Did you know that the global horse racing industry is worth more than $300 billion? Imagine this money being carried forward into the blockchain gaming sector, more popularly known as play-to-earn (P2E). Apart from the huge financial influx in blockchain gaming, we could also witness a niche, but lucrative, industry like horse racing growing several times over.
Sounds like a win-win situation, doesn’t it? Yes. And this is exactly what the Pegaxy team is building. It’s a fairly new P2E game that revolves around a horse racing metaverse.
Let’s dive into Pegaxy’s (PGX) ecosystem and understand their project in detail.
WHAT IS THE PEGAXY (PGX) P2E GAME?
Founded in February 2021 by a team of three, Pegaxy is a peer-to-peer (P2P) player-versus-player (PvP) mechanical horse racing game. Quite a mouthful, but basically you can race horses against other players. It’s built on the Polygon blockchain (MATIC), an Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution. Pegaxy players, Pegaxians compete against eleven other players to try to secure the top three positions in an attempt to win Vigorus (VIS) tokens, Pegaxy’s utility token.
There are several random elements for each race, such as water, wind, fire and speed. Throughout the game, a mythology-inspired theme can be seen which adds to the uniqueness of the idea. Even the name ‘Pegaxy’ should be derived from the term ‘Pegasus’, a mythical winged divine horse, according to Greek mythology.
Racehorses, known as ‘Pega(s)’, are non-fungible tokens (NFT) that players can own or rent to participate in races. Players can take advantage of strategic upgrades, food and skills to improve the performance of their Pega. Players can not only race their Pega, but also rent, breed and sell them. This makes it an ideal platform for avid gamers, relaxed horse racing enthusiasts and everyone in between.
From cyberpunk to mech, the game has undergone several design iterations and ultimately led to what players see today. In October 2021, 5000 “founding” Pega were sold in conjunction with the launch of the PGX platform’s initial dex offering (IDO). Almost all Pega in the game after #5,000 have been minted through breeding and possess four different levels of rarity: Zan, Klin, Campona and Sickle, which is the rarest.
WHAT MAKES PEGAXY STAND OUT IN THE BLOCKCHAIN GAMING ECOSYSTEM?
With its unique idea of integrating a less explored horse racing industry, Pegaxy is providing a platform for the niche population to grow, have fun and monetise their passion. In addition, it appeals to the gaming masses with its economic model, technological features and more.
Here are some of the unique features of the game:
Trustless rental system.
The Pegaxy rental system is the first trustless rental system of its kind with an automated rental and payment process. Pegaxy offers three different rental options within the game. They are “fixed rent”, “profit share” and “direct rent”, each with its own rules between the “scholar” (tenant) and the “manager” (Pega owner) to ensure both benefits.
For each rental contract, Pegaxy maintains an escrow account to receive all rewards and distribute them according to the profit share of the rental (e.g. 70% scholars, 30% managers). Rental contracts can be created by the manager, while Pegaxy acts as an escrow. This acts as a great source of passive income for hard-working academics willing to monetise their play time.
Dual token model
Taking inspiration from Axie Infinity, Pegaxy takes the premise of a player-driven economy to another level with its dual token model. It has a government token, $PGX (Pegaxy Stone) and a utility token $VIS (Vigorus).
$PGX allows players to have more control, enhances the buy and sell functions in the native marketplace and aids in-game Pega replay fees. $VIS finds its use in the purchase of in-game NFT, rewarding the top 3 locations and as in-game Pega replay fees.
Guild model of growth
Pegaxy encourages the formation of gaming guilds with a mix of investors, players and lenders. Guilds generate inclusion and collaboration among their members, which encourages cooperative efforts, such as lending in-game assets, sharing asset liquidity, etc.
Scholars (guild members) are the fulcrum around which guilds revolve. With guilds, new players have easier access to certain games that require large upfront capital. In addition, the participation of guilds and their pooled assets opens up various economic opportunities for everyone.
From inter-chain lending to having a native NFT marketplace, the possibilities are endless.
PEGAXY PLAY-TO-EARN GAME FOUNDERS
Ken Pham is the CEO of Pegaxy. He has an MBA in International Business and is an experienced team builder. He has a lot of experience working with multinationals based in China.
Steve Nguyen is the CTO, leading all technical and engineering efforts at Pegaxy. He has extensive experience in blockchain programming and the gaming industry. His current role is Chief Technology Officer at Appota. Appota, along with its sister company Gamota, has a user base of over 55 million in Vietnam.
Corey Wilton is the CMO of Pegaxy, leading the worldwide expansion and development of the Pegaxy community and user base. Based in Australia, Corey has over seven years’ experience in digital marketing and customer service. As well as managing the marketing and customer service teams, he is also responsible for brand design.
HOW DO YOU PLAY THE PEGAXY P2E GAME?
Here are the steps to play the game:
Step 1: Buy $MATIC and transfer it to your MetaMask wallet.
First, buy $MATIC using any CEX or DEX. Then, add the Polygon network to your MetaMask wallet. Transfer the $MATIC to your MetaMask wallet. This is necessary to exchange with $PGX later in the game to buy or rent Pega.
Step 2: Connect your MetaMask to Pegaxy on the Polygon network.
Visit https://pegaxy.io/ and press the ‘Play Now’ button. You will be redirected to the Pegaxy marketplace. Press ‘Connect’ and then connect your MetaMask wallet.
