The original post was on Figment’s Blog 👇
Star Atlas, a blockchain-based metaverse gaming experience, utilizes blockchain technology in a two-prong effort to achieve superior cinematic gameplay and create a decentralized financial economy through their specialized NFTs.
Using the relatively new play-to-earn gaming model, Star Atlas is showcasing the capabilities of blockchain in the gaming industry and providing practical use for NFTs beyond investing. The first-class video game experience provides almost life-like cinematic graphics and movement, coupled with the financial incentive inherent in the play-to-earn gaming model, making it a groundbreaking effort to realize the vast capabilities blockchain technology offers.
The team at Star Atlas imagines a world where retailers will open stores on planets in the galaxy to sell in-game merchandise and IRL tangible items delivered to the user's door. Their brazen goals have done more than stir interest in the masses, with a recent 3 million dollar purchase of Star Atlas spaceships by Animoca. Read on for an insider's look on how to hop on this rocketship of an idea before it truly takes off.
Sign up for DataHub and start building your web3 gaming metaverse solution today.****
Star Atlas’ Story
The founders of Star Atlas come from a vast field with experience in both blockchain and gaming. They are building one of the most epic and innovative video games ever dreamed of, namely because, without blockchain technology, it wouldn’t be remotely possible.
*"Star Atlas is developing one of the most anticipated P2E games in the industry and has gathered an incredible community. With DataHub, they will be able to scale with their userbase and create a seamless experience for its gamers with best-in-class infrastructure performance" -Yannick Folla, Head of Figment DataHub*
The scope of the game and the range of gameplay options available are truly staggering. Beginning with a core group of around ten people, the company has grown to 150 team members in a couple of years. In addition, the company has partnered with Solana for blockchain technology and Serum DEX for in-game exchanges in preparation for the mass amount of users and transactions expected after the game fully launches.
In anticipation of the launch, Star Atlas has held two GAOs - Galactic Asset Offerings, enabling enterprising users to get first access to the ships necessary to navigate the intergalactic world. The NFTs range from $15 to millions of US dollars. I love that they are keeping the barrier for entry low for those new to crypto and NFTs while allowing larger investors opportunities to invest.
While the game hasn't fully launched, a mini-game version S.C.O.R.E (Ship Commissions on Remote Expeditions) allows owners of spaceships to earn ATLAS tokens in the meantime. The future of gaming and finance converge in this idea that has the potential to create an alternate world economy, complete with the ability to earn wages, own property, create and enforce laws. The world could and should be controlled or influenced by its users.
Star Atlas Product Overview
Star Atlas is a next-generation blockchain gaming experience and metaverse built on Solana. Star Atlas offers gaming, NFTs, two unique tokens, and access to its metaverse.
Star Atlas Game and NFTs
Star Atlas takes place in the 27th century, with their spaceship NFTs used to travel through space to discover planets, stake claims, mine resources, battle enemies, or explore the world. They have two tokens: ATLAS and POLIS. The ATLAS token is used as a traditional currency to buy spaceships, fuel, planets, and more.
The POLIS token is used for governance and is unique to the world of Star Atlas, giving token holders the right to vote on future proposals and gaming roadmaps. A core idea of Star Atlas is to directly correlate monetization with time spent playing the game and give users the ability to take their assets from the metaverse to the real world. Anything owned in the game is considered a user asset and capable of frictionless conversion to a fiat currency. Check out the sneak peek at the Star Atlas Council of Peace below.
How to buy Star Atlas tokens?
First, you will need to buy Solana ($SOL) off an exchange and create a Solana-friendly wallet. This domino of crypto transitions began transferring $100 in fiat to SOL on FTX before I realized living in the US would require me to use a DEX to complete the transaction.
I continued down the web3 rabbit hole and figured out how to BUY the ATLAS token and a spaceship NFT! For those outside the US, to get started, Star Atlas and FTX have a partnership, and tokens can easily be purchased.
Please note - if you live in the US you will need to use a DEX such as Serum which aggregates different SWAP options to trade Solana to ATLAS and other tokens. Being new to web3 gaming, I started small and sent $40 of $SOL I had in my Phantom Wallet and used Raydium Swap to complete the transfer from $SOL to $ATLAS.
Within seconds it was available in my Phantom Wallet, and I purchased a spaceship NFT from the Star Atlas Marketplace! To showcase the low barrier to entry for new crypto Star Atlas users, I chose to experiment with under $20 and purchased a Pearce X4. I have included screenshots reflecting the transactions and NFT ownership via my phantom wallet and my Star Atlas inventory below.
Star Atlas Metaverse
The Star Atlas Metaverse provides gamers a unique, cutting edge opportunity, but the team at Star Atlas have set their sights higher than just revolutionizing the gaming world. They want to revolutionize the world, especially the economics inherent in our current economies. They plan on achieving these lofty goals with their Metaverse by offering:
- Top Level Gaming Experience: By partnering with Solana Ecosystem Homepage for Star Atlas firms such as Spearsoft, Nanite, and others, Star Atlas has ensured the quality of the game will be top end. Find an equilibrium point between earning a stable non-correlated yield and affordable rates for microloans.
