In early 2021, we released the original Haste “tap” game to demonstrate the value of peer-to-peer micropayments. Instant Leaderboard Payouts (ILP), allowed players to pay a small amount of Bitcoin, get on a leaderboard, and earn rewards. The concept of “Play to Earn” (P2E) was gaining traction, and we aimed to capitalize on it. With an experienced team and some seed capital, we developed Haste Arcade, a Web3 platform enabling third-party game developers to integrate ILP, which offered a new revenue stream for the devs and a fun new way for users to compete.

Despite the initial excitement, usage of the product slowly wained as P2E gaming lost its steam and anti-cheat security requirements within the Arcade posed a significant barrier to entry for most game developers who wished to integrate. We mandated a server-authoritative architecture, commonly used in realtime multiplayer AAA games, to ensure game integrity. However, this proved too challenging for many developers, who lacked the needed resources to implement such complex security measures.

While Haste Arcade hasn’t met our expectations yet, we’re driven by our passion for Bitcoin and the belief in its potential. Despite the setbacks, we remain committed to our vision and have decided to continuing pushing forward.

After a series of difficult decisions starting towards in the Fall of 2023, we’ve positioned the company to sustain for the long-term with a continued belief that a scalable version of Bitcoin, that supports micropayments, will ultimately prevail. We understand it is not the socially accepted, or dare we say “socially engineered”, norm, but it is our conviction and something we believe is worth fighting for.

Back to Our Roots 🌱

Haste Arcade started as “Haste”, a simple tap game that introduced Instant Leaderboard Payout (ILP) gaming to the world. The simplicity of the game, backed by the novelty of the ILP mechanism, was eye-catching, memorable, and FUN. It was only days after launch that hundreds, followed by thousands, of players where seeing how fast that could tap an orange circle on their mobile device in hopes of landing on the global leaderboard and instantly experiencing hundreds of “micropayment notifications” within their HandCash wallets.

Today we are introducing a new concept, one that addresses most of the challenges and setbacks that we’ve endured thus far and something we believe has a lot of potential. Simplicity and Fun is what got us here, today we return to our roots.

Introducing S2P Gaming 🚀

Haste Arcade is unveiling a new novel gaming concept called, “Stake-to-Play” or “Save-to-Play” gaming. Unlike P2E, ILP, and other forms of real money competitive gaming, S2P is not susceptible to the power law problem where gamers are disincentivized to play due to the cost of play or the 1% of players that are simply better than everyone else (cough cough… Reiney).

The way it works is simple:

• Lock/stake a chosen amount of coins for a chosen duration of time each time you play a game. (It’s completely up to you what you choose).
• Earn XP based on your stake settings and activity in the arcade.
• When the lock/staked duration expires, you get 100% of your coins back! No gimmicks.

Huge News For Game Developers 🙌

Adding your game to Haste Arcade just got a million times easier. The new Haste Arcade SDK takes a “secure enough” approach to score submission & game security by utilizing wallet signatures and unique txids. It is a 100% client side integration. Integration times will vary but it is within reason to fully integrate a game within an hour or so. Whether you are building a first person shooter (FPS), or building a game on Scratch, the door is now wide open for ALL game devs to integrate into Haste Arcade.

Additionally, you can now choose your own business model. Monetize your game however you’d like with in-app purchases, paid gameplay, etc. using a simple method call.

HST as the Centerpiece 💫

Thanks to 1Sat Ordinals and the BSV21 token protocol, we can reliably establish HST as the native in-game currency of Haste Arcade. Historically, HST served as the reward token or “ticket” you received for playing in the Arcade. Moving forward, it will now be the primary currency for both gamers and game developers within the Arcade. To enter the room, you will need some HST. To play games, you will need to stake/lock some HST. Developers will also earn in HST should they choose to monetize their games. The new 1Sat Market makes it simple to cash out HST and we plan to introducing additional ways to easily liquidate your tokens.

With these changes, HST is now the first fungible token on Bitcoin to implement locks using the lockup contract by David Case and made popular by Hodlocker.

HST is a utility token designed for use within the Haste Arcade platform and for playing games. Although the value of HST may vary in speculative markets, we do not guarantee or make any claims regarding its price or speculative value. Holding HST does not constitute an investment in Haste, Inc.

Game On 🕹

Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to locking a lot of HST with you!

