The airdrop for August will include 98 ICP, 25 NFTs from collections such as ICPunk and ICPCS, & 2,150 dSquad Material NFTs!

TL; DR

• 5,432 dSquad material NFTs were airdropped to 1,951 wallets from the July leaderboard. Based on floor prices on Entrepot and ICP value as of 8/13, the current estimated value of these airdropped materials is ~2,205.74 ICP (~$18,219.41).
• We encountered some bugs affecting missions, and have recalibrated engagement scores as of 8/14.
• The airdrop for the August leaderboard will include NFTs from (9) different 3rd party collections such as ICPunk and Dfinity Space Apes!
• Starting this month through the end of 2022, all Avatar mint fees will be redistributed to dSquad accessory holders!
• Buy an accessory on Entrepot and make sure your avatar is wearing it to win August rewards!

Kicking Things Off!

Our small team has been busy these last few months:

• Our pitch won 1st place for Metaverse & NFT at the Supernova Hackathon!
• We got published by DFINITY in The Internet Computer Review
• We completed the very 1st airdrop of our MVP (Minimum Viable Product)!!
• Seb & I will be part of the Supernova Twitterspace #2 hosted by DFINITY on August 15th @ 4PM CET (set a reminder on Twitter)

With the dust starting to settle from our first airdrop, it’s time for a long overdue dSquad update!

July Airdrop

On 8/8/2022 we airdropped 5,432 materials to 1,951 of the 5,408 Principals holding dSquad avatars! Based on floor prices on Entrepot and ICP value as of 8/15, the current estimated value (sum of each floor price * quantity) of these airdropped materials is ~2,055.88 ICP (~$16,056.42).

Since the airdrop, trading of the dSquad collection has increased, and we are one of the top collections on NFTgeek in terms of total # transactions. Here’s a screenshot from NTFgeek comparing the most recent 7 days to the previous 7 days (as of 8/15):

Statistics

Material NFT Airdrop breakdown (raw data):

• 4,074 Cloth
  • 4,909 Cloth now make up 57.42% of materials as of 8/15/2022
  • 1,902 Principals (spanning ranks 1-118) received Cloth.
• 808 Wood
  • 1,587 Wood now make up 18.56% of materials as of 8/15/2022
  • 68 Principals (spanning ranks 1-74) received Wood.
• 239 Metal
  • 672 Metal now make up 7.86% of materials as of 8/15/2022
  • 43 Principals (spanning ranks 1-35) received Metal.
• 215 Glass
  • 853 Glass now make up 9.98% of materials as of 8/15/2022
  • 18 Principals (spanning ranks 35-46) received Glass.
• 0 Circuit
  • 327 Circuit make up 3.83% of materials as of 8/15/2022
• 36 Dfinity Stone
  • 201 Dfinity Stone make up 2.35% of materials as of 8/15/2022
  • 36 Principals (spanning ranks 1-32) received Dfinity Stones.
• 3,457 Principals (spanning ranks 115-118) did not win anything.
  • 5,096 Principals shared the lowest rank (#118) by earning 0 points on the July leaderboard. This means they wore no accessories, completed no missions, and they didn’t interact with any NFT collections tracked by CAP during July.
  • 1,650 (32.38%) of these rank 118 Principals still got lucky in the drawing and won between 1-4 Cloth

Lessons Learned

We’ve tried to be upfront about the fact that these initial airdrops (especially the very first one) would be experimental. We’re doing our best to learn from our early mistakes so that we can kick-start a robust and sustainable gameplay economy.

We've recorded notes in our documentation addressing some of the lessons learned after the July airdrop:

1. We Need To Communicate Better
2. Our Missions Feature Had Bugs
3. We Airdropped Too Many Materials
4. We need to fast-track external rewards
5. We Need To Clarify & Recalibrate The Daily Engagement Score

August Airdrop

There will be 3 types of rewards (each distributed a different way):

• 2,150 dSquad Material NFTs, distributed according to a randomized drawing that's weighted by the leaderboard rankings.
• (25) 3rd party NFTs from (9) different collections like ICPunk and Dfinity Space Apes, distributed to the top 25 players on the leaderboard. *not every month will include 3rd party NFTs.
• 98 ICP tokens, distributed to all Avatars which wore Accessories according to their share of the total style points accumulated during August.

ICP Rewards For Accessory Wearers

We plan to fund ongoing ICP rewards to accessory wearing avatars using the maturity of a neuron containing all of the accessory minting fees. However, it will take time to build up the funds for this neuron and design the needed neuron management features.

In the meantime, we can fund dSquad from our Supernova Hackathon winnings. So we’ve decided that starting this month through the end of 2022 we will redistribute all Avatar Minting fees to existing accessory wearers!

The way it will work is that we will take all the Avatar Minting fees collected in July (98 ICP) and then distribute it based on how many style points each player earned on the leaderboard. For example, if the top player earned 2% of the total number of style points earned during August, they would get 1.9 ICP during the August airdrop in early September. Unlike with materials, there is no randomization, so any amount of style points (which can only be earned by wearing an accessory) will mean you’ll get a share of the ICP prize pool.

