Enjin
Market Recap
A Tough Week For Digital Assets
Enjin
Over the last two weeks, we have covered two of the most prominent blockchain-based Metaverses, Decentraland and The Sandbox.
These two networks account for the majority of activity happening in the space and have gone from strength to strength as they continue to build and create partnerships with some of the globe's best-known brands.
As the blockchain-based Metaverse continues to grow, there will be more demand for gaming-specific projects that can integrate into their platform. These projects can make these worlds more interactive and exciting, even offering users the ability to move between the different Metaverses as they see fit.
This is where a project like Enjin can fit in. Enjin is attempting to create a holistic ecosystem where game developers can build their games and create and manage their in-game virtual goods.
What is Enjin?
Enjin, similar to The Sandbox, was founded as a traditional company before the advent of smart contracts. In 2009, Maxim Blagov and Witek Radomski launched the Enjin Network, a gaming community platform that, over a decade, integrated into over 250 000 gaming communities between 20 million gamers worldwide, making it one of the biggest in the world.
The company conducted an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2017, where they managed to raise $18.9 million with the vision to create a blockchain-based platform where anyone could easily manage, explore, distribute, and integrate blockchain assets into their games.
Since the ICO, the project has continued to release different tools and services. In 2018 they released their first product, the Enjin Wallet, designed and built for developers and gamers.
The team at Enjin also realised that they would need to encourage game developers and studios to start building within the Enjin ecosystem; therefore, in mid-2018, they launched the Early Adopter Programme. This program found traction immediately; the Enjin team picked twenty developers who used the Enjin Platform to create and integrate blockchain technology into forty games, apps and websites.
Throughout the rest of 2018, they continued releasing tools to achieve their vision of becoming an ecosystem of blockchain software products, including the Enjin Mintshop, Enjin Beam and EnjinX.
It was in 2019 that they released the Testnet version of the Enjin Platform on Ethereum. This also coincided with the release of the Blockchain SDK for Unity, the widely used game development platform. This move has provided Unity's 4.5 million developers with the ability to incorporate blockchain into their apps and games. Another significant achievement in 2019 was the approval and adoption of the ERC-1155 by the Ethereum community. This token standard, developed by Enjin and a few other projects in the space, offered some advantages over the ERC-721 non-fungible token standard. The main advantage was the ability to batch transfers; before using the ERC-1155 standard, you had to transfer each token individually, a highly inefficient and expensive process, especially if you were creating and transferring more than one in-game item at a time. The second advantage is the ability to support both fungible and non-fungible tokens, which can also have significant benefits when it comes to gaming.
It was in February 2020 that the Enjin Platform was finally released on the Ethereum mainnet, allowing anyone to mint assets using the Enjin Coin. Through this, the project achieved one of their original goals set out in their whitepaper and helped them achieve their dream of allowing anyone to create in-game assets trustlessly.
In 2021 Enjin announced the formation of a $100 million fund that focused on funding projects in its ecosystem that were building a decentralised Metaverse. The fund also had a specific focus on promoting projects that were building on the Enjin Efinity chain. Developers of Enjin first proposed the Efinity chain in 2018 as a solution to the scalability and gas costs that were then problems on the Ethereum network. Over time and as technology allowed, the Enjin team saw additional opportunities; they could create both a scaling solution and an interoperability solution. As a result, they announced the plan to release JumpNet and Efinity. JumpNet would be an Ethereum scaling solution, and Efinity would be launched on Polkadot, the interoperability-focused blockchain. The Efinity parachain on Polkadot went live in March 2022 and has gained significant traction since then.
All these technologies and tools have put the Enjin project closer to achieving the dream of serving the gaming community in the best way possible.
Over this time, they have also managed to create partnerships with several prominent brands, including Atari, BMW, Microsoft and Samsung; each with a vested interest in seeing the project succeed. Through strong partnerships, funding, and an ecosystem of tools, Enjin has managed to position itself as a leading project in the blockchain gaming sector.
How Does Enjin Work?
Enjin has several different tools and technologies that come together to provide its service.
Enjin Wallet
The Enjin Wallet was built to create an easy way for developers to interact with all things Enjin while building their games, NFTs or anything else that is possible using Enjin. It was one of the first tools the Enjin developers released to make their ecosystem more intuitive and easy to use. The wallet can connect to multiple games, and users can move their assets between games if the game developers allow it. They can also interact with the Enjin marketplace, where they are free to trade in-game assets and other NFTs.
JumpNet
JumpNet is a private blockchain that uses the Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus mechanism. It is a private Ethereum scaling solution that allows Enjin-related transactions to happen on-chain. Approved validators settle these transactions; this significantly speeds up the chain and reduces costs. Its native currency is JENJ, a private version of the Enjin Coin (ENJ); each JENJ is backed by an ENJ token on the Ethereum mainnet. They created the solution so that you will be able to do the following without paying gas fees:
Send and receive ENJ and ERC-1155 tokens
Create and mint ERC-1155 tokens via the Enjin Platform
Trade ERC-1155 tokens on the Enjin Marketplace
Distribute ENJ and ERC-1155 tokens via QR codes
Automatically distribute ERC-1155 tokens from your app or game
Efinity
The Enjin developers created Efinity for several reasons, the two most notable being perceived limitations of Ethereum and the need for interoperability between different layer one blockchains so that Ejin could achieve its full potential. According to the team, after much research, it was decided by the developers that it would be built on Polkadot, a blockchain designed for interoperability. The Efinity chain went live as a Polkadot parachain this year. The move provides the Enjin team with more flexibility over the core blockchain infrastructure as Polkadot allows for a degree of freedom that Ethereum does not.