Players will now be able to compete in live head-to-head tournaments every 15 minutes

More Ways to Compete and Have Fun

Starting on April 24, Haste Arcade will introduce a new way to compete in the Arcade:

Live Battles

Live Battles allow you to play in a way that equalizes the competition among players of varying skill levels by pitting players against each other in a best score out of three games event.

Line Ratings

Each player will be assigned a Line Rating. The Line Rating system will allow all of our players the ability to compete against anyone else in the Arcade (we are looking at you Reiney!) even if they feel like they can not get on an HLP (Haste Leaderboard Payout) leaderboard and basically level the playing field. In addition, Live Battles give our more experienced players a new reason to play more once they have reached the pinnacle of the leaderboards…

Line Ratings will be adjusted over time based on performance

It is a win-win. Game On.

How does it work?

Step 1 — Calculate your Line Rating

Before enrolling in a live battle, you’ll need to complete 5 training rounds in order to create your Line Rating. Think of this like a handicap in golf… You wouldn’t play Tiger Woods (aka Reiney) straight up in golf and have a fair chance, but if you were getting 18 strokes because of handicaps, it becomes a fair match.

Step 2 — Enroll in a Live Battle

Once you’ve completed your training, you’ll be eligible to enroll in any of the upcoming live battles including the daily Free Roll (more on that to come). Pick a game and get ready to compete!

Gameplay

When the game starts, you’ll get three chances to post your best score. That score is then adjusted based on your Line Rating, and your final score is calculated to determine what position you take on the leaderboard.

Example: Reiney’s Line Rating is +2, meaning they will get 2 points added to their best score. Reiney’s best score out of three games is 105. After his Line Rating adjustment, his final score is 107. El Nino’s Line Rating is +25, meaning they will get 25 points added to their best score. El Nino’s best score out of three games is 90. After their Line Rating adjustment, their final score is 115, placing them higher on the leaderboard than Reiney.

FREE ROLLS!

Twice a day, Haste will sponsor Free Roll battles where anyone can compete for HST and not spend a single credit. It is a no-brainer to compete every day in the free rolls (see description below).

Why These Changes Matter

Similar to how golf handicaps work, in battle mode, you do not compete “heads up,” meaning that it’s not simply the highest score that wins. Each player will receive a Line Rating based on previous performance. This has the effect of balancing the playing field, and each player must continue to improve in order to win. The formula is that your final score is your best attempt’s score minus your line rating is equal to your final score.

Haste loves the competition of HLP (Haste Leaderboard Payouts), but we have always wanted to give our players different ways of playing. Starting on April 24th, that becomes a reality, and we hope to continue to add more ways to play and earn over time.

Stay in the loop! Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Discord.

Overview

Haste Arcade was one of the first products to integrate with NFTYJigs, a SaaS service that supports the management of Run-based digital assets. Currently, NFTYJigs backs all Haste Game Collectibles and Player Cards. In late 2022, the NFTYJigs team introduced a more sophisticated and comprehensive platform for digital assets–aptly called Asset Layer. The Haste team has been in conversations with Asset Layer leadership over the last few months and is delighted to announce that we have upgraded our platforms–Haste Arcade and Take It, to leverage the new Asset Layer platform.

Arcade and Take It Updates

Asset Layer is built to deliver interoperability across games and apps. This new implementation has us extremely excited, as it will allow our team to develop more comprehensive and integrated features between the Arcade and Take It. Going forward, Haste can leverage the innovative Take It auction format to sell Arcade game collectibles directly or build new features like enabling any Take It NFT as your Haste Arcade PFP. Asset Layer will back these innovations, and the two products will share NFTs.

We will upgrade our platforms to utilize Asser Layer on May 4th, 2023. Please note these updates will require downtime for both the Haste Arcade Marketplace and Take It. To ensure no NFT transfers occur during this time, we will put the Haste Arcade Marketplace and Take It into maintenance mode for 24 hours starting on May 4th, 12:00 UTC, and lasting until May 5th, 12:00 UTC. The rest of the Arcade will still be functional, so please continue playing!

Player Cards

As announced earlier this year, we will also re-envision our Player Card experience. We made this decision after lots of great feedback from our community regarding the Player Card incentive model. In preparation for this new experience, the Haste team will be decommissioning the ability to buy and sell Player Cards on the Arcade Marketplace during this blackout period. As a result, we will work to implement a new and improved Player Card experience whose incentive model aligns with our users’ desires. Haste will announce a date for the new Player Card experience when we have more details.

