Game Economics
Economic Tools
Deflation: The deflationary protocol used in CropBytes, which decreases the supply of assets over time, can be compared to the concept of deflation in the real-world economy. In the real world, deflation occurs when the supply of an item decreases, leading to an increase in the value of each unit. In CropBytes, as the supply of assets and tokens decreases, their value increases, which can incentivize players to hold onto them rather than spend or trade them.
Elasticity of Supply: The concept of price elasticity of supply refers to how sensitive the quantity of a product or service supplied is to changes in its market price. As per the fundamental principles of economics, when the price of a product increases, the supply of that product will tend to rise. Conversely, if the price of a product decreases, its supply will tend to decrease as well.
Network Difficulty: The use of network difficulty to control the supply of assets and consumables in the game can be compared to the concept of price controls in the real world. In the real world, price controls are sometimes used to regulate the supply and demand of certain goods and services. Similarly, in CropBytes, network difficulty is used to regulate the supply of assets and consumables, which can help to balance the game's economy and ensure that the supply of these items does not become too abundant or too scarce. To balance the game's economy, all the assets, tokens, and consumables rely on network difficulty, a logic that is used to control the supply of these assets in the game economy if there is more demand. The difficulty is calculated based on an estimated supply for each asset at a given time. There is a weekly estimate of the predicted supply of assets which goes up to week 270. If the supply is more than the estimate, the network difficulty increases above 1, hence more consumables will be required for the output. It’s the exact opposite in case the network difficulty is below 1.
Burning: The economics of burning tokens can be understood through the law of supply and demand. When the supply of a token is reduced, while the demand for the token remains the same or increases, the value of the token can increase. This is because there are fewer tokens available to meet the demand for them, so those who want to buy the token may be willing to pay more for it. Burning of CBX for various features in the game can be compared to the concept of money supply in the real world: The money supply is controlled by central banks, who can adjust interest rates and other policies and tools to increase or decrease the supply of money in circulation. Example: Demonetization of Currency. Similarly, in CropBytes, the supply of CBX is reduced through burning, which can help to ensure that the supply of assets and consumables remains balanced and that the value of these items does not become inflated.
Price Discovery: One of the most exciting aspects of the CropBytes game is that price action is entirely dependent on demand and supply giving players total control over the shape of the economy. CropBytes game creators have no control over any secondary/market pricing in the game.
Supply of Assets and Currency in CropBytes
Assets
These are SFTs that include Animals, Trees, Land, Wells, Solar Panel, Wind Turbine, House, Mills, and more. They are used for generating consumables that can be sold in the market or be used to craft items that can be used to mint currency (CBX Tokens). As the game's economy grows, the value of Assets that produce consumables increases over time. This is similar to how the value of assets in the real world, such as stocks and real estate, can increase over time in a booming economy. Properties include:
Limited Supply
Deflationary Mining (Harder to Mine as new supply is created)
Cannot be Burned
Used for creating Consumables
In-Game mining
Tradable
ERC 1155 SFTs
Pro Assets
These assets are particularly special because they play a crucial role in the functioning of the CropBytes economy.
Unlike others, these assets are non-tradable and can only be produced by burning CBX. This means that players cannot buy or sell these assets with other players or on external exchanges. Instead, they are used to create special utilities and items within the game that help to keep the economy running smoothly.
For example, players can use these assets to craft special items like Pro Mix which is used for Asset Mining and Breed Feed which is used in Breeding of Superheroes. They can also be used to unlock unique powers that boost the output of a farm.
Properties include:
Limited Supply
Elastic Price
Cannot be Burned
Used for crafting and special powers
In-Game mining
Non - Tradable
ERC 721 NFTs
Consumables
These are SFTs that include commodities such as Water, Feed, Milk, Eggs, Truffles, and so on. The commodities can be used to mine supply of CBX thus becoming an income from owning Assets.
The price of these commodities are elastic which means that it is invariably proportional to supply vs demand of the commodity. For example if in a week, a lot of Milk was used up to create CBX showing a rise in demand, the difficulty to generate CBX from Milk goes up. Similarly if the demand drops, the amount of CBX generated from the same amount of milk increases.
As the number of farmers increases over time, the supply of CBX generated from commodities decreases. This is done through increasing the amount of commodities required to mine one unit of CBX.
Properties include:
Unlimited Supply
Elastic price based on demand and supply
Can be Burned for CBX
Used for creating CBX
Fixed production rate
Tradable
ERC 1155 SFTs
Currency
CropBytes is a virtual world where CBX is the currency used for transactions, rewards programs, and more. The supply of CBX is created by players through in-game activities.
The formula for CBX mining takes into account the difficulty level of generating CBX and the conversion rate of various in-game items i:e conversion of commodities to CBX. The difficulty level is determined by the actual CBX produced compared to the estimated CBX, and the conversion rate increases by 10% every 10 weeks.
For example, when the difficulty level is 1 at week 1 and a player converts 4 units of milk, they will receive 1 CBX. However, when the difficulty level drops to 0.5, the player would need to sell 2 units of milk to receive 1 CBX. Conversely, when the difficulty level increases to 1.5, the player would need to sell 6 units of milk to receive 1 CBX.
Out of the total supply of 500M CBX tokens, 38.23% or 191.1M tokens are allocated for in-game mining. The estimated CBX supply in the mining formula is determined by the unlock schedule represented in a graph which determines the predicted supply week-on-week for 270 weeks. This supply prediction can be found here: https://ik.imagekit.io/cbytes/cbx-details/cbx_mining_estimated_supply_schedule_v1.pdf
In summary, CBX is the currency in the virtual world of CropBytes, and players can generate CBX through in-game activities using the CBX mining formula. The difficulty level and conversion rate of various in-game items determine the amount of CBX a player can earn.
Properties include:
Limited Supply
Elastic price based on demand and supply
Created using commodities
Deflationary supply protocol
Tradable
ERC 20 Token
Understanding the relationship between Assets, Consumables, Services, and Currency
Every asset in the game has intrinsic value in the economy and are all perfectly interlinked like a strong fabric.
The demand and supply of one asset can influence the price action of a connected asset. For example: If farmers start accumulating Water on their farms, that will also drive the demand for Wells and Lakes. Another multilayered example would be: If Asset mining is in demand, it drives up the value of Pro Mix, Fruit Feed, Animal Extracts, etc.
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