Why Treasure Is Building ‘Infinity Chains’ on Arbitrum to Power Ethereum Games

Crypto gaming ecosystem Treasure had choices. Constructed on Arbitrum, the platform—which presently spans 15 video games—attracted proposals from the Optimism, zkSync, and SKALE groups in latest weeks emigrate to a different Ethereum scaling community.

As an alternative, Treasure intends to double down on Arbitrum. This week, the ecosystem’s core group introduced plans to launch a Treasure Chain constructed on Arbitrum and utilizing its current MAGIC token to pay for fuel, with an internet of “Infinity Chains” that may energy the assorted video games being constructed round Treasure.

Beneath the proposed plan, which Treasure’s DAO nonetheless has to approve (with a vote deliberate for Monday, February 12), Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs will construct out the Treasure Chain—a customized Ethereum layer-2 scaling community—that may then allow recreation creators to deploy their very own layer-3 Infinity Chains that orbit it.

“That is actually simply an evolution of our imaginative and prescient at Treasure, with the historical past of us being one of many earliest initiatives to construct on Arbitrum,” co-founder Karel Vuong defined to Decrypt’s GG. “The pure subsequent step for us was to launch in direction of our personal chain. Our ambition is actually to construct this gaming and leisure powerhouse that is constructed and owned by everybody.”

We’ve seen different video games—like Pixels, Pirate Nation, and Crypto Unicorns—hop chains (or make plans to) in latest months, so what satisfied Treasure to stay with Arbitrum?

Vuong pointed to what they noticed as deficiencies with rival proposals, whether or not it’s the technical make-up (within the case of Optimism) or a perceived lack of traction with customers (as with zkSync). Arbitrum has particular performance that Treasure wants, he added, and so they’ve constructed up a person base in that ecosystem. On high of that, Treasure and Offchain Labs have already got a bond.

“We have been within the trenches collectively for the reason that days the place Arbitrum gaming was in its infancy,” mentioned Offchain Labs Chief Technique Officer A.J. Warner. “Individuals solely considered Arbitrum as a DeFi-focused setting.”

That’s not the case. Treasure’s personal rise helped kick-start that evolution, with a rising listing of video games together with The Beacon, Mighty Motion Heroes, and Kaiju Playing cards. Extra just lately, Arbitrum has seen the rise of Xai, a layer-3 gaming chain that held an airdrop in January and can start rolling out video games within the coming months.

Vuong and Warner each mentioned they see potential for interoperability and collaboration throughout the Arbitrum gaming area, although Warner mentioned that they’re nonetheless “taking a look at the very best methods to do it securely with out compromising.” As he famous, bridges between chains are typically inclined to assaults, as seen with the Ronin Community’s $622 million bridge exploit in 2022.

If Treasure’s DAO approves the proposed plan, then the core group goals to get the Treasure Chain testnet launched by the top of this quarter, with a mainnet launch in Q3 2024.

Vuong sees an array of potential advantages to the plan, together with enhanced cohesion throughout the Treasure ecosystem, enhanced utility for the MAGIC governance token, and the power to implement creator royalty settings on NFT gross sales. For Treasure, too, it’s a possibility to take its rising toolset for recreation builders and construct one thing even larger with it.

“We’re seeing this chance to construct new IP as a decentralized recreation writer,” Vuong mentioned, “nearly like a brand new Marvel Cinematic Universe, however one that’s really bottom-up.”

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.