MINTING UPDATE | Part 1
With the Minting of our P2E collection coming closer and closer, we’re thrilled to present our creative minting mechanism to the Riders community!
So there’s this button: You click it, connect Metamask, and mint one of these 10'000 unique anything living on whatsoever blockchain so that you don’t miss out on that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We know the drill. And it doesn’t matter whether you get an ape, an ice cream or some digital toilet paper with flowers: For most NFT projects the minting procedure is always the same, meaning a simple button without any special interaction.
This is why we wanted to get a little bit more creative, and create a minting mechanism which is a little bit more interesting. Due to the unique nature of our NFT concept where your final Riders’ stats are defined by the sum of the stats you equip them with (see Fig. 1) we were able to add some gambling elements for those who like adrenaline, while keeping it chill for those who rather play it safe.
Read on for a detailled insight in how we use normal distributions, different minting options and a thought-through re-allocation mechanism for achieving that future minters won’t have too big of disadvantages while still rewarding those who mint early.
If this is too many details, we also provide a summary at the end of this article.
Normal distributions and initial supply
It all starts with a normal distribution. If you’re not into maths slang, this just describes a certain probability distribution which is symmetric on both sides of a mean value (“average”). It is characteristic for a “fair game” where the outcomes don’t depend on each other. An example would be the probability distribution of the sums obtained by throwing two dice, where the curve will be symmetric around 7 and range from 2 to 12. (Since 1+1=2 is the lowest and 6+6=12 the highest possible outcome.)
So why are we telling you this? Well, imagine having 18 dice instead of two, with each dice having only five sides. Of course, this will also result in a normal distribution, this time with the curve ranging from 18 (all ones) to 90 (all fives), centered around 54. Now here’s the thing: This is analoguous to the probability of getting a certain level when minting your Rider. Each Rider has six gear items equipped, and each item has three stats (making 18 stats in total). For each stat your gear will have a value between 1 (“low”) and 5 (“extreme”). All the stats will be assigned randomly at mint (like throwing a dice), and since the level you will get in one certain stat won’t depend on what other stats you get, this will result in the bell-shaped curve we can see above: Lucky when you mint a 90, bad luck when you mint an 18, highly probable to mint around 54.
Now of course we needed to flatten this curve a little bit because if we used totally equal probabilities for getting one of the five stat points, we would get a total of 248'000'853'348 Riders with a level of 54, while getting only 1 Rider with a level of 18 or 90 respectively (which is around 30 Riders for each living human on Earth if we only count those with level 54). However, the symmetry of the normal distribution won’t be affected of course by flattening the curve.
If you’re interested in the maths behind all of this, don’t hesitate to DM us. However we won’t cover this in any more depth since this shouldn’t become a seminar on probability theory ;)
The Minting: “No Risk, no Fun” or “Safe and Sound”?
Let’s come back to how we’d like to make our minting process more interactive. As you know, to play in our P2E you need to have a Rider with some gear equipped, meaning a “complete” Rider equals 1 Rider NFT plus six gear NFTs. Now there’s two options how you can mint:
- The Tourist Mint: Here you mint a basic Rider at a very low price, but with no special gear equipped. This means it has the lowest level of 18 and you need to buy all the gear you want seperately. This is the “safe” way which most NFT projects don’t have, where rarity or other “values” of the NFT are assigned totally random at mint. Note that for this variant, the normal distribution from above isn’t needed.
Advantage: You know what you get at a fair price, i.e. no risk.
Disadvantage: You can’t get anything better than what you pay, i.e. no reward. - The Riders Mint: Here you pay 1 AVAX to mint a fully equipped Rider with randomized Gear NFTs. This means you can get a Rider at any level from 18 to 90. Here, the normal distribution from the previous chapter comes into play: The probability to get a certain level is given by the bell curve shown above.
Advantage: You have a chance on a strong Rider, i.e.there’s a reward.
Disadvantage: You can also get a weak Rider, i.e. there’s risk.
How everything is balanced
One question you now want to ask is: What if I mint an 18? How strong will my disadvantage be in the game? Well, thanks for asking! Here’s where all of our in-game economy mechanisms come into play: They are designed to motivate those with better stats into staking and lending out their Riders or selling their gear in a Ski Shop, giving those with lower stats opportunities to play with better chances or to lean/buy Riders directly in return for $POW. This will re-allocate the levels of the Riders in such a way that the outermost extremes of the bell-shaped curve get drawn to the mid range, making the game more balanced for everyone. (See Fig. 3)
Now your follow-up question: If levels get re-allocated anyways, why should I hope for a better Rider? Well, again we have an answer: Note that the way re-allocation happens is not by some magical algorithm, but due to the fact that those with better stats are actually selling or lending out their advantage. No matter whether they choose to stake, lend out or sell their Riders or Gear: there will be a monetary profit for those in the right half of the bell curve, which increases when we go even further to the right. This means that we have a constant monetary flow from the left to the right half, while stats and levels flow from the right to the left half, sustaining a balanced distribuion.
While the game gets played more and more, the stats of all Riders (and so their mean) will increase to higher and higher levels. This means that new Riders need to be minted at higher levels accordingly, so the game can be kept interesting. Again, if they’re minted far away from the mean, they will be re-allocated to the mid range, up-holding the shape of the curve while shifting it as a whole more and more to the right.
Summary
Now this has been a tough read for sure, so let’s summarize it briefly:
- You can mint in two different ways: Either the safe way where you pay 0.3 AVAX and get a lowest-level Rider, then upgrade it seperately; Or the risky way where you pay 1 AVAX for a fully-equipped Rider with a randomly assigned level.
- The probability of getting differently high levels is represented by a normal distribution, with the lowest chance of getting either 18 (lowest level) or 90 (highest level), and a highest chance of getting a level of 54.
- Since players with levels from the right half are tempted to stake / lend out / sell their Riders and Gear, while those on the left half are tempted to play more or rent / buy Riders and Gear, the distribution of levels is continuously re-allocated, resulting in a self-balancing system.
- While the game gets played more and more, the curve shifts furhter and further to the right while maintaining its self-balancing form.
Still with us? Awesome! If not, don’t hesitate to write us a DM on Twitter or Discord! We’re thrilled to tell you more or explain things in further detail. It may look complicated at first glance, but the core principle is rather easy: Tourist or Rider? Adrenaline or Après-Ski? Whatever type you are, we got you covered!
In the 2nd part of this Minting update we are going to cover the launch date, where you can mint and how it will work with Presales / Whitelists / Genesis airdrops, etc. … Stay tuned, Riders gang!
