The ultimate goal of Iskra is to become a fully decentralized gaming platform that is operated by the community. It features a unique reward system that distributes all the value generated on the platform among the community that results in the emergence of political events called “power games”.
To help you understand how these power games work, you must first be familiar with the Iskra Community and the Iskra DAO.
Iskra’s Economic Entity: Iskra Community
Iskra’s economic entity refers to the Iskra community, which is made up of users who engage in economic activities on the Iskra platform.
Anyone with an Iskra portal account, including gamers, game studios, and even Iskra, can become an Iskra community member, and all community members can acquire contribution points (CPs) through platform contribution activities.
Based on this, there are five (5) community tiers. The level of community rewards is calculated based on CP and community tier, so community members with more CP will receive more rewards.
Iskra’s Political Entity: Iskra DAO
Iskra’s political entity refers to the Iskra DAO, which is made up of community members that engage in political activities on the Iskra platform.
The Iskra DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization and the official decision-making body for making changes to the operation of the Iskra platform.
Any community member holding sISK tokens equivalent to voting rights can become part of the Iskra DAO and participate in Iskra’s governance. Members of the Iskra DAO with more sISK tokens have greater voting power.
What Are Power Games?
Power games are collective voting competitions where Iskra community members participate in the Iskra DAO and use sISK as a medium to capture as much value as possible from the platform. Any type of value created on the platform can be the target of a power game, and Iskra’s unique “community reward” is a prime example.
Iskra’s community reward consists of a system where numerous community members divide one big pie, which represents the platform revenue generated through native dApp services on the Iskra platform, such as the launchpad and the marketplace.
While it is possible for everyone to get an equal share of the pie, the hard part is dividing it so that everyone is happy. As a result, everyone wants to have a little bit more than everyone else, creating an inevitable competition.
In this system, there are strategies that some community members can employ to secure a larger portion of the pie than others, including:
- As an economic entity (Iskra Community), you can earn more CP and receive more rewards.
- As a political entity (Iskra DAO), you can acquire more sISK and influence the platform’s reward policy in your favor.
The power game is a political event that occurs when participants opt for the second strategy. It can take various forms and is generated by different interest groups that naturally form within the Iskra community.
Power games naturally arise because the way the pie is split is not equal. It’s important to note that unequal doesn’t mean unfair. While it may seem fair to split the pie equally among all participants, this approach would be unfair as not all contributors have made the same level of contributions. Instead, fairness is achieved when participants who contribute more to the platform receive a larger share of the rewards.
The Iskra DAO has implemented a system of “fair inequality” to ensure that contributors are appropriately rewarded for their level of participation. The criteria for granting CPs is determined by the Iskra DAO through a fair and transparent governance process, and this differential CP grant system is the subject of the power game.
The power game will continue until an equilibrium point is reached where all participants are satisfied with the level of ‘fair inequality’ achieved. However, attaining such an equilibrium point can be challenging because various interest groups will compete for advantageous circumstances rather than equilibrium. Therefore, the power game will persist as long as the community reward exists, and this ongoing competition will inject perpetual energy into Iskra DAO, enabling it to maintain dynamic and active governance.
Examples of Power Games
The occurrence of power games within the Iskra community is directly related to the number of interest groups formed within the platform. As the number of interests represented on the platform increases and diversifies, the frequency of power games will also increase.
In this context, each interest group will strive to develop and implement strategies that maximize their own profits while competing with other groups. In the future, a variety of power games are expected to emerge within the Iskra ecosystem. The next part of this article goes over the potential power games that can happen.
CASE 1. Pioneer Group VS Explorer Group (Non-Pioneers)
P-NFTs are the backbone of the Iskra ecosystem, representing node operating rights and premium memberships that recognize the highest contributions within the community. As a reward for their contribution to the ecosystem, the Iskra DAO grants P-NFT holders called Pioneers 60,000 CP, making them the biggest beneficiaries of community rewards.
Due to the “fair inequality” of recognizing the highest contribution of P-NFTs, two interest groups can form in the community – Pioneers who have P-NFTs and Explorers who don’t have P-NFTs – and a power game can begin.
Pioneers will want to keep the benefits of P-NFTs while Explorers will want to take away these benefits, thus the two groups will compete for sISK through governance staking.
The game is structurally unfavorable to Explorers. Pioneers are the whales who are already guaranteed 40% of the total ISK minted through P-NFT rewards.
However, Pioneers are not necessarily at an unconditional advantage either – they are a minority compared to Explorers and a P-NFT’s ISK rewards have a lockup mechanism, meaning that even Pioneers must initially set aside a certain amount of sISK, and even after the ISK rewards are unlocked, they must not sell their ISK, but rather hold on to a certain level of sISK to defend their rights.
CASE 2. Seller Group VS Buyer Group
Interest groups in the Iskra community are also divided between the game studios (seller group) and the gamers (buyer group) based on game services.
In a typical platform, sellers and buyers do not compete with each other, but in the Iskra ecosystem, both parties compete because they share the pie of community rewards. Both parties pay fees to the Iskra platform and earn corresponding CPs, and the fees paid become the source of community rewards.
The Iskra DAO sets the seller’s fee higher than the buyer’s fee, so the seller always contributes a large amount to the community reward resources.
A ‘fair inequality’ arises from these fee structures. As the game services in the Iskra ecosystem become more popular, the seller pays a large amount to the community reward pool. It is possible to recover some of the fees paid by acquiring a lot of CPs, but understandably, the seller will prefer to pay less fees rather than receiving payback. However, the buyer is on the opposite side and wants to increase the size of the pie by paying more fees as the seller makes more sales.
Sellers and buyers would now engage in a power game over platform fee rates. However, this game may not be determined solely by the amount of sISK each person has because a few sellers can use a bribing strategy to win the power game against a large number of buyers.
In other words, it promises content compensation such as game tokens to buyers who are on the seller’s side. Conversely, buyers may promise gameplay and enthusiastic support to sellers who are on their side.
As such, power games that can unfold multidimensional strategies based on various interests serve as another fun factor for the decentralized game platform Iskra.
CASE 3. Game Studio VS Game Studio
Power games can also occur between game service sellers. For instance, if there are 1,000 game studios participating in the ecosystem, the top-ranked Game Studio A will always generate the highest revenue and pay the most fees to fund community rewards.
However, if the 1,000th place Game Studio B holds a significant amount of P-NFT and attains the Diamond tier, they may earn more from community rewards than from their own game sales.
Game Studio A would be unhappy with this structure, as the majority of the rewards that Game Studio B earns come from the fees they pay, making them want to lower the platform fee rate for the games they service.
Now, a new kind of power game emerges. Game Studio A has formidable game content power that they can use to gather voting power from their fandom (gamers). On the other hand, Game Studio B has weaker content power but can leverage their Diamond tier to gather voting power from high-tier whales through a strategic approach.
This demonstrates that power games of various dimensions can take place in the Iskra community depending on each game studio’s characteristics.
Key Takeaway
Power games that can revolve around the various values created on the Iskra platform is the core political content of Iskra, and it is leveraged by its governance token ISK. These power games make Iskra, a decentralized game platform, a more intriguing ecosystem and breathes life into the Iskra DAO as a real political entity.
Unlike conventional DAO models, the Iskra DAO is built on the natural behavior of pursuing the interests of each participant in the ecosystem.
Power games serve as the driving force that enables Iskra to grow consistently, even as a platform operated by a decentralized organization. These power games will evolve into Iskra’s unique killer content that propels it on the path of becoming the world’s leading Web3 game platform.
About Iskra
Iskra is a single-destination Web3 game platform for developers and players that rewards them for their contribution and participation through a unique community system on the blockchain. This allows stakeholders to take a major part in building the platform for future growth.
Current services include a wallet, DEX, marketplace, NFT Mission Card (daily reward), governance staking and voting, and soon-to-launch Web3 casual and hyper-casual games.
Backed by some of the biggest technology and video game companies in South Korea, Iskra ranks in the top categories for gaming in Dapp Radar for unique active wallets per day and engagement.
Explore the future of play!