Built on Ethereum, Gala offers a suite of games that incentivizes players to earn cryptocurrencies and NFTs through their gameplay. These games are hosted on a network of distributed, user-owned nodes which secure the platform and help guide its development.
As an early entrant into the blockchain gaming space, Axie Infinity enjoyed significant success and inspired other projects to explore the space. Gala Games later launched in 2019 to capitalize on strong adoption and demand of blockchain platforms from gamers.
Blockchain gaming has appealed to both the crypto and gaming communities because it can uniquely offer provable ownership of in-game items thanks to the functionality of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Items like swords, potions, tools, and land in video games can then be bought and sold by players on the open market, and the rule of supply and demand dictates the worth of the items.
Gala’s native GALA token is used as an in-game currency, a reward incentivization mechanism for node operators, a payment medium for items in the Gala Store, and for governance voting.
How was Gala Games developed?
Gala Games was co-founded by Eric Schiermeyer, Michael McCarthy, and Wright Thurston in 2019. Schiermeyer was previously known for co-founding the online gaming platform Zynga, which pioneered the development of Farmville, Mafia Wars, and many other popular mobile games. McCarthy also worked as a director at Zynga before moving onto Gala.
The development team grew to include members that helped build popular gaming titles such as Doom, Halo, and Call of Duty.
Gala received funding from Binance’s Accelerator Fund for its development. In 2021, the team also announced a partnership with venture capital firm C2 Ventures to form a $100 million fund to invest in P2E games and the metaverse.
How does Gala Games work?
Some critics believe that many play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games focus on monetary incentivization over enjoyable gaming. Gala Games aims to address this criticism by creating “blockchain games you’ll actually want to play.”
To that end, the Gala platform hosts a number of services:
- Games – Gala's immersive games with crypto-based rewards include multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), real-time strategy (RTS), simulator, and role-playing (RPG) games such as Spider Tanks, Legends Reborn, GRIT, and Walking Dead: Empires.
- NFTs – In-game items like weapons, tools, and skins that can be bought and sold on the Gala Store, which acts as an NFT marketplace, and OpenSea, one of the industry’s largest NFT marketplaces.
- Film and music – Following its initial effort in gaming, Gala has added film and music platforms for artists to sell their creations directly to consumers.
In February 2022, Gala introduced Project GYRI, an independent blockchain to host Gala’s ecosystem. Though it would begin as a permissioned blockchain, the Gala team aims to transition it to a more decentralized model once it has proved to be stable.
Nodes
There are four main types of nodes that power Gala’s network. These nodes are owned by users that supply computational power needed to run the games hosted by Gala and are rewarded with GALA and/or NFTs for their contributions.
- Founder’s Nodes – Allow owners to vote on the evolution of the project by using GALA. Only 50,000 Founder Nodes are available, and they can be purchased from Gala using the GALA token.
- Game Nodes – Users who host gaming servers who may also be granted special allowances and considerations in the games they support (NFTs, ability to invite other players, etc.).
- Player Nodes – Decentralized music players that allow network listeners to play and share music in the form of NFTs.
- Film Nodes – Host entertainment and film experiences, analogous to Player Nodes.
How is the GALA token used?
Gala Games’ GALA token exists as both an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token and a BNB Chain-based BEP-20 token. It is used as a reward incentivization mechanism for Founder Node operators, as a means of platform governance through voting, for in-game player rewards, and as a unit of payment for purchasable NFTs within the Gala Store. It can also be used to buy a license required to run a node.
Token distribution
There is a total supply of approximately 50 billion GALA. Each day, a pre-specified amount of new GALA tokens is distributed – half to Founder’s Nodes and half to the Gala Games Conservatorship, which acts as the treasury for Gala Games. Between July 2022 and July 2023, 8,561,643 GALA were planned to be distributed daily. The daily issuance is cut in half every year, so beginning in July 2023, this measure will adjust to slightly fewer than 4.3 million tokens.
Gala Games essentials
- Gala Games is a blockchain gaming platform that offers a lineup of play-to-earn (P2E) gaming titles, an NFT marketplace, and music and film products.
- GALA operates on a system of decentralized nodes owned by users which perform a variety of functions from hosting game servers to storing and distributing music and film NFTs.
- The GALA token is used to reward nodes for providing services to the network, as an in-game currency in Gala-sponsored blockchain games, as a means of trade in Gala’s NFT marketplace, and for platform governance.
How to buy Gala
You can buy the Gala coin on Bitstamp. Sign up for a Bitstamp account and start trading GALA today!
Disclosure: UMA is not available in the US.
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