For existing Player Card holders or players who minted their player card for $99, you will still have access to all your VIP benefits, including:

• 10% rebate on gameplays
• access to the private Discord channel
• early access to new features and games

New players will still be able to mint a Player Card for VIP benefits. We will temporarily disable the ability to sell your Player Card and purchase others on the marketplace in favor of a new Player Card experience rolling out later this year.

Finally, all Player Card statistics will still be kept and used for the new Player Card experience as well as other new Arcade enhancements in the future. For players who purchased another player’s Player Card, you will maintain ownership of that Player Card. We understand that you made an investment in those cards and we will be accounting for that in the new Player Card experience.

If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to reach out via Discord or support@hastearcade.com.

Thanks,

Haste Team

Stay in the loop! Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Discord.

Players will now earn HST for leaderboard positions, giving the Haste Token more utility

More Ways to Earn HST

Starting on April 17, the Haste Token will be what gamers earn for making a leaderboard. We have decided to make this change to further simplify the arcade and to give HST more utility. This means that players will now earn HST from:

1. Playing at any paid level regardless of whether or not they make a leaderboard (the current daily distributions of HST will remain the same). **As a hint for the future, we are planning to change how the distribution works to focus on game play more than spend. Stay tuned…
2. Making a leaderboard

As a reminder, HST is the loyalty token that can be redeemed within Haste Arcade for prizes, gift cards, and game collectibles. We believe this change will allow us to add additional utility to HST in future releases.

Keeping It Simple

Earning in HST is the last major component of what we have been referring to as our Phase 1 releases, which are focused on making the arcade more accessible and easier to understand for the non-crypto “mainstream” gaming community. While we believe in the capabilities of BSV, we have enough data to suggest that it is simply too difficult for a “normie” to understand let alone acquire at this point in time.

The original plan was to change the leaderboard payouts from BSV to USDC so that gamers would be earning in a stablecoin, but due to unforeseen events, we had to adjust and pivot away from USDC. We believe that this may have been a blessing in disguise as it forced us to go back to the drawing board and look at all possible options, with HST coming out as a clear winner. We put ourselves in the shoes of a new user that doesn’t know anything about crypto, but likes the idea of playing fun casual games and potentially earning money from them. What would their ideal experience be? This is what we came up with:

1. Spend dollars to buy Haste Credits (just like a normal arcade or Dave and Busters)
2. Earn Haste Tokens (just like a normal arcade or traditional loyalty program)
3. Redeem those tokens for prizes (just like a normal arcade or traditional loyalty program)

Notice how understanding anything about “crypto” is not necessary to participate in any of these steps. We think that this simplicity will make it easy for new gamers to join the ecosystem and start playing and having fun.

Why This Change Matters

Our vision is to expand the arcade outside of the “crypto” world, and appeal to the three billion gamers worldwide. While the Haste Token is now the centerpiece of earning in the arcade, new users won’t need to know or care that it is running on BSV. Earning a token without needing crypto greatly simplifies how players are rewarded in the arcade and should increase adoption from our non-crypto marketing campaigns.

The benefits to the current community are that a significant amount of new users should generate new money flowing through the arcade and onto leaderboards. With the arcade reaching a wider audience, leaderboard positions should be changing more frequently, which should make the games and the arcade in general more exciting on a daily basis. We also believe that giving HST more utility will make it more valuable for speculators wanting to trade the token against other cryptocurrencies, and create additional exposure to the Haste ecosystem in the greater crypto community.

Stay in the loop! Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Discord.

The online gambling industry is massive, and companies in the space have mastered the incentives to get new users to join their platform and have fun. We’re taking a couple of pages out of this proven playbook with deposit matching and referral credits.

Deposit Matching

For all users, we will match the user’s first deposit up to $100. This means that if Mike signs up for the arcade and purchases $100 worth of Haste Credits, he will receive an additional $100 of Haste Credits on us!

Example: Mike creates an account with Haste Arcade and purchases $100 worth of Haste Credits. Mike is then awarded $100 in additional Haste Credits, bringing his total amount to $200 in Haste Credits.

Updated Referral Structure

As another incentive to spread the word about Haste Arcade, we will also reward a referrer with up to $25 in Haste Credits for every first deposit one of their referrals makes.

Example: Kelly refers Taylor to Haste Arcade. Taylor makes their first deposit and purchases $25 worth of Haste Credits. Taylor receives a deposit match of $25 in Haste Credits to their account, and Kelly also receives $25 worth of Haste Credits to their account.

Why These Changes Matter

Our vision is to expand the arcade outside the “crypto” world and appeal to the three billion gamers worldwide. These incentives have worked extremely well in the online gambling industry and should make it more appealing for new (and existing) users to play in the arcade, and share the arcade with their friends. We want to create a community of gamers that enjoy competing against each other in fun ways that enhance their gaming experience.

The benefits to the current community are that a significant amount of new users should generate new money flowing through the arcade and onto leaderboards. With the arcade reaching a wider audience, leaderboard positions should be changing more frequently, which should make the games and the arcade in general more exciting on a daily basis.

Stay in the loop! Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Discord.

Let’s face it, the crypto world can be crazy and confusing. Our goal from day one has been to attract as many people to Haste Arcade as possible, and as a way to mitigate some of the concerns a “non-crypto” gamer may have about participating in a play and earn arcade, we are simplifying the way that gamers spend in the arcade.

Haste Credits Keep Things Simple

The key to our upcoming feature releases is that gameplays will be made by spending Haste Credits, as opposed to BSV. It’s simple, $1 is always worth 100 Haste Credits. We believe that this removes a huge barrier to entry from a mainstream gamer perspective, as new users won’t need to understand several things prior to playing at paid levels in the arcade:

1. What is BSV?
2. Where/how to purchase BSV?
3. Why the price of BSV fluctuates and how this affects their Haste account balance

In essence, we are eliminating the learning curve that a new user who is not familiar with crypto would have to go through before being able to spend money in the arcade.

New Ways to Purchase Haste Credits

Users now have the ability to purchase Haste Credits through HandCash, RelayX, Twetch, and Coinbase, as we have added support for multiple crypto wallets. In addition, we are working towards users being able to purchase Haste Credits via debit/credit cards and/or bank account deposits. While finding a payment platform that can facilitate these payments has been more challenging than we originally anticipated, this is a crucial step to gaining mainstream adoption. The end goal is to make it as easy as possible for every user to start playing and earning on paid levels.

Why These Changes Matter

Our vision is to expand the arcade outside of the “crypto” world, and appeal to the three billion gamers worldwide. These changes will make it easier for mainstream gamers to understand how the Haste Arcade ecosystem works and should increase adoption from our non-crypto marketing campaigns.

The benefits to the current community are that a significant amount of new users should generate additional money flowing through the arcade and onto leaderboards. One of the main issues we see in the arcade today, is a lack of engagement once a player has made a leaderboard, because there are not enough daily gameplays to have leaderboards consistently resetting. With a wider audience able to play in the arcade, leaderboard positions will be changing more frequently, which should make the games and the arcade in general more exciting on a daily basis.

Stay in the loop! Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Discord.

The most common example we use to describe how the arcade works starts off with something like:

“you put a quarter in a Pac-Man machine…”

Problem is that up until now, we haven’t had Pac-Man in the arcade. Having said that, we’re excited to announce the release of the newest game in Haste Arcade, Dungeon Quest on March 13, 2023, at 10am EST! Given our common example, we felt like it was only appropriate to add a Pac-Man-themed game to the arcade, with a few extra twists to revamp this classic that you’re really going to enjoy!

Gameplay

If you’ve ever played PacMan, this game should feel very familiar aside from the medieval graphics.

Guide your character around the map collecting the coins, avoiding or killing the slimes, and capturing the treasure chest. The scoring has several bonuses built-in:

• Collect a coin = 1 point
• Collect a sword = 5 points
• Kill a slime with the same sword = 10 points per kill, increasing by 10 points
• Capture the treasure chest = 50 points per capture (chest keys spawn after you collect 30 coins, and 70 coins per level)

Once you collect all the coins on the map, you beat the level and advance. The speed of the slimes increases on each level making it more difficult the more levels you beat. But don’t worry, we’ve given you a secret weapon for when you’re in a really tight spot…

When you find yourself trapped, you can summon fireballs to kill any slimes in your vicinity (press the “V” key on desktop, or tap the fireball emblem on mobile). You only get two of these boosts per game so use them wisely!

