Introduction

Video games have proven to be a very lucrative market, for a long time. Currently estimating annual values around $108.9 billion. Both on mobile platforms and PCs, games have defined a lucrative industry. However, for independent developers, it becomes difficult to compete in the market for reasons of cost and time. From the point of view of the gamers, it generally depends on central servers to play a game, which can be damaged and therefore lose everything achieved by the player. Additionally, none of the time spent on the game is interchangeable in the real world.

That is why this publication comes to expose Xaya as a solution to these problems, offering a decentralized and autonomous universe for both game developers and gamers, who can now get benefits with their victories in the form of tokens or CHI.

Xaya

Xaya is an ecosystem based on blockchain technology that provides the infrastructure and tools (SDK/API) for game developers to build their own autonomous games and decentralized universes, without the need for central servers. In which they can create finite resources, which can be collected by players and stored in the blockchain, even exchanged in the form of cryptocurrencies.

The goal of Xaya, from the point of view of the gamers, is to provide Autonomous Decentralized Universes (DAU) for multiplayer, without the need for central servers, where they can win items in a fair manner, which can be negotiated by articles of the real life, backed by blockchain technology. Likewise, these items could also be exchanged in other games within the Xaya universe.

Xaya is not a new concept, it is the evolution of Chimaera, a blockchain project started in 2016; When Chimaera expanded, the team realized that other companies with similar names already existed, for that reason they chose to change the name to Xaya. However, his native token CHI is maintained.

Huntercoin: The human mining concept

In 2013, the Xaya team developed Huntercoin, a prototype that allowed players to mine tokens in the Huntercoin blockchain by playing, that is, players competed by collecting coins, under certain immutable rules, which were stored in the blockchain and could be negotiated among gamers or sold in an exchange and obtain real profits. The concept of "human mining" was coined with the development of this platform.

Source

This platform was completely autonomous and did not require servers, it gathered about 1 million dollars a few weeks after its creation, reaching 6.3 million dollars in 2017. Thus creating the first multiplayer game without servers, based on the blockchain.

Huntercoin, made possible the creation of tools and infrastructure to allow developers to create their own game universes, taking advantage of Xaya's blockchain technology for the creation of autonomous decentralized universes, which have their own tokens, undermined by their players; exchangeable by CHI or other assets within the Xaya ecosystem.

This opens a world of possibilities in the world of video games, where players will obtain real rewards (exchangeable in the real world), thanks to the human mines and the blockchain, and on the other hand, encouraging game developers to develop decentralized games and be part of this new genre.

Cryptocurrency

Xaya is not only a game platform and item negotiation based on blockchain technology. Additionally, it is a cryptocurrency, whose native token is the CHI and which will increase its value according to the adoption of the platform by players and game designers. Xaya provides an infrastructure for developers that will make more accessible the development and marketing of decentralized games based on the blockchain, attracting more developers in this way. And obviously increasing the number of participants of the platform, by allowing players to obtain "real" rewards with their performances in the games.

In addition, Xaya will provide players with liquidity; since the moment will undoubtedly come when the players will have completed and explored all the levels of a certain game and, thus, getting the most out of their rewards. However, these players will not lose what they obtained when they'll abandon the game. Players will be able to liquidate their assets (collected items) and profits (coins) in CHI or other cryptocurrencies.

Problems with Blockchain Gaming

It is well known that the video game industry is highly lucrative and combining this genre with blockchain technology is, literally, a game changer. However, adopting the blockchain technology leads to serious problems of speed, cost, and scalability.

• Speed: One of the best-known game in this genre is the CryptoKitties game, however, this game does not require constant interaction on the part of the player, so it is not affected by the speed, although, however, to generate 1 block entails a time of 17 seconds. This implementation is not functional for games that require real-time interaction by players even more for a universe of thousands of players.

• Cost: Blockchain-based games such as Bitcoin or Ethereum are expensive, due to the cost of transaction fees (getting to cost an entire dollar per transaction). So for the player, it would cost the transaction more than the tokens he collects.

• Scalability: The biggest of all the 3 problems, since for a decentralized universe of massive games it would require hundreds of thousands of transactions, even more. The current blockchains alternatives do not have the capacity to support this transaction load. Example of this, the game mentioned above, CryptoKitties, when it was launched caused a series of problems with the blockchain Ethereum, making more expensive transactions and creating instability.

Xaya’s Solutions

Xaya solves the problems mentioned above through the game channels. This solution is based on the methodology provided by Bitcoin Lightning Network. The game channels are sidechains, created between the game participants, which are private and established peer-to-peer. In this way, when a game is started, a game channel (sidechain) is created between the players, where blocks are created with their movements within this private channel. Only one transaction is created in the main blockchain, and is the final result of the game, along with the movement of the winner's prize money.