The use of Polkadot and its innate interoperability will allow game developers and users to move their assets between different blockchains and Metaverses as they see fit (as long as their code allows). There have been over 100 projects that have already committed to building on Efinity, and we expect this trend to continue.
Enjin Marketplace and Explorer
As the demand for NFTs has increased over the past two years, we have seen the rise of NFT marketplaces such as Opensea and Rarible. The Enjin team have also built their own unique user-friendly marketplace for Enjin-based assets.
They have also integrated a handy explorer that can be used to understand each asset in more depth, such as total supply, its creator, the number of ENJ used to create it, and its token standard.
Enjin Platform
The Enjin Platform is a blockchain Platform as a Service (PaaS). It allows users to create and manage blockchain-based games without all the traditional complexities that arise when creating and launching a game, such as developing and maintaining the infrastructure required to operate effectively.
Leveraging the SDK that Enjin provides on its Platform allows game developers to integrate blockchain into their projects easily. This is significant for future blockchain game adoption and integration into the different blockchain-based Metaverses.
Some of the handy features it allows include:
Distribute your tokens - Send tokens to up to 150 users per transaction.
Trigger Events - Trigger your NFTs to send based on game, app, or website events.
Enable in-app Trading - Allow users to perform NFT trades directly in your game or application.
Wallet Linking - With the linking feature, users are able to link their Enjin Wallet directly into your game or project with ease.
All these different components have created the Enjin ecosystem as we know it today. However, one of the most important is the ENJ token, as it ties the whole ecosystem together.
What Is Enjin Coin?
The ENJ Coin is used to directly back the value of the Enjin blockchain assets.
When creating/minting any digital asset within the Enjin Platform, you are required to lock up ENJ to do so. That means every single asset created has some form of residual value backed by the price of ENJ. In addition to this, if you wish to redeem the ENJ that backs the asset, you are required to "melt" the asset to do so.
The benefits of this system to the token are as follows:
Infusing created assets with residual value
Ensures the transparency and scarcity of tokens
Gives tokens instant liquidity
Enables the utility of tokens in games and applications
Anti-inflationary
The melting feature allows users to destroy blockchain tokens at any time to retrieve the ENJ value from the token.
The above design ensures that the ENJ Coin is absolutely essential to the ecosystem and plays a core role within all assets that are created.
Conclusion
The Enjin team has been around for a long time, during which they have grown to become a large part of the general gaming community. Their move into blockchain was a differentiator and has provided them with a platform to achieve something extraordinary. They realised the power of community-owned and controlled assets early on and have leveraged the opportunity blockchain offers. They have grown the number of projects using their platform and have taken unique, innovative approaches to delivering their service, always staying at the forefront of blockchain technology. They have certainly positioned themselves as a leader in the gaming sector, and their move into the Metaverse undoubtedly means further growth. We expect them to continue growing and improving their current service as time goes on, and we look forward to seeing how it plays out.
Next week we will continue exploring the other projects in the Web3 sector. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out and ask us questions. We always look forward to chatting with our readers. Otherwise, please feel free to share this article if you know anyone who is interested in learning more about blockchain gaming, the Metaverse and Enjin.
Notable Articles and News Stories This Week:
Buenos Aires Will Run Ethereum Validators Starting in 2023
Buenos Aires will become one of the first public entities in the world to help run Ethereum’s network infrastructure, a city official announced during Argentina’s ETHLatam conference last week.
Private companies will contract with the city to deploy validator nodes — computers running Ethereum client software — which are slated to be installed next year.
The validators, which are responsible for storing data, processing transactions and adding new blocks to the blockchain, will become part of the proof-of-stake network consensus system being implemented in conjunction with the Merge, expected to occur in mid-September.
Read more about the decision here
BitGo Plans To Sue Galaxy After Firm Ends Merger Agreement
BitGo has hired law firm Quinn Emanuel as it prepares to sue Galaxy Digital for terminating its deal to acquire the company.
The news came just hours after Galaxy Digital revealed that it is backing out of its agreement to buy the crypto platform after it failed to deliver audited 2021 financial statements by July 31.
BitGo called Galaxy’s move to terminate the merger agreement an “improper decision,” noting that the deal was not scheduled to expire until Dec. 31.
R. Brian Timmons, a partner with Quinn Emanuel, said in a statement Monday that BitGo has honored its obligations, including submitting its audited financials.
Read more about the deal here
Crypto, Stock Markets Slide as Fed Signals More Rate Hikes to Come
The Fed is likely set to raise interest rates again, considering the US regulatory body’s preliminary efforts have yet to stem inflation, according to minutes released Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve agreed in a July meeting that rates are due for a 0.5% hike in September, the minutes said. Cryptocurrency traders have been closely monitoring the Fed’s moves this year amid market turbulence.
“The projection for U.S. economic activity prepared by the staff for the July FOMC meeting was noticeably weaker than the June forecast, reflecting the economy’s reduced momentum and current and prospective financial conditions that were expected to provide less support to aggregate demand growth,” the minutes said.
Futures markets are now pricing in a 53% chance of a 50 basis point hike and a 48% chance of a 75 basis point rise next month.
Read more about the Fed meeting here
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