Game Collectibles

We’re also excited to announce a collaboration with @mageta_art to create the arcade’s first third-party game collectible. The collectible is a pack that changes the background, power up, key + chest, and slimes into a psych ward, pill bottle, laptop, and an inmate.

The game collectibles won’t be immediately available upon launch, but we anticipate adding them to the Haste Marketplace in the very near future.

Opening Week Tournaments

To kick things off, there will be two Dungeon Quest Tournaments!

Competitive Tournament

• any paid level gameplay
• $250 in haste credit distributed among the top 10

Raffle Tournament

• any tier including practice will enter you in the tournament as long as you score a minimum score of 50
• top 3 win the surprise Mageta collectible

The tournaments will start on March 13 at 19:00 UTC and end on March 20 at 17:00 UTC. Good luck!

Stay in the loop! Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Discord.

It’s been two years since the original Haste proof-of-concept (alpha tap game) and a little over a year since we launched the existing Haste Arcade beta platform. It’s time for some updates on what we’ve been working on and what’s in store for 2023.

Below we’ve outlined the start of a high-level phased approach that will enable us to reach a much broader audience. We plan to release a more detailed post for each phase when appropriate.

Our Strategy

Since launching the beta platform in October of 2021, we’ve been analyzing data, testing marketing strategies, conducting surveys, documenting feedback, and doing our best to objectively make decisions that enable Haste Arcade to go mainstream. Below is the multi-phased plan we will be rolling out over the next 3–6 months in order to reach a mainstream audience:

Phase 1 — Onboarding, Earning, and a New Gameplay Mode

Implementation: Q4(2022) — Q1(2023)

The first step in achieving our vision is making it as simple as possible for users to get funds into the arcade. If we are unable to onboard a non-crypto user then it’s going to take much longer to reach a mainstream audience. We believe this to be true for anyone attempting to build scalable technology in the crypto/blockchain space. Phase 1 will enable easier onboarding and achieve a more cohesive experience, and will include:

🟡 Haste Credits — The new in-game currency for the Arcade. The virtual coin that powers gameplay. Do not fret Bitcoin enthusiasts, each gameplay and associated payouts & rewards are still powered by the blockchain.

💳 Additional Payment Methods — Debit/Credit cards, Crypto including USDC, BSV, BTC, BCH, ETH, LTC, DAI, DOGE, APE, SHIB, USDT, MATIC, and more. Fast follow integrations for ACH bank transfers via Plaid, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. We’ve also laid the foundation to support any type of Web3 wallet like Twetch, RelayX, Phantom, Metamask, etc. All these payment methods will be able to purchase Haste Credits and then perform actions in the Arcade with those credits.

🎁 Rewards in USDC and HST — with more currencies to come.

💰 Deposit Matching & Bonuses — Up to $100 deposit matching on your first deposit and subsequent deposit bonuses based on the amount purchased.

🤝 Updated Referral Plan — Earn Up to $25 when a user you refer makes their first deposit.

🕹 Live Battles & tAPI — A new mode of play powered by tAPI, the new Haste Arcade tournaments API.

💸 Surprise Premium Feature — Available for $4.99/month (no charge for Player Card holders).

Phase 2 — Haste Token, Player Card, and Leaderboard Enhancements

Implementation: Q1 into Q2

We’ve received a lot of feedback regarding HST, Player Cards, and the current ILP leaderboard incentives. We understand that there are currently some broken incentives and even disincentives to play (such as being able to knock your own score off the board). Through new utility, features, and added depth to the rewards system–these features aim to properly realign incentives. The main features of this phase are:

• 🎟 HST Payout Changes — Rewards that are more in line with a traditional arcade (skill-based elements + engagement)
• 💵 Anyone Can Earn — Free and paid players will be able to earn rewards.
• 😎 Player Cards — New utility and a re-envisioned experience.
• 📈 Progression MVP — Introduce the concept of global arcade progression.
• 🏆 Enhanced Leaderboards — Enhanced visuals and details for leaderboards.

Phase 3 — Building Trust

Implementation: Q1 into Q2

As we begin targeting the mainstream gaming industry, we want to improve how we are positioning the arcade in order to attract both gamers and game developers alike. We want to instill trust and credibility immediately and have a user’s first interaction with the arcade be something that they remember and want to tell their friends and family about. The main features of this phase are:

• 🕹️ Arcade Content — Better copy and details throughout the Haste Arcade on how things work to ensure gamers are confident in participating.
• 🛠 Enhanced Developers Page — Better copy on what Haste Arcade is and why developers should care.
• 📖 Case Studies — The proof is always in the data. Gamers and devs need to be informed about Haste Arcade’s benefits.
• 💪 Updated “My Account” Page — Some minor changes that support newly introduced features.

