Silks aim to bring the excitement of real-world horse racing into the metaverse.
The Silks project is the first derivative gaming platform that aims to combine the world of metaverse with the real world of thoroughbred horseracing. It is also bringing with itself a collection of 10,000 Silks Genesis Avatars in horse racing suits, too, for a more immersive experience. While other metaverse projects are trying to shift the world into physical or virtual, the Game of Silks is a smart move, which complements both ends of this world quite smartly.
How does the game fare? How is the gameplay? Does it need any improvements? Here’s all you need to know about the Silks NFT Game in this review.
What is Silks NFT Game?
Silks is a multiverse P2E metaverse game, offering a virtual world for the players to experience the adrenaline of having their own thoroughbred racehorses just like the elite.
The Silks NFT game will allow users to buy, trade, and interact with many in-game assets which also would be non-fungible tokens, including Silks Horses, Avatars, Lands, Stables, and more. On the rewards front, the players can earn tokens by simply showcasing their gaming skills and becoming a part of the high-stakes racehorse ownership world.
This is where the interesting part begins. Every racehorse is somewhat connected to its real-world counterparts. The Silks Game deploys a data-driven approach that tracks the progress, performance, bloodline, and racing results of the real-world counterparts of the digital clones in the game. Moreover, each time the real-life version of the horse wins or creates offspring, the owner of the digital racehorse receives some tokens as a reward.
The native token of the Silks Game ecosystem is $STT through which users can make in-game purchases such as Silks Avatars, Silks Stables, Silks Thoroughbred Racehorses, lands, stables, farms and Sky Falls Parcels for the exclusive Avatars owners. These features make $STT a great utility crypto.
Another token available on the Silks metaverse is the $SLK, which is the governance token of the ecosystem, which allows them to vote on platform-related decisions, and become a part of the Silks decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The $STT tokens can be swapped for $SLK tokens too.
Silks NFT Game: What’s in Store?
As it might have been clear by now, the Silks gameplay is based on the real-world US thoroughbred racehorse economy. According to Silks, almost 20,000 foals are born and registered in the country each year. The industry is massive and a horse that’s turned one or above (yearling) is sold for $60,000 on average.
There are around 50 million loyal fans to the event, and around $11 billion are dependent on their outcomes. Furthermore, some of the championship-winning stallions can be paid upwards of $100,000 for every offspring they create.
The Silks project aims to integrate real-world racehorse datasets, including bloodlines, training progress, and performance. This data integrated together brings the blockchain into shape. The process used by Silks creates NFTs from yearlings. Moreover, other in-game assets such as stables, farmlands, and Silks Avatar NFTs are also available, with each NFT providing a new way for the users to earn an income from each kind of NFT.
It makes the usually limited sport of horse racing a bit more open and democratized. This is what the founders and many experts are vouching for to take the project to the next level of popularity.
The Ecosystem of Silks NFT Games
The Silks ecosystem consists of many elements coming together to ensure what’s right for its users and provide a truly immersive experience in the world of horse racing.
As per Silk’s Whitepaper, the metaverse will be governed through a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization), with the $SLK token holders having the exclusive right to take part in governing decisions. Apart from this, mining is one of the pillars of the entire Silks NFT universe.
Considering the fact that Silks has to run parallel with the real world of horseracing, a large ton of data is required. These decentralized datasets are used to gather information about real-life horses and their digital clones.
A proof of stake (PoS) mechanism is used by the miners to verify the data, and they are rewarded in $SLK, making Silks one of the coolest NFT projects.
When it comes to the Silks game, the in-game assets are treated as an NFT. Here are some of the elements involved in the Silks NFT Game.
Silks Avatars
Silks Avatars are a player’s identity within the ecosystem. Every Skills Avatar consists of a combination of colors, patterns, and attributes that create a unique crest. This crest acts like a brand’s logo and usually appears on all their assets, such as the farm, stables, and the racehorse’s blankets too.
After the Silks Avatar is minted, it gets associated with the player’s wallet. In order to receive rewards, the Avatar and the racehorse should be associated with the same wallet.
Avatar holders get access to exclusive events, experiences, and giveaways. Another exciting part for Silks Avatar holders is that they get a Lifetime Mint Pass. This will give each Avatar the right to mint one yearling each year from the annual crop. As the number of players increases, this benefit will stand out and give a sense of exclusivity to its users.
They have different levels of rarity and are NFTs in themselves. They have a total volume of 930 ETH or $1,578 at the time of writing with a floor price of 0.139 ETH. It is an attract prospect for those looking for cheap NFTs to buy.
Silks Thoroughbred Racehorses
The thoroughbred racehorses are the essence of the entire Silks ecosystem. As soon as a real racehorse is born and registered, Silks will create a digital clone of the same.
Owning a racehorse within the ecosystem makes the game more immersive and allows players to earn too. It enables players to participate in Pinhooking, which is an activity that takes place after a yearling is born and before its first race.
Silks also have a Syndication plan on offer. In order to mellow the degree of risk involved in owning a racehorse, the syndication allows players to sell fractional interests in their horses. Silks make it easy for the players to sell their Partnership shares in the racehorse to as many as nine individuals.
Syndicating a racehorse creates that one racehorse into ten different assets.
A player owning the syndicated version of the horse will be able to participate in the rewards earned by the horse on a pro-rata basis. While it isn’t just a bit more affordable and lesser risky but it also creates that community feeling, enabling people to own racehorses with their friends and families too.
Silks Land
There are 202,500 one-acre parcels of land available in the Silks ecosystem that are as important as the horses. Land development involves building farms, developing lands, and even an option to expand farms with contiguous land pieces.
Capitalizing on the Silks Lands, the Sky Falls Genesis Parcels are a unique way of owning a piece of land within the Silks ecosystem. Each acre of land in the Sky Falls comes with an embedded stable with it. This Stable is capable of stabling a single racehorse per acre. This saves the costs to the Sky Falls Genesis holders of starting their own farms.
There are also several redeemable benefits attached to owning a Silks Land in Sky Falls.
Silks Stable
The stables are required for the racehorses and to develop a farm. Stables have unique aesthetics and attribute that players can work on and are visible. There is a rewards-based stabling fee that is to be paid. Whenever your horse ends up winning, a certain percentage is paid “in kind” through the earnings. However, there is no cost involved if the racehorse hasn’t been earned.
Stabling is another income stream for many. Stabling means that not just one, but many racehorses are in there. So, whenever any other racehorse from the stable wins, it allows you to share a collective reward with those horses too. This becomes even more interesting if someone is buying or selling their racehorses.
Silks Farms
Farms in the Silks metaverse are unique and versatile. It can be a general farm or even a breeding farm and can have its own marketplace featuring the horses. The other players can buy, or bid on the racehorses directly from the farm owners.
There are two kinds of farms available- private farms and public farms. When it comes to a private farm, only the owner of that farm can stable racehorses there. However, on a public farm, things are open to the public, allowing racehorses to submit a request to stable their horses on the farm.
The Public farm owners can decide on a fee and share rewards every time a racehorse earns racing or breeding rewards.
What are the Tokenomics That Silks NFT Game Has To Offer?
There are two major tokens within the Silks ecosystem- $SLK and $STT.
The Silks metaverse is built on the blockchain and governed by a DAO. The Silks DAO will be taking the governing decisions. The property is represented by $SLK. This $SLK token is backed by a wallet that contains financial instruments to protect the DAO. The $SLK can be earned via $STT too. A total of 500 million SLKs will be unlocked and allocated over a period of time. Whereas, the $STT, the transaction tokens, have a supply of 5 billion.
The metaverse will be a virtual economy. This means that $STT will be utilized to conduct transactions within the game. All transactions that take place within the Silks ecosystem will take place, including rewards, will be settled using $STT.
In order to make things more flexible, the $STT token is also convertible into a $SLK token.
How Does Staking Work in Silks Ecosystem?
Just like in the real life, feeding and training a horse requires a huge amount of money. The same is the case with the Silk’s horses. The horses in the Silks ecosystem shall live in the stables or farms so they can be fed, trained, and looked after.
On receiving a horse initially, a player’s horse is housed at a large community stable. In this stage, it can be freely traded till staked. The players can pay via STT to stake their or keep them on the community farm indefinitely, earn $STT for locking it or move their horse to another farm even.
Maintenance of a racehorse can be outsourced to a third-party farm that is willing to accept the horse within their farm. This is called staking in the Silks metaverse. When staked on a third-party private farm, the Silks horse will be subject to a lock-in period, during which they cannot be sold. As the farm keeps the player’s horse, the owner of the horse needs to pay a percentage of reward that their horse earns with them.
Moreover, the additional $STT earned during staking will be pooled and distributed with the owner of all the horses staked on that farm at the given point of time.
The farm owners are encouraged to accept horses with high chances of winning. This can be an additional source of income for them. The bigger the farm gets, the lower the risk. Meanwhile, the horse owners are encouraged to find farms that have some of the best horses staked there.
This staking procedure in the Silks metaverse will limit the supply of horses in the secondary market which will increase the rarity of the assets and hence the price. The staking mechanism at Silks also enables the players to distribute their risks.
How To Buy Silks NFTs?
What makes the entire Game of Silks even more interesting is that there are multiple avenues to take part in it and earn rewards or an income.
Step 1: Setting Up a Crypto Wallet
In order to buy, the prospective buyers will need a crypto wallet for their Avatar NFTs. As per the Silks website, wallets that support the ERC-721 standard can be used. They feature MetaMask on their website.
In case, you’re choosing a MetaMask wallet, here’s how to set it up. Go to the MetaMask website and download it from there. As soon as you click on Download, a page with clear instructions will follow. Or you can check this list of the best Ethereum wallets for alternatives.
Step 2: Buy Ethereum (ETH)
The Silks Avatars are based on Ethereum. Hence, the buyers must acquire ETH to continue with their purchase. There are many crypto trading platforms that have listed Ethereum. Our recommendation goes to eToro. It is a social trading platform that offers Ethereum at a low fees.
Step 3: Connecting the Wallet to Silks Website
Visit the official Silks website and click on ‘Buy Avatars’ (although it might currently be available just on OpenSea). The next page shows a ‘Buy with ETH’ option. