GameFi platform Gala (GALA)
Platforms focusing on the gaming industry also aim to develop the GameFi and meta-universe areas, which started gaining popularity rapidly in 2020.
One such project is the Gala Games. In this article, let's look at what kind of platform it is, its tokenomics, and what advantages it offers using blockchain technology.
What is Gala Games?
Gala Games is a decentralized GameFi platform and meta-universe for creating blockchain games. Gala Games users are automatically vested with ownership of their in-game items and characters, thanks to NFT.
In a way, Gala Games is a decentralized analogue of Steam, only with a free game catalogue: users can choose from various games and start playing. The games themselves are decentralized or Web3 applications (DApps). Instead of buying the game itself, users can invest to progress faster and earn more tokens — this is the essence of P2E games.
The platform was launched in 2019 on the Ethereum blockchain and was one of the first in the Play-To-Earn (P2E or "play to earn") category. The developers later added the Binance Smart Chain network to complement Ethereum, on which most platforms are built. Binance Smart Chain chose Binance because this blockchain's transactions are much faster and cheaper.
Behind the creation of the project was a team of 60 experts in their field. Gala Games quickly gained popularity among players: by 2022, the number of users of the platform exceeded 1.3 million.
As of July 2023, the project already had more than 90 players, and more than 26,000 NFTs had been sold: the most expensive one reached $3 million.
Rather than releasing "raw" MVPs, the Gala Games team focuses on the quality of their games rather than the quantity. According to the developers, they aim to "create games you'll want to play."
Gala Games' ecosystem
Gala Games' first and foremost product is its embedded shop, a catalogue of free blockchain games and a marketplace for exchanging NFT tokens, which are game items and characters. Users can post their trophies from any games in the catalogue for sale.
As of November 2023, there were only 18 games in the catalogue, with some still in development. However, this is instead a plus, as the team is primarily focused on the quality of the games. Most games are cross-platform, meaning they are available on desktop and mobile devices.
Games that can be found in the catalogue include:
- fantasy RPG Mirandus,
- third-person shooter Superior,
- business simulator Legacy,
- PvP game in the Tower Defence genre Fortifide,
- epic sci-fi strategy game Echoes of Empire and others.
In addition, any user can launch a Gala node, which can be installed even on their home PC and thus contribute to the development of the ecosystem. However, running a node will require a licence, which costs more than $10,000 in ETH, GALA or BAT tokens. Holders of the Gala node receive rewards in GALA tokens and a chance to own rare NFTs.
Tokenomics
GALA is a native utility token issued on the Ethereum (ERC-20) and Binance Smart Chain (BEP-20) blockchains. The GALA token is the leading crypto asset of the Gala Games ecosystem and is used to buy and sell NFTs on the marketplace and reward ecosystem members. GALA token holders also have voting rights to participate in ecosystem decisions.
The maximum possible number of GALA tokens is 50 billion, 26.1 billion of which (52.2%) are already circulating on the crypto market. The Gala Games protocol has a halving mechanism built into the protocol of the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin: every year, the issuance of new tokens is halved. In 2021, 17,123,286 GALA were generated daily, and now only 4,280,821.
The price of GALA reached its all-time high in November 2021 at $0.83 during a bull cycle. The cost fell for a long time until early 2023, after which it began to rise again along with most altcoins and reached $0.25 by November of that year.
GALA tokens are traded on major crypto exchanges, such as Binance, Kraken, Bitfinex, Gemini, Bitstamp, ByBit, OKX, KuCoin, and others. The token is also available on decentralized exchanges Uniswap and OpenOcean.
Expectations and prospects
The project team is creating its blockchain to provide users with even lower commissions than the Binance Smart Chain and the simultaneous interaction of tens of thousands of users without congestion.
The idea behind Gala Games is not some kind of innovation. Still, the team's serious approach can guarantee the platform's future success, which will also positively impact the price dynamics of GALA tokens. The developers continue to release new games aimed at expanding the gaming audience.
In addition, the Gala Games team has expanded its reach with the launch of new platforms, Gala Music, which has been endorsed by celebrities Snoop Dogg and Kings of Leon, and Gala Films, as well as launching its social platform, Gala Friends, in Q3 2023.