Mainstream Marketing 🚀

Implementation: Q2 — Onwards

Once we are through Phase 3, it’s go time! We will be hiring new staff and working with marketing experts to start expanding our reach in the USA and European markets.

• Organic Community Content Creation
• Paid Advertising
• Guerrilla Marketing
• Influencer Partnerships
• Sponsored Events

Phase 4 — Visual Components and Progressive Web App

Implementation: Q2

We want to create the absolute best experience possible for mobile and desktop users alike. To accomplish this we will convert the Arcade to a Progressive Web App (PWA) ultimately creating a more immersive experience for users through full-screen gaming and native-like experiences.

• 🎨 UX/UI polish — A global rethink and refactor of the current mobile experience. Arcade and games will feel more native.
• 💌 Notifications — Adding a notification system to the Arcade to engage users and keep them informed of relevant details to their gaming experience.

Phase 5 — User Dashboard and Progression

Implementation: Q3

We will be introducing a gamer dashboard/hub that has daily tasks and creates a clear path for player progression within the arcade. This will be a major development in the overall arcade experience, as it will introduce and highlight all the new ways gamers can have fun, earn, progress, and interact with the arcade community. The main features of this phase are still being ideated.

Phase 6 — Community Experiences

Implementation: Q3-Q4

Like Phase 5, we are still ideating on these concepts but we are certain that community and social experiences will play a huge role in the success of the platform. Stay tuned!

Phase 7 — Developer Experience

Implementation: Q3-Q4

Developers need to onboard easily and have a clear integration path for their games. As we get closer to the implementation date, we will start to solidify the specifics of how we plan to remove the friction the developers are currently experiencing.

What’s Next?

There is so much more on the roadmap but these are the highlights we wanted to share as we move into 2023. In addition to the above items, we will plan to release Haste Originals on a more frequent basis.

Thank you all for your belief and support as we enter the next chapter of Haste Arcade! #GameOn

Stay In the Loop 👇

Discord | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok

A Background on Micropayments in Gaming

It's no secret, if you’re a gamer, you probably cringe when you hear the term “micropayment”. These small transactions started as a way for game developers to generate additional revenue by selling new skins, themes, or extended content within a game. But the invention of blockchain technology has given birth to new types of micropayment concepts that gamers are extremely skeptical of.

Play to Earn

“Play to Earn” is a term becoming more and more popular in the gaming industry. For example, triple-A studios, such as Ubisoft, are investing millions of dollars into blockchain technology and play to earn concepts that give gamers the ability to monetize their gameplay. At face value, this sounds appealing. Take the following four scenarios:

1) Gamers purchasing in-game enhancements that improve their character, thus giving them a better chance at beating the game/other players for a financial reward

2) Gamers earning tokens/NFTs native to the game, that can then be sold on an exchange for a cryptocurrency

3) Gamers buying or finding “loot boxes” that may contain rare NFTs that can be sold on an exchange for a cryptocurrency

4) Gamers winning lottery NFTs within a game, that can be sold on an exchange for a cryptocurrency

But there is a flaw with each of these play-to-earn concepts…

None of them allow the gamer to earn strictly based on their skill compared to the skill of all other gamers

For example, in scenario 1, a situation arises where the gamer with the most financial backing automatically has an advantage over the rest of the field. By purchasing in-game enhancements, the gamer’s character/team has an advantage over other gamers that has nothing to do with skill. This version of play-to-earn has since been dubbed, “Pay-to-Win”, by the gaming community.

In scenario 2, gamers earn tokens/NFTs from gameplay that can be exchanged for cryptocurrency on speculative markets. The problem with this model is that there must be demand for the tokens in order for the gamer to be able to sell them. What utility do the tokens have that would create demand?

Scenario 3 describes what is known as a “loot box” and can be very rewarding for gamers if the box contains a valuable NFT. If it doesn’t the player has spent money for no real value in return.

Scenario 4 is sometimes known as “NFT lotteries” where players are randomly awarded ownership of a rare NFT. While this NFT may be significantly more valuable than other NFTs within a game, this lottery dump style opens the door for gamers to cheat the system by creating multiple accounts, thus increasing their chances of winning a lottery.

