Intro
To better serve the Lootverse & AGLD community, we propose upgrading the Loot Chain to Adventure Layer. In this proposal we walk through the history of the Loot Chain, the vision & mission we had for the Loot Chain, and how we can better fulfil them with the Adventure Layer.
History & Past Development
The Loot Chain, launched in 2023, is structured as an EVM L3, leveraging Polygon for data availability. This architecture choice allowed Loot Chain to operate with EVM compatibility while benefiting from the affordable DA provided by Polygon.
Since launch, we have deployed games and products onto the Loot Chain. This includes several FOCGs, such as Loot Craft and the Dice Game. More details can be found in the products below or via the explorer.
- Bridge: The Loot Chain Bridge facilitated the transfer of assets between the Loot Chain and other blockchains, for both tokens & NFTs.
- NFT Pad: The NFT Pad on Loot Chain served as a platform for creators to mint their NFTs.
- NFT Market: The NFT Market was a marketplace dedicated to buying, selling, and trading NFTs on the Loot Chain using AGLD.
- Loot Console: The Loot Console was an innovative tool aggregating various games available on Loot Chain. It provided users with a single access point to explore and engage with the gaming content within the Lootverse.
- Adventure Forge: Adventure Forge is a launchpad focused on curating and launching the best AW projects that support the AW ecosystem.
We soon realized that the Loot Chain itself had become a bottleneck. One of the significant challenges encountered was the limitation in gas availability, which hindered the chain’s ability to scale effectively. Additionally, the lack of sovereign scaling meant that the Loot Chain was not horizontally scalable, which means some community member’s experience might be compromised during onchain rush hours. Besides scalability, a lack of developer tooling is also prominent. Spending additional effort on a chain that does not fit the latest generation of FOCGs can no longer serve the best interest of the Lootverse & AGLD community.
Upgrade initiative
We hereby propose introducing the Adventure Layer as an upgrade to the Loot Chain, dedicated to Fully Onchain Games. The detailed design can be found in the whitepaper. Here we present a summary of improvements.
Composable Sharding
The Adventure Layer is an L2 with sharding that’s purpose-built for Fully Onchain Games, allowing each game to run its own individual shard. Unlike a general L3 on top of an L2, each shard will have a shared memory space with the L2 so that smart contracts can be seamlessly composable.
Originally discussed as an earlier proposal to scale Ethereum, and recently popularized by TON, sharding involves splitting the blockchain into smaller, more manageable segments, or “shards.” Each shard operates independently, processing transactions and smart contracts in parallel, which significantly reduces bottlenecks and improves throughput.
ECS-based Parallel Execution
Adventure Layer integrates a parallel execution engine based on the Entity-Component-System (ECS) framework. In contrast to Block-STM, which relies on speculative execution and rollback mechanisms, the ECS-based parallel execution engine in Adventure Layer inherently supports non-conflicting transactions, minimizing the need for complex conflict resolution strategies. This results in a more efficient and scalable system, tailored to the needs of high-performance applications, including fully onchain games.
The ECS (entity, component, system) model, widely recognized in the gaming industry, separates data (entities) from logic (systems) and organizes components into modular systems that can be processed independently and concurrently.
Game Engine Integration
To attract and empower game developers, Adventure Layer offers a comprehensive gaming development SDK that seamlessly integrates with popular front-end engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine. This SDK is designed to provide developers with the tools they need to create rich, interactive gaming experiences on the blockchain, without having to navigate the complexities of smart contract development from scratch.
Role of AGLD on the Adventure Layer
Similar to the Loot Chain. The Adventure Gold Token ($AGLD) will be used as the gas token and the governance token of the Adventure Layer. There will be a future proposal focusing on the ecosystem strategy and implementation of tokenomics on the Adventure Layer.
Closing & Migration
Overall, we felt the need to upgrade the Loot Chain due to it has become a bottleneck in expanding our ecosystem. The technical design of the Adventure Layer is innovative even by today’s industry standard, which we expect to solve the problems we see in the Loot Chain. If the community approves of this proposal, we will proceed to sunset the Loot Chain & migrate user assets, data, and relevant products & tools onto the Adventure Layer. Detailed migration instructions & schedule will be published before the launch of the Adventure Layer Mainnet.