Game channel operations

Source: White paper

Game channels solve the problems mentioned above: speed, cost, and scalability. The gaming channels are fast, the only limitation is the technology where they are implemented (network and computer systems). They are scalable and less expensive since they are outside the main blockchain, in addition to providing a more efficient solution in the storage aspect.

If either player does not agree with the outcome of the game, the sidechain data allows the honest player to test his statement according to the rules of the game. However, this causes a problem, since to resolve a dispute, it is necessary to register it in the main blockchain and therefore creates a commission for the transaction, decreasing the scalability and consequently bringing a vulnerable point to disturb the platform. This is where the ephemeral timestamps come in, which improve the gaming channels by making dishonest players pay transactions for disputes (using techniques such as Merkle hash commitments, amortized mining incentives, and fraud proofs).

Atomic Trading

Another of the innovations of the system is the atomic trading, this technique allows the participants of the Xaya ecosystem to negotiate with the items and tokens of the games by CHI tokens, creating a prosperous economy within the platform and increasing the demand of the CHI.

Model Characteristics

For gamers:

• Provably fair gameplay. Compete in games with zero cheating.
• Reliability and stability (i.e. 24/7 uptime)
• No Servers. Gamers can run games entirely on the blockchain without the need for centralized servers.
• Secure virtual asset ownership
• Rapid, easy and safe trade and/or sharing of virtual assets and conversion to real-world value (e.g. play to earn or Human Mining)
• Secure social networking
• Easy to use a game app launcher
• Humanly readable wallet accounts and “addresses”
• Real Ownership. True asset ownership is more than just buy/sell/trade, you can even loot them in decentralized worlds!

For developers:

• Fully-, partially-, or non-decentralised game development
• Supporting scalable massively multiplayer game development
• Virtual currencies and asset creation
• Easy Development. No new languages to learn. Developers can build games in any language. C++, JavaScript, Python, .NET, etc.
• Ability to build gamer loyalty
• Broad game engine compatibility (e.g. Unity, Unreal, etc.)
• Exportable game engine templates (e.g. support for Unity assets and Unreal blueprints)
• Pre-built libraries
• Accepting and managing gamer payments simply, securely, and affordable

For supporters:

• A cryptocurrency with high utility value (e.g. ‘CHI’ is the ‘fuel’ for games, creating accounts, purchasing valuable in-game items, etc.)
• Access to large existing gaming markets
• Access to untapped gaming markets (e.g. virtual asset trading)
• Creation of new gaming genres (e.g. blockchain-based gaming and Human Mining)

Upcoming Games

The Xaya Mainnet is fully functioning and ready to start being the platform of many decentralized games. Among these are:

Treat Fighters. A decentralized game, created under the platform of Xaya that allows players to collect, create and negotiate candies and create avatars or warriors called Treat Fighters, who will fight in battles against other Treat Fighters alone or in tournaments. It is expected that it will be available for PCs under Windows this year. This game requires a Xaya wallet.

Soccer Manager. It is a decentralized, multiplayer, and probably fair game; based on blockchain technology developed with Xaya. In this game, the player becomes manager of a football team and can transfer, exchange or sell their players and compete with other managers' teams and become the champion of their own or other tournaments. It has its own cryptocurrency (SMC), which can be exchanged by CHI.

Use Cases

The Xaya platform can be used to create infinities of games and autonomous decentralized universes. Where only the imagination of the developers is necessary to draw the attention of the gamers.

Monsters Collectable Card Game

Using the technology of Xaya, it is possible to create a collectible card game, since the blockchain technology allows to store assets and assign them to their owners in a wallet; which they can be bought, sold or transferred. Additionally, a game can be created using the SDK and the Xaya APIs, under established rules, where players can fight with monsters depending on their power, class, and vulnerabilities. An interesting fact is that the cards could be sold for real money or fiat, so they would become a real asset for the player, making the game more exciting.

Chess Game

Even though chess is already trite as a game, I have not yet seen the first one to be decentralized and autonomous. As I see it, a chess game that allows the game between 2 players or, better yet, compete in a totally decentralized tournament, where for each piece devoured, the player wins tokens depending on the type of piece taken and finally winning a reward in tokens (exchangeable) once the opponent is beaten, would be excellent. In the end, the tokens would be transferred to the winner's wallet along with the losing king's piece as a trophy (tradeable too); so the loser must buy a new king piece to play again.

Conclusion

Xaya is not only a game platform and item negotiation based on blockchain technology. Xaya provides an infrastructure for developers that will make more accessible the development and marketing of decentralized games based on the blockchain, attracting more developers in this way. And obviously increasing the number of participants of the platform

In addition, Xaya will provide gamers with the ability to liquidate their assets (collected items) and profits (coins) in CHI or other cryptocurrencies. Creating a growing economy in the world of video games.

Annexes