Step 3: Rent or buy Pega
To rent a Pega, click ‘Rent’ and you will have a variety of Pega to choose from. You can choose between male and female Pega. In addition, you have 5 breeding types, from founders to rare, to choose from. When renting, you have two options, you can either pay a rental fee or share the profits with the Pega owners.
To buy a Pega, click on ‘Marketplace’ and an assortment of Pega awaits you. From bloodline to rarity, there are multiple filters you can add before finding the right Pega for you. At this time, Pegaxy allows you to purchase Pega using $USDT and $PGX only.
Note: Change $MATIC you had bought in step 1 to $PGX to rent or buy Pega.
Step 4: Start a race
After renting or buying a Pega, it’s time to race. Click on ‘Races’ and you will see a list of races that are running on the Pegaxy platform. Choose a Pega and click ‘Start’ to find a match for yourself against 11 other players. Confirm your participation by signing up with MetaMask.
Step 5: Race!
Currently, all races in Pegaxy are automated and your Pega’s performance is based solely on their stats and attributes. Then, after you match up with 11 other players, a race takes about 2 minutes and you can watch the progress live.
Note: Pegaxy has concrete plans to transition to being a more skill-based game.
TOKENOMICS OF PEGAXY (PGX) AND VIGORUS (VIS)
Fundamentally strong tokenomics is a characteristic of any credible and successful project. Pegaxy presents a dual tokenomic model, similar to the extremely popular P2E game: Axie Infinity, with $AXS and $SLP tokens.
$PGX – Governance token
The Pegaxy Stone token or $PGX is an ERC-20 token built on the Polygon blockchain (MATIC). Its total supply has been capped at 1 billion with the goal of catalysing game development, community growth and overall ecosystem building.
Currently, $PGX tokens can be used to buy Pega on the marketplace and pay replay fees. In addition, two key use cases of $PGS is that the token can be earned as part of tournament rewards on Pegaxy and can also be gambled.
The $PGX token allocation is as follows: Community Developer Incentives – 160M; Ecosystem Reservation and Marketing – 300M; Equipment – 220M; Liquidity Provisions – 100 million; #1 Private Sale – 100M; #2 Private Sale – 100M; IDO/IEO – 20M.
Note: Apart from the liquidity provision and marketing efforts, each allocated token is attached with a vesting period varying from 5 to 24 months.
$VIS – Utility Token
Vigorus is Pegaxy’s utility token. All of Pegaxy’s major earning and spending activities can only be performed using $VIS tokens. Unlike most utility tokens, $VIS is never premined by the team. It is created or minted each time players finish in the top 3 of a race. Similarly, $VIS faces a burning mechanism when used to breed Pegas.
The Pegaxy team has established a balanced mint-to-burn ratio, allowing the economy to be fair and equitable without the team exerting complete control. There is no limit to the number of $VIS tokens that will be available in Pegaxy and it is entirely up to the players and their racing journey. Apart from placing in the top 3 in races, there is no other way to mint $VIS.
Pegaxy Fabled Tokens
Along with the two native tokens, Pegaxy also has a set of unique ERC-20 tokens called PFT: Pegaxy Fabled Tokens. They are powerful tokens with the ability to evolve your Pega into Pega Coronada. PFTs can be obtained by referring people to the Pegaxy platform and making them own at least one Pega.
The number of PFTs has been capped at 4000 and the attempts to evolve are set at 800. In addition, there is a burning mechanism for Fabled Tokens, which means that the circulating supply will decrease over time and they will become scarcer.
PEGAXY ROADMAP
To date, the Pegaxy team has consistently delivered on the roadmap. Delving deeper into 2022, let’s take a look at some promising updates to keep an eye on.
Firstly, the launch of ‘Crowned Pega’ and the first ‘Stadium Sale’ event are the two mega-events that are being awaited by the entire community. In addition, a community hackathon is being planned to incentivise developers with rewards to improve the Pegaxy ecosystem.
Later in the year, we can expect the introduction of the Community Treasure with $PGX stake built in. In addition, more uses of NFT and, more importantly, interoperable or cross-chain NFT is something the Pegaxy team is preparing for.
THE FUTURE OF PEGAXY AND PRICE PREDICTION
The Pegaxy game development team will eventually move to a skill-based game rather than an auto-runner. While competing, players will have to manually control their Pega, giving skilled players an advantage.
Their mobile-first approach to gaming holds them in good stead, as ease of access remains the number 1 priority for the majority of the population. This can be seen in their gameplay and fluidity on both iOS and Android.
Updates will soon be available in the following versions with 3D racing, Pega in-game teams and player-controlled racing in the pipeline. With its innovation in trustless rental systems, blockchain technology and balanced economic models, Pegaxy can grow further in the P2E gaming community.
At the time of writing, $PGX is trading at $0.1887, after peaking at over $2.2 briefly in December 2021. Pegaxy’s closest competitor, Derace (DERC), has also been hit equally badly, falling from a high of over $8 to $1.65 at the time of writing. However, Pegaxy has been grabbing eyeballs on social media and among the blockchain gaming community. And how this translates into price action depends on how the team delivers on the roadmap and technical updates.
Given the nascent stage of play-to-win, and blockchain games in general, there is still a lot more room for growth for projects building in this space. Whether Pegaxy or Derace emerge as the sole winner or exist in healthy competition, only time will tell. As long as Pegaxy continues to deliver on its roadmap and grow its player guild, the influx of players and academics could probably push the price higher than it is now.