What Is Yield Guild Games (YGG)?

TL;DR

Yield Guild Games (YGG) is a gaming guild focused on blockchain play-to-earn games. It’s a community that invests in NFT assets and connects blockchain gamers around the world. Their goal is to build a network of players and investors who help each other get started and grow in the NFT gaming space.

Introduction

Since the success of Axie Infinity, the space of play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games has been growing rapidly. While the P2E trend has attracted millions of people around the world, gaming NFTs are not affordable for many players, especially in developing countries. Yield Guild Games is building a P2E community and offering a solution to these players, so they can get started with NFT gaming.

What is Yield Guild Games (YGG)?

Yield Guild Games (YGG) is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) that invests in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) used in blockchain games. These games are part of a broader concept known as the metaverse. The term metaverse refers to the many elements of blockchain-based digital worlds, including digital land, digital assets, and more.

The idea of creating a global play-to-earn gaming community arose in 2018. Gabby Dizon, the YGG co-founder and CEO, noticed that blockchain gaming was trending in Southeast Asia. At that time, many gamers were looking to get started in the popular NFT game Axie Infinity, but they lacked the money to buy the in-game NFT characters called Axies.

Understanding that blockchain gaming can be an empowering tool for those living in developing countries, Dizon started lending his Axies to other players who couldn’t afford to buy their own. This inspired him to co-found Yield Guild Games with Beryl Li in 2020 to help gamers thrive in the world of NFTs and blockchain gaming.

How does Yield Guild Games work?

Yield Guild Games combines Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and NFTs to create a metaverse economy on the Ethereum blockchain. The YGG DAO is an open-source protocol with rules enforced by smart contracts. It serves many different purposes, such as carrying out governance decisions voted by the community, issuing rewards, and facilitating NFT rentals.

YGG is made up of multiple SubDAOs, which consist of groups of players from a specific NFT game or geographical location. Each SubDAO has its own set of rules to manage the activity and assets of the respective play-to-earn game.

This model allows players of the same NFT game to work together to maximize their in-game profits. It also enables guild members to rent and use the community-owned NFT assets to earn in-game rewards. In return, those that lend their NFTs via the DAO can share a portion of the gamers’ earnings.

On YGG, all NFTs and digital assets are stored within the YGG Treasury, which is controlled by the community. The treasure provides the NFTs to each SubDAO, and it includes P2E assets from multiple blockchain games.

YGG Scholarships

To maximize the value and utility of gaming NFTs, the YGG DAO uses an NFT rental program known as scholarships. The idea was initially introduced by the Axie Infinity community to benefit both NFT owners and play-to-earn gamers. 

In Axie Infinity, Axie owners can lend their gaming assets to help new players get started in return for a percentage of their in-game rewards. The process is done through blockchain smart contracts in a way that scholars can only use the NFTs in-game. Only the manager (owner) can trade or transfer the NFTs.

Similarly, YGG provides scholarships to new players under a revenue-sharing model, where they can get NFT assets to start playing and earn in-game rewards. The scholars don’t need to invest any money upfront, but they share a portion of their earnings with their managers. Apart from NFTs, new players will also receive training and guidance from community managers.

YGG scholarships are not limited to NFTs in Axie Infinity. The YGG Treasury also owns virtual lands in The Sandbox and League of Kingdoms, virtual cars in F1 Delta Time, among other play-to-earn games. 

SubDAOs

As mentioned, the YGG DAO is primarily composed of SubDAOs. You can think of SubDAOs as localized communities within the main YGG DAO. These local communities consist of players from a specific P2E game or location. For example, there is a SubDAO dedicated to Axie Infinity players, a SubDAO for The Sandbox players, another SubDAO for Southeast Asian players, and so on. By grouping players into different SubDAOs, they can discuss gaming strategies and help each other maximize performance.

Each SubDAO manages its respective game’s activities and assets under its own set of rules and conditions, but they still contribute earnings to the YGG DAO. In a SubDAO, there is a community lead, a wallet, and a SubDAO token. Token holders can share the yields generated from the gameplay based on their contributions. They also get to make suggestions and vote on governance decisions related to the SubDAO, such as whether to purchase more in-game NFTs, or how to manage their assets.

What is the YGG token?

Yield Guild Games (YGG) is an ERC-20 token that gives holders the right to participate in the governance of the YGG DAO. It has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, and 25 million YGG was sold via an Initial DEX Offering (IDO) on SushiSwap in 2021. To support the community, YGG has set aside 45% of the total supply to be distributed to users gradually over four years. 

As the platform’s native token, YGG is used to pay for services on the network. It can also be staked to earn rewards in the YGG vaults or used to unlock exclusive content on the YGG Discord channel. In addition, YGG holders can submit proposals and vote on decisions regarding the guild’s technology, products, projects, token distribution, and overall governance structure. The winning suggestions that eventually get implemented on the DAO will be rewarded YGG tokens.

YGG Vault

The YGG DAO adopts a different approach to yield farming than most DeFi staking platforms. Typically, tokens are staked to earn fixed-rate interest. On YGG, each vault represents a token reward program for a specific activity that YGG operates. For example, one vault may provide yields based on the performance of a scholarship program, while another vault rewards stakers based on the Axie breeding program.

YGG also plans to develop an all-in-one super index vault that represents all yield-generating activities in its ecosystem. This vault will reward stakers based on the guild’s revenue from subscriptions, merchandise, rentals, treasury growth, and SubDAO index performance.

Token holders can stake for the activity they support, and rewards will be distributed proportionally to the amount of YGG they stake via smart contracts. Depending on how the vault is programmed, rewards might also include YGG tokens, Ether (ETH), or stablecoins.

Closing thoughts

Through a unique revenue-sharing model, YGG is building a decentralized community in the real world. It offers participants an opportunity to thrive in these virtual worlds through an innovative gaming economy. As metaverse projects are on the rise, NFT guilds like Yield Guild Games could benefit from the influx of newcomers and crypto enthusiasts looking to explore play-to-earn NFT games for an alternative source of income.