanics and concepts to allow players to create many different strategies and approaches for monetization.

This post will provide an easy-to-digest breakdown of the DeRace metaverse, as well as highlighting some potential monetization opportunities.

DeRace Coin (DERC) Token

The first concept you need to know is DERC – this is the currency used in the DeRace metaverse. It is an ERC20-compliant cryptographic token, meaning it can be traded on the Ethereum Blockchain. All transactions in the DeRace metaverse are made exclusively in DERC, including: bets, races, winnings, horses, and trading.

I am very excited about DERC due to the high utility of the token, but also because there is a proven market demand for digital horse racing (as shown by Zed Run). The high utility should guarantee a constantly high volume and circulating supply, while the market demand for digital horse racing should create plenty of token liquidity.

Playbook:

Buy & Hold DERC

This is the simplest and lowest commitment method to get some exposure into DeRace right now. All you need to do is buy and hold DERC.

To check the current price and historical performance of DERC, you can use TradingView.

When I wrote this post, DERC had quite a big price leap compared to the last few week’s moving average. I suspect that the price leaps are strongly correlated to the DeRace team steadily ramping up and releasing more features to the public (see: DeRace Horse NFT below).

You can buy DERC right now at Uniswap

Stake & Earn DERC

If you are bullish and are looking for more committed opportunities for DERC, currently DeRace is offering Liquidity Pool Staking for USDC-DERC pair.

If you are new to LP Staking, it can be summarized as adding funds (in the form of your cryptocurrency) in to a liquidity pool in exchange for earning fees. In this case, you can add USDC and DERC in to the liquidity pool, and stake the liquidity pool tokens (UNI-V2), to earn fees (paid out in DERC).

You can stake DERC right now at DUniCrypt

DeRace Horse NFTs

DeRace Horses are non-fungible tokens (NFTs). If you are new to NFTs, you can think of them as data stored in the blockchain that can be used to represent unique items such as photos, videos, audios, and other digital files.

DeRace Horses are similar to Zed Run Horses. You can buy and own your own digital horse in DeRace’s upcoming marketplace (releasing in the next week) and you can use it to either breed new horses or compete in races. Each horse has several attributes which make it unique, but some horses are valued rarer than other horses.

The NFT sub-space is a complicated ecosystem that merits a separate Beginner’s Guide in itself. Some technical understanding of DeRace’s Horse NFT, as well as some strategy, will be required to maximize revenue opportunities; but for now let’s take a look at the basic monetization methods for DeRace Horse NFTs below.

Playbook:

Collecting Rare Horse NFTs

Currently DeRace is selling their “Genesis” generation of Horse NFTs, and the first ever wave of DeRace Horse NFTs went for sale on Binance NFT Marketplace this week. After selling out in less than a minute, these Horse NFTs are currently being re-sold on the secondary market at approximately 10 times what they original listed for.

The second wave of DeRace Horses are expected to go on sale next week on the DeRace marketplace, with details to be announced soon. As Genesis horses have a finite supply, they are considered rare in the DeRace metaverse.

You can buy DeRace NFT Horses right now at Binance NFT Marketplace

Breeding & Flipping Horse NFTs

Breeding mechanic for DeRace metaverse is scheduled to be release before the end of this year, and will allow a male and female horse to breed to create a new Horse NFT. Newly bred horses can be used in the same way as any other Horse NFT (race, breed, or sell on the DeRace marketplace).

This mechanic is intended to allow new players to play the game and join the DeRace metaverse.

Racing Horse NFTs

Players who own a horse can participate in races for a small participation fee. The winner of the race collects the participation fee, as well as a % from bettor stakes.

Horse racing is affected by two horse attributes: speed and stamina. They do not guarantee victory, but play a role in influencing the outcome of the race (ie. controlled RNG).

Hippodrome NFTs

Hippodromes introduce a completely new game mechanic to the horse racing metaverse, in which players can own the venue where the horse races are taking place. Ownership of each hippodrome is split in to 10,000 NFTs and owning more than 5,000 (ie. 50%) of the NFTs guarantees you a right to administrate the hippodrome races, including race entry fees and the winner’s prize fund.

Hippodrome profits are paid to users according to their share of ownership, for example 1 NFT means 0.01% of the profits.

I won’t provide a playbook here for now as the details for this feature haven’t been released to the public, but hippodromes are a very intriguing new concept that introduces new monetization methods for the DeRace metaverse, and is scheduled for release early next year.

Betting

This is also a new concept being introduced to the digital horse racing metaverse. First of all, whenever RNG is introduced in to the equation it becomes gambling, and therefore I am morally obligated to say: you should always gamble responsibly with only money you can afford to lose.

But, that being said, betting on digital horse racing is similar to Texas Hold’em Poker. Certain facts that are known to the bettor, such as the implied horse race performance attributes, could edge the odds in to calculated risk territory.
Like hippodromes, details for this feature haven’t been released to the public (beyond what can be found in the whitepaper), but I will provide an update to this section when more information is announced.

Conclusion

There’s a few reasons why I decided to write about DeRace as the first post in this series. Putting aside my love for gaming, I mainly thought that DeRace is a really great example of where I see the blockchain/DLT industry going. They’ve managed to combine so many different elements (DERC, NFTs, game mechanics, etc) to create an extremely robust metaverse that offers lots of monetary and entertainment value for their player base.

(If you would like to see a Part II to this Beginner’s Guide, hit the like button and leave a comment below on the stuff you would like to know, such as step-by-step tutorials, deeper strategic dives in to horse racing/breeding strategy, or more information on the staking and NFT ecosystem. Let me know!)