What Is The ICE Merge?

The ICE Merge

The ICE Merge is a new and improved reward system that’ll be implemented in ICE Poker this week.

This article will cover what The ICE Merge is, why it’s needed, how it works, and the benefits.

Table of Contents

Prefer video? You can also watch Matt (CMO)’s video overview.

What Is The ICE Merge?

Following the passed governance proposal, the Decentral Games Team will be implementing a new reward system for delegated players.

Definition Delegated player = a player borrowing a wearable

Instead of $ICE, delegated players will now earn Banked ICE from playing ICE Poker’s Challenge Mode.

Why Is a New Reward System Needed?

Delegated players are the core of our player base. Currently, ~90% of our daily active users are delegated players.

For delegated players, there are limited options to reinvest into the game leading to consistent dumping of $ICE rewards.

Our current reward system was successful in bootstrapping player liquidity but it has presented long-term challenges for our in-game economy.

How Does the New Reward System Work?

Our wearable borrowing and lending system (delegation) will remain unchanged. Players will still be able to borrow a wearable to play Challenge Mode for a split of the rewards.

The primary change is that delegated players will earn Banked ICE instead of $ICE tokens.

If you own a wearable, you’ll continue to earn $ICE tokens from playing or lending out your wearable.

ICE Poker rewards
ICE Poker rewards

What Is Banked ICE?

As a delegated player, you’ll continue to earn rewards from playing Challenge Mode. These rewards will now come in the form of Banked ICE.

Unlike $ICE, Banked ICE isn’t a liquid token that you can trade on the secondary market; instead, you’ll be able to use your Banked ICE to redeem various rewards such as:

  • Discounted All Access wearables.
  • Discounted Arcade wearables.
  • Shine to add to existing wearables.
  • $ICE tokens.
ICE Poker: Banked ICE Vault
Banked ICE Vault

Wearables and Shine

With this new reward system, we released the ICE Plague—an exclusive All Access wearable that can only be claimed by redeeming Banked ICE.

Decentral Games ICE Poker All Access wearable: The Plague
The Plague All Access wearable

Redeeming Banked ICE for wearables and Shine offers a 20-30% discount compared to buying with $ICE.

Along with Arcade Mode, redeeming Banked ICE for discounted wearables and Shine allows you to become a wearable owner at an accelerated pace.

ICE

The initial $ICE token conversion rate will be 1 Banked ICE = 0.3 $ICE.

Note: All $ICE token conversions will still be subject to the 2,000 $ICE claim minimum. For example, you’ll need 6,667 Banked $ICE to claim 2,000 $ICE.

Ecosystem Benefits

This new reward system provides significant economic benefits to the ICE Poker ecosystem in the short and long term.

Short Term Benefits

The immediate benefit is a ~50% reduction in $ICE emissions, helping stabilize the price of $ICE.

This large emission reduction also brings the ecosystem to nearly a 1:1 burn-to-earn ratio. The new reward system combined with Arcade Mode will help bring the ICE Poker ecosystem above a 1:1 burn-to-earn ratio. Having a greater than 1:1 burn-to-earn ratio means more $ICE is burned than emitted, resulting in a deflationary supply of $ICE.

While the effects from the emission reduction will reduce over time as Banked ICE is used to redeem wearables, it’ll be a significant contributor to a sustainable in-game economy—especially as we scale up Arcade Mode, which has created a new avenue to burn $ICE.

Long Term Benefits

Ultimately, we want players to see an accelerated path to becoming owners, and that’s one of the big benefits that this new system will bring.

We expect this new reward system to shift our player base to include more players who own a wearable. This will lead to more players reinvesting back into the game, such as upgrading wearables and buying accessories.

On top of all this, The ICE Merge creates a zero-cost entry point to becoming a wearable owner that’s centered on players investing time into the game to own a part of it.

This sense of ownership is a key element that’ll help ICE Poker sustainably grow moving forward.

Timeline

The ICE Merge is anticipated to be implemented this week.

Viewing and Redeeming Banked ICE

To learn how to view and redeem your Banked ICE, read our Banked ICE guide.

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