What is XPLA (XPLA)?

IntermediateDec 29, 2023
XPLA is a full-suite protocol built on Tendermint, leveraging the Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus model within the PoS framework and offering a wide array of developer tools for game development.
What is XPLA (XPLA)?

Introduction

XPLA, hailed as “The Content-Driven, Universal Gaming, and Entertainment Blockchain,” stands at the forefront of Web3 gaming development, uniquely positioned to bridge the realms of Web2 and Web3. This protocol, built on Tendermint with a Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus model within a proof-of-stake (PoS) framework, offers a comprehensive suite of developer tools dedicated to gaming creation. This article explores XPLA’s architecture, aspirations, and potential to be the cornerstone of entertainment in the blockchain ecosystem. From its operational mechanisms to governance structure and strategic alliances, XPLA promises an immersive and collaborative platform for the evolving landscape of decentralized gaming and native content.

What is XPLA?

Blockchain has gained recognition primarily for enabling cryptocurrency trading. However, its applications extend far beyond this use case. XPLA is focused on driving art, content, and gaming to establish itself as the blockchain’s media hub.

XPLA is a robust blockchain, leveraging Tendermint for its security-tight architecture. Tendermint’s Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus mechanism within the proof-of-stake (PoS) framework ensures high security and agreement among network validators. Using a deterministic and accountable block creation process involving multi-round voting among randomly selected validators that fortifies the network against various failures, including malicious actions. Tendermint’s emphasis on efficiency and scalability makes it an excellent choice for building secure and reliable blockchain networks.

XPLA, though relatively new to the scene, has shown growth, having onboarded over 11 games and listed its native token on major exchanges, including Gate.io. The ecosystem’s governance model, community involvement, and strategic partnerships highlight its commitment to growth and sustainability, with its continuous push for more collaboration with key industry players and expansion of its functionality.

Enabling Blockchain Interoperability

Source: XPLA

To achieve interoperability, XPLA strategically aligns its ambitions for interoperability with other chains through IBC (inter-blockchain communication) and provides developers with a secure environment using the COSMOS SDK (software development kit). The Cosmos SDK and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility allow for cross-chain immersive gaming experiences. While the Cosmos SDK provides a modular framework for building blockchains, EVM compatibility allows developers to deploy their Ethereum-based smart contracts on Cosmos-based blockchains.

In addition, XPLA positions itself as a significant contender in the evolving landscape of blockchain-based entertainment. The future holds immense potential for XPLA to be a transformative force in shaping the way we experience entertainment on Web3.

XPLA’s Governance

Source: XPLA Whitepaper — XPLA empowers its community through a transparent and inclusive governance process

XPLA’s all-inclusive governance holds the project together. It highlights three key aspects: decision-making, rules and administration, and mission and policy. Members holding $XPLA get a say in the decision-making. The community holds the power to propose and vote on changes impacting the platform’s future. The process begins with the development of new rules and policies. When rules are proposed, the community can then vote on the proposed changes. If the changes are approved, they are then implemented by the XPLA administration.

In February 2023, XPLA announced that they would be implementing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) into their network. The node upgrade took place on February 9, 2023. It was proposed and approved via a governance vote by 76% of validators based on results verified through the XPLA Explorer before the end of the voting period. The XPLA governance structure symbolizes how XPLA governance allows global participation in decision-making processes.

Additionally, for the sustenance of the ecosystem, certain rules and administration guides are put in place about how proposals are submitted, discussed, and ultimately voted upon. This ensures a transparent and fair process for all participants.

Entertainment

Source: XPLA — Partnership with The Walking Dead: All-stars

XPLA’s primary focus centers on both native content creation and gaming experiences within its ecosystem. Emphasizing native content as a catalyst for user activity and growth, the platform aims to allure more creators and developers to craft additional applications.

XPLA’s unwavering focus on games emphasizes its role as an omni-chain gaming platform. This has resulted in the successful onboarding of exciting games, such as The Walking Dead: All-Stars, Mini-Game Party, and Idle Ninja Online, among others, which harness the capabilities of the XPLA blockchain. Moreover, XPLA seamlessly incorporates NFTs into these gaming experiences, enabling these tokens to be used across various games within the XPLA Chain ecosystem or exchanged for other virtual assets.

How Does XPLA Work?

XPLA is centered around three focal points: providing tech support and SDK for Web2 games transitioning to Web3, creating an infrastructure to onboard Web2 users to Web3, and, through Cosmos SDK and IBC inter-chain maintaining communication between different chains and providing a variety of services to developers and users, such as wallet management, payment processing, and smart contract execution.

Key features of the XPLA chain

  • Tendermint Core Consensus Algorithm for Security
  • Scalable architecture to handle a high volume of transactions
  • IBC protocol for interoperability with other blockchains
  • Developer-friendly tools and resources

Tendermint serves as the sturdy base for XPLA, recognized for its strong security and scalability. On top of that, XPLA taps into the power of Cosmos and EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), allowing developers to run diverse decentralized applications. Understanding its architecture and the layers it encompasses helps us see the full potential of what XPLA can offer.