Accessories last over 3 months before they burn, and even if participation dips during that time it means players who are active on the leaderboard will get a larger share of the available ICP prize pool for that month! Floor prices are still low coming off the first airdrop, so now is the great time to get an accessory for your avatar to wear. Also, promote dSquad on social media and share it with your friends so that they mint Avatars and build up a bigger ICP prize pool for next month!

Improved Daily Engagement Scoring

As of 8/15, players will now be able to automatically increase their engagement score by 0-6 points per day by interacting with any of the 200+ NFT collections that integrate with both DAB and CAP. A list of these participating NFT collections (with some exceptions for those which don’t track trading events) can be found on DAB.

Daily engagement points will be allocated as follows:

• Minting an NFT = 3 Points
• Buying or Selling an NFT:
  • 1 Point for a total 24hr trading volume less than 1 ICP
  • 2 Points for a total 24hr trading volume between 1-10 ICP
  • 3 Points for a total 24hr trading volume greater than 10 ICP

Prizes

3rd Party NFTs to top 25 players

August will include 25 NFTs from our vault (gained during past collaborations) in the prize pool. We will not do this every month, so be sure to take advantage of these exciting NFT rewards while you can! These NFTs from our 3rd party partners will not be distributed with a randomized drawing like the materials, but rather go directly to the top 25 ranking players on the leaderboard.

If you own an NFT collection and would like to include prizes in an upcoming airdrop, please reach out to us.

August prizes for top 25 players (floor prices as of 8/15):

• (1) ICPunk | floor 9.8 ICP
• (1) ICPuppies | floor 2.98 ICP
• (5) ICPCS | floor 2.2 ICP
• (5) Infernal Vampire Colony | floor 1.19 ICP
• (5) Dfinity Space Apes | floor 1.04 ICP
• (2) “THE” EGGs | floor 0.94 ICP
• (2) Drakon NFT | floor 0.92 ICP
• (2) Mutant Space Apes | floor 0.65 ICP
• (2) ICSnakes | floor 0.6 ICP
• Total Estimated Value = ~40.95 ICP

We've included more information detailing exactly how this prize distribution will work in our documentation. In a nutshell, the prizes get better the higher you rank within the top 25, and if two players are tied on the leaderboard their rank will be determined by the value of dSquad assets in their wallets.

dSquad Material NFTs

Less material NFTs will be airdropped in August compared to July, but there’s still plenty of rewards to go around!

Here are the 2,150 material NFTs which will be airdropped in August (floor prices as of 8/15):

• 159 Cloth | floor price 0.29 ICP
• 974 Wood | floor price 0.46 ICP
• 414 Metal | floor price 0.77 ICP
• 595 Glass | floor price 0.75 ICP
• 30 Circuit | floor price 4.99 ICP
• 5 Dfinity Stone | floor price 7.77 ICP

Based on these floor prices and ICP value on 8/15, the total estimated value (sum of each floor price * quantity) of the materials in the August price pool is ~1,422.58 ICP (~$11,707.83).

We've included more information detailing exactly how we determine this material allocation in our documentation.

Prize Exclusions

There were no team allocations for dSquad assets, so every single dSquad holder got their NFT assets from either the preorder late last year, buying them off the market, minting them on our dapp, or winning them in the July airdrop. Legendary Avatars (while on chain) are deactivated, so right now no insiders have any advantage and the economy is 100% in the hands of our community.

Seb and I have used our own personal funds to buy materials and accessories off the market. The few assets Seb has made for testing are either deactivated or burned.

We bought dSquad assets because we believe in our project and feel it is important to participate in the dynamics of our NTF economy so that we can fully understand the experience we are delivering to our users. As such, when it comes to dSquad Material NFT rewards we don’t see an issue being included.

However, we will be excluding ourselves from the ICP rewards for accessory wearers and the distribution of 3rd party NFTs. Our success must be tied to the success of the project as a whole, and not come from our participation as players. Since we control the game on behalf of its users (until we eventually become a DAO), it’s important that we only add net value and remove any doubts regarding our integrity.

To be honest, I spent an embarrassing amount of my own money on materials so that I could be the very first player to mint the spacesuit and earn my spot as #1 on the August leaderboard (so far). Those bragging rights alone are enough reward for me! Even though you might see one of us at the top of the leaderboard, you can know that we’re not taking any ICP or 3rd party NFT rewards out of your pocket.

We are humbled by the trust you’ve placed in us, and hope to be faithful stewards of this project on your behalf.

Airdrop FAQ

We've added some information to our documentation to answer some of the most common questions:

1. Why did some players win more dSquad Material NFTs than other players who ranked higher on the leaderboard?
2. Why can’t I validate this Mission?
3. Why isn't my IC activity being tracked?
4. Why hasn’t my engagement score updated?

Next Steps

Be part of making the Internet Computer the very first gamified blockchain ecosystem!

If you haven't gotten started, then mint your Avatar, buy an accessory on Entrepot, and make sure your avatar is wearing it to win August rewards!