So the problems are:

1. Skill has nothing to do with earning
2. Luck is the primary driving force of any type of monetary reward
3. Micropayments are only going from the gamers to the game developers

But what if there was a way for gamers to earn based on their skill?

Rewarding Gamers Based on Skill

Haste Arcade has created a new way to utilize micropayments within games that reward both the game developer and the player. The concept is called Instant Leaderboard Payouts™, or ILP Gaming™.

To get an idea of how ILP Gaming™ works, imagine the following scenario:

You put a quarter in a Pac-Man machine and get the high score. For having the high score, you get a percentage of every subsequent quarter spent on that Pac-Man machine until your score is no longer on the leaderboard.

How blockchain enables micropayments

Among the core value propositions of blockchain technology, is the fact that payments do not require a trusted third party, aka a credit card company or a bank, to validate the transaction and prevent fraud.

For example, a standard digital payment has a transaction fee of 2.9% of the transaction amount plus a $0.30 constant. The transaction fees are paid to the credit card processor (typically a bank or credit card network like the Visa Network) because the processor has overhead that they need to pay — ie employees, electricity, office space, etc. These fees make it impractical to sell something online for less than a dollar.

Think about it, if you sold a $1 item online, you would be losing at least $0.33 of the revenue just to the credit card fees! This is why most games make gamers buy credits in amounts of $5, $10, $25, or more upfront, even though the items that are sold within the game cost $0.99.

Since a blockchain is simply an immutable timestamped public ledger, you no longer need a third party to oversee every transaction and protect against fraud. This means the third party can be eliminated, along with the third-party fees that are associated with a transaction, greatly reducing the floor amount that can be digitally transacted and the time it takes for a transaction to be validated.

What does this have to do with gaming?

Let’s go back to our PacMan example from earlier. A gamer still has to pay to play the game, but because of the peer-to-peer nature of blockchain technology, the cost to play a game can be less than a penny!

What’s even cooler is that the payment to play the game can be split up into even smaller amounts and instantly distributed to other wallets which is why Instant Leaderboard Payouts™ are possible. Here’s an example:

1. $readyplayerone spends $0.01 to play Monster Bombs, a home run derby game in Haste Arcade
2. Immediately upon the game starting, the $0.01 is split into 10 fractions of a cent — $0.001 each
3. The 10 fractions are then instantly distributed directly to 10 wallets of gamers that are already on the Monster Bombs leaderboard

In this example, if $readyplayerone makes it onto the leaderboard, they only need to have a score that stays on the leaderboard for 10 other gameplays before they have recouped their initial $0.01, and anything after that is profit. If $readyplayerone didn’t make the leaderboard, well, it only cost $0.01 to have some fun!

Actual gameplay costs in Haste Arcade — Free, $0.01, $0.10, $1, $10, $100

Not play-to-earn or pay-to-win

One of the most important aspects of ILP games is that the games are skill-based. This means that chance is not a determining factor in the outcome. Therefore, ILPs reward players solely based on their skill at the game, in comparison to other players.

Additionally, there are no loot boxes or in-game enhancements that give a player an advantage over the field. The result is simple:

Incentivized competition that rewards the most talented players

Furthermore, ILP Gaming™ is not a play-to-earn model, but rather a play-and-earn model. The difference is that in play-to-earn games, the focus of the gameplay is on earning, with players taking actions solely to earn regardless of whether or not they are enjoying playing the game (ie purchasing a loot box), whereas the focus of gameplay in play-and-earn games is still on playing the game and improving a players skill at the game since there is no guarantee that anything will be earned. This allows the player to focus more on progressing and enjoying the game itself, with earning being a potential outcome, but not the key driving factor.

How much can gamers and/or game developers actually earn?

Unbounded Capital wrote an incredible article that goes into great detail on the power of ILPs. They use Flappy Birds as an example to demonstrate the revenue ILPs create for both gamers and game developers, and found that during the peak of Flappy Bird's virality, the game had about 50,000,000 downloads. During that time period, if the majority of people that downloaded the game were playing in ILP mode, and the cost to play a game was only half a penny, the gamer holding the #1 leaderboard position would have been earning over $200,000 daily in the form of micropayments! Game developers would have gone from generating about $50,000 daily from advertising revenue to over $2 million daily, strictly from gameplays.

So if you’re a gamer, next time you hear the term “micropayments”, don’t be scared!

Download a HandCash wallet and check out Haste Arcade today!

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We’re excited to announce the release of our newest game, Monster Bombs, in Haste Arcade! Given the background of several of our founders, it only seemed fitting that our first sports game was a baseball game. But we didn’t want it to be your average baseball game, so we’ve added a few twists that we think make the game the most unique and exciting home run derby on the internet. The game will be available to play starting September 20th, 2022.

Meet Tank

The character you play as, Tank, is a monster from a distant planet, that is now trapped on the world of Avachrome. How did Tank get there?

An evil presence holds Tank captive on Avachrome: a distant planet that imprisons all adventurers unlucky enough to stumble upon it. But there is a way to escape…
By scoring the highest in Monster Bombs–a tournament that puts an evil twist on the traditional home run derby: Will you be able to handle all the curveballs that your demonic captor throws?

Gameplay

The gameplay is pretty straightforward. See the ball, hit the ball. But there are some caveats. As opposed to a traditional home run derby, where every pitch is straight down the middle at the same speed, there are multiple pitches in Monster Bombs — fastball, changeup, curveball from the right, curveball from the left, and a super slider that breaks from right, to left, and back to the right. Hitting is all about timing, and each pitch needs to be timed differently in order to make the best contact.

In addition to the pitches being different, the ball itself can also change mid-pitch into either a green power-up ball or a bomb. Hitting the green power-up ball will charge Tank for his next swing. If you make contact while Tank is charged, you will automatically hit a “monster bomb” (a super-charged home run) that explodes out of the stadium! But be careful… If you make contact with a bomb, your health will decrease by 1/3.

Here’s how the rest of the rules and scoring works:

• Swing and miss at three pitches and the game is over
• Survive 10 pitches and level up
• Single = 1 point
• Double = 3 points
• Triple = 5 points
• Home run = 10 points
• Monster Bomb = 15 points
• Resist swinging at a bomb = 3 points

Pro tip: hit three consecutive home runs and Tank will catch fire, meaning the next three hits will automatically be Monster Bombs, until you lose your fire by swinging and missing, or by hitting one of the bombs

Development

To date, this is the most complex game that we have developed in-house. The game is built with Unity and is our first 3D game. Keith LaForce was the lead developer, but we also worked with a 3rd party artist to help with the swing animation and the custom hats, jerseys, and shoes that can be equipped on Tank.

Physical and Digital Game Collectibles

Aside from dropping some bombs, the thing we are most excited about is the Monster Bombs game collectibles. With the release of the game, we are also releasing three collections of physical items that come with a digital copy NFT that can be equipped to Tank within the game. The collections will drop Friday, September 16 at 12pm PST.

Limited Edition Haste Jersey

The first collection is 50 Limited Edition Haste Jerseys. These are the same jerseys you may have seen Haste team members wearing at various conferences over the last year. The jerseys are being released as a Take It style drop, on the Take It NFT auction platform.

The Tank — Custom sneakers by Haste Arcade via Nike by You

The second collection is 10 customized shoes created by Haste Arcade via Nike by You, known as “The Tank”. These shoes were designed by the Haste team and are being released as a Take It style drop, on the Take It NFT auction platform.

Haste Hat

The third collection is 500 Haste Hats. These are high-quality active hats being released as a Mint It style drop, on the Take It NFT auction platform. There are six different versions of the hat that can be minted — Space, Asteroid, Earth, Turf, Lava, and Avachrome — ranging from common, to exotic in uniqueness.

Why We Built Monster Bombs

We believe that Monster Bombs will demonstrate multiple ways professional sports franchises, content creators, and brands can utilize blockchain technology to further drive fan/follower engagement. The game brings together everything we have been working on for the last few months:

• A 3D game
• Physical to digital NFTs
• 3rd party collectibles (be on the lookout for a Built By Gamers collection of hats, jerseys, and shoes in the Haste Marketplace)
• An integration between Take It and Haste Arcade

Opening Week Tournament

To kick things off, we are hosting an Opening Week Tournament. The top score from any level (free included) will earn the player one of the Limited Edition Haste Arcade jerseys and digital copy NFTs. Scores submitted any time between September 20th — September 27th at 12pm EST will count towards the tournament leaderboard.

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