XPLA’s Consensus Mechanism

The XPLA protocol uses the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus model, utilizing the Cosmos SDK and secured by Tendermint Consensus. The operational flow on the chain involves the appointment of a validator, termed a proposer, who is entrusted with proposing new transaction blocks.

These blocks undergo a dual-round voting process by validators, determining their acceptance or rejection. Approved blocks are authenticated, appended to the chain, and reward validators and delegates with transaction fees, ensuring the network’s continuous growth and reliability. Within Tendermint’s consensus protocol, $XPLA tokens can be staked, binding them to validators in return for incentives.

Validator standing is influenced by their stake, primarily amassed through delegates, and validators with larger stakes are more frequently selected to propose new blocks, hence earning higher rewards in proportion to their stake. Delegators, on the other hand, contribute significantly to the staking process without the need for full-node operation. Their support amplifies a validator’s influence and potential rewards.

These processes strategically prevent network manipulation. While traditional transaction fees might go into a community pool, XPLA’s rewards for stakes and validators ensure continuous growth and stability. Its ecosystem thrives on collaboration, incentivizing active participation through its native content, governance structure, NFT integration, and native token, all while fostering a supportive community to sustain and expand its operations.

What is XPLA Architecture?

The following image shows a high-level overview of the XPLA blockchain architecture, its layers, and an understanding of how it works. It also helps the viability and security of the chain. Essentially, it consists of three main layers:

Source: XPLA whitepaper — XPLA blockchain architecture highlights its networking, service, and application layers and their roles

Service Layer

The Service Layer provides a variety of services to developers and users of the XPLA blockchain, such as wallet management, payment processing, and smart contract execution. It includes components such as the XPLA Wallet, Station Server, Gateway Server, Smart Contract, ART Service, and Hive SDK.

Network Layer

The network layer, which is responsible for maintaining communication between the different nodes on the XPLA network, uses the Tendermint Core consensus algorithm to ensure that all nodes agree on the state of the blockchain.

Application Layer — Cosmos SDK

The application layer is where dApps are deployed and run on the XPLA blockchain. It includes the Governance, Stake, Auth, CosmWasm, IBC, and dApp components.

Through these layers, users can interact with the XPLA blockchain via the XPLA Wallet. While the wallet communicates with the station server to send and receive payments, the station server then communicates with the gateway server to send and receive payments to and from other blockchains. The Gateway Server communicates with the Smart Contract to execute transactions on the XPLA blockchain. The smart contract interacts with the ART service to store and manage NFTs. The Hive SDK provides developers with tools to build dApps on the XPLA blockchain. dApps are deployed and run on the application layer. A more practical example is if a user wants to buy an NFT from a dApp on the XPLA blockchain. The user opens their XPLA wallet and sends the required amount of $XPLA to the dApp. The dApp then transfers the NFT to the user’s XPLA wallet.

XPLA and P2O (Play to Own)

Source: XPLA blog — XPLA Gaming Universe is built to onboard Web3 games with a focus on the P2O model.

Play-to-earn is a popular gaming model used by many Web3 games like Axie Infinity. In this model, players earn in-game assets, tokens, or cryptocurrencies for achieving milestones and contributing to the growth of the gaming ecosystem. These assets typically hold value within the game environment and might sometimes be used across multiple games or platforms. More recently, another model has gained popularity, called “Play to Own,” which allows players to outrightly own or acquire digital assets within the game. Players have full ownership and control over these digital items, allowing them to trade, sell, or use these assets as they see fit, even outside the boundaries of the game itself. The key distinction between both models lies in how players obtain value within the game. “Play to Earn” involves earning tokens or assets through participation, while “Play to Own” involves ownership or purchase of in-game assets with real or earned currency. The latter is the model XPLA holds at its core because it creates a more sustainable ecosystem.

Furthermore, XPLA offers several features specifically designed to support and enhance the play-to-own (P2O) gaming model. One of which is the XPLA Game Universe, which serves as a central hub for P2O games built on the XPLA platform. Refer to the link to learn more about the XPLA P2O gaming guide, which gives details on how each game works. Interestingly, one thing is common between all on-board games: all in-game assets can be used across different games in the XPLA Game Universe, offering greater utility and value to players.

Additionally, XPLA SDK empowers developers to create their own P2O games with ease, and it has a marketplace that makes it less cumbersome for players to buy, sell, and trade their in-game assets, allowing players to monetize their gameplay by selling their assets to other players. This comprehensive set of tools provides everything needed to build secure, scalable, and interoperable P2O experiences on XPLA.

XPLA Ecosystem

Web3 gaming is a rapidly rising industry with enormous potential. According to Crypto News, approximately 800,000 distinct active wallets exist in Web3 gaming, proving the industry’s bright future. Recognizing this, XPLA positions itself as a pioneer in the Web3 gaming market by placing gaming at the forefront of its ecosystem. XPLA has released several successful Web3 P2O games to date, including:

The Walking Dead: All-Stars

This is an officially licensed role-playing game based on the popular comic book series, The Walking Dead. It is an idle RPG that immerses players in the relentless zombie-infested world, allowing them to build a team of iconic characters like Rick, Michonne, and Negan. The key to earning Unknown Coin, the in-game currency that can be converted to $XPLA tokens, is obtaining Key Points. These points can be acquired through various means, including watching ads, purchasing specific items, and completing missions.

Summoners War: Chronicles

This is a new MMORPG game featuring P2O elements. Players can earn in-game currencies like Free Rahild and Mileage, which can then be exchanged for real-world assets like Xlium and $XPLA. So far, Summoners War has onboarded over 5 million global players as of the time of writing this, making it a game of high prospect.

Ace Fishing Crew

The Ace Fishing Crew is a new fishing game with P2O features built on the XPLA blockchain. Players can earn in-game currencies like Pamos Point and Coral Point, which can then be earned through investigation mode, used for upgrades, or exchanged for $XPLA. With beautiful underwater scenery, players can immerse themselves in and build a team to compete in the different challenges.

What is XPLA ($XPLA) Token?

The XPLA token is a vital part of the ecosystem. Validators and others involved in running the system use these tokens to make things work smoothly. They’re used for various tasks like buying in-game items (NFTs), trading tokens, and helping with the system’s functions. There are 2 billion $XPLA tokens available, carefully shared among different groups involved in the growth of the ecosystem, like validators, contributors, backers, and those supporting growth (like marketing and the team). Plus, 1% is kept in reserve for later use.

$XPLA Tokenomics

Source: XPLA Whitepaper — A graphical representation of XPLA token distribution

Total Supply: 2 billion tokens

Token Distribution:

  • Ecosystem: 43%
  • Community: 15%
  • Genesis contributors: 15%
  • Backers: 15%
  • Marketing: 3%
  • Team: 3%
  • Validation: 3%
  • Advisors: 2%
  • Reserve: 1%

Highlights:

  • The XPLA ecosystem is allocated the largest share of tokens, at 43%. This shows that the team is committed to building a strong and vibrant ecosystem around the XPLA blockchain.
  • The community is also allocated a significant share of tokens, at 15%, to show the team’s commitment to giving the community a voice in the governance of the XPLA blockchain.
  • The tokenomics model is designed to incentivize the long-term holding of XPLA tokens. For example, staking rewards are higher for longer staking periods.
  • The tokenomics model also includes a reserve pool, which can be used to fund development initiatives and support the XPLA ecosystem.

Is XPLA a Good Investment?

Investing in XPLA is a strategic move for anyone seeking to capitalize on the growing cryptocurrency market. Despite the inherent risks of any crypto investment, XPLA presents strong arguments for its potential as a long-term investment.

One of the main factors contributing to XPLA’s credibility is its robust Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus mechanism by Tendermint. This mechanism ensures that the network remains operable even under challenging conditions. Thus, investors can rest assured that XPLA can handle a large volume of fast and secure transactions.

Moreover, XPLA has a vibrant developer community that is continuously working to create new applications and tools for the platform. This thriving ecosystem suggests that XPLA is a platform with vast growth potential—hence a promising investment.

Although XPLA’s price performance has been volatile in the past, it has also shown tangible signs of significant growth. If XPLA continues to expand its user base and develop new applications, its price is likely to soar in the long run. On the other hand, if the project fails to deliver on its promises, there may be a downturn, thus losing investors’ confidence.

Therefore, it’s advisable to approach XPLA investment with a long-term view and carefully monitor its performance. Ultimately, investing in XPLA could be a smart move when backed by thorough research and a sound understanding of the risks involved.

How to Own XPLA Token

You can buy $XPLA from centralized exchanges. For example, Gate.io offers traders the following trading pair: XPLA/USDT. To own the token, create a Gate.io account, and complete the registration process. Also, you need to fund your spot trading wallet and go through the steps to buy $XPLA.

Recent Developments

XPLA Blockchain Teams Up with Carbonated: Exclusive Launch of the Next-Gen Web3 Game

South Korean blockchain protocol XPLA partners with game developer Carbonated, expanding its lineup of Web3 games and harnessing cutting-edge technology for game development. Carbonated upcoming blockbuster game will be exclusively onboarded onto XPLA’s mainnet. Com2us Group, the owner of XPLA, believes Carbonated’s game will contribute to the growth of the ecosystem.

XPLA and Kado Join Forces to Simplify Crypto-Fiat Transactions for Web3 Users

XPLA has partnered with Kado, a platform that simplifies converting between fiat and crypto. This allows XPLA users to easily use their tokens and participate in the Web3 economy. XPLA has a diverse group of validators and popular games, positioning itself as a major Web3 content hub globally.

Take Action on XPLA

Check out XPLA price today and start trading your favorite currency pairs:

Author: Paul
Translator: Cedar
Reviewer(s): Wayne、Matheus、Ashley He
* The information is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice or any other recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by Gate.io.
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