- Play to Earn opportunities: While the game does have an entry cost, its users will be able to recoup the price of a spaceship and much more if they are willing to invest the time. The direct correlation between time spent playing and money earned is essential to Star Atlas' overall designs.
- Economic Opportunities for Vendors: To appeal to a larger swath of investors, Star Atlas makes it possible for vendors to open virtual stores without actively participating in gameplay.
- **Users Allowed To Shape Metaverse: **Using the POLIS token ensures that users will be able to shape the governing structures and expand the universe, giving people the freedom to create a utopian galaxy and new gaming aspects. The power will eventually be with the users and not the game's developers.
Why Solana?
According to the Solana Ecosystem Homepage, Michael Wagner - Star Atlas, Co-Founder of Star Atlas and CEO of ATMTA, Inc., the development studio behind the Star Atlas game, stated…“Star Atlas will provide the most powerful opportunity in human history for players to realize economic benefits through the extraction of in-game virtual earnings into real-world income. This integration optimizes Star Atlas’ long-term goals by plugging into Solana’s thriving community, ecosystem, and best-in-class technology. The overall vision for Star Atlas is not possible on any other blockchain.”
Star Atlas Co-Founder Michael Wagner made clear that Solana was the only choice to build Star Atlas. Solana is a layer 1, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain supporting more than 65,000 transactions per second (TPS). Solana's speed is critical in providing a positive in-game experience for Star Atlas users since the game state data is stored on-chain. Star Atlas believes in Solana, and Solana believes in Star Atlas, making their partnership an ideal coupling of companies on the bleeding edge of technology striving to create products the world didn't think were possible.
Why Star Atlas Chose DataHub
“DataHub has been the most reliable and responsive RPC provider we've worked with to date.” - Michael Lu, OG and Head of Engineering at ATMTA.
Star Atlas has been aiming for the moon ever since its inception. It has partnered with companies that share its same dream. So once they chose Solana, DataHub was the clear choice to elevate that relationship. Everything they need to do on Solana is made easier and faster by partnering with Datahub.
In this year alone DataHub has managed over 2,431,000,000 RPC calls to Solana for Star Atlas. But it's not just how fast or easy DataHub makes the process. DataHub acts as a full-on command center for developers with connections to manage their entire stack of indexing, storage, data solutions, analytics, and more.
With DataHub, Star Atlas developers can now access popular web3 tools such as Solana protocol, Pyth's High-Fidelity Data, The Graph, and more through our RPC and enterprise-grade infrastructure. DataHub developers can connect to multiple blockchain's powerful and unique features without becoming protocol experts or managing complex infrastructure.
Building your Web 3 Command Center
DataHub allows developers to choose their path as they venture into Web 3.
DataHub offers:
- Multi-Chain Management
- Advanced Analytics
- Manage the entire stack via one interface
- Reliable access to network APIs
- Ability to submit on-chain transactions
- Low maintenance
- Enterprise-grade infrastructure
- Subgraph Management (The Graph) coming soon
Looking to cut development costs and time? Don't wait; sign up for DataHub today.
Data Featured above is not from the case study but DataHub sample demo data*
For developers interested in learning more about Web 3 and building applications on Solana, check out the links below:
- Star Atlas Website
- Star Atlas Discord
- Star Atlas Twitter
- Star Atlas Whitepaper
- Solana DataHub
- Solana on Figment Learn
- Explaining Solana with The Simpsons
- Figment Discord
About Star Atlas
Star Atlas is a next-gen gaming metaverse emerging from the confluence of state of the art blockchain, real-time graphics, multiplayer video game, and decentralized financial technologies.
Real-time graphics technology using Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite allows for cinematic quality video game visuals. Blockchain technology using the Solana protocol establishes a largely serverless and secured gameplay experience. Non-fungible tokens obtained and traded within Star Atlas creates an economy that replicates the tangibility of real world assets and ownership. To learn more, visit StarAtlas.com, join a faction at Play.StarAtlas.com and send your spaceships on a deep space mission by enrolling them into the Faction Fleet.
About Figment
Figment’s purpose is to build a better Internet by increasing usage of the next generation of Proof of Stake blockchains.
These efficient blockchains give people greater control of their data, more privacy, and increase financial inclusion. By eliminating intermediaries, they also limit the power of centralized data monopolies, rent-seeking financial institutions, and anti-social algorithms.
We bring our mission to reality by helping investors stake their tokens, earn yield, and participate in securing the blockchain. Our Hubble and Prime applications, as well as our governance expertise, allow token holders to analyze, monitor, and make informed decisions.
We build Web 3 developer communities via our Learn education program and then make it simple for these developers to launch applications and manage smart contracts via our DataHub platform. And finally, by building and operating The Graph based indexers, we enable the efficient search and querying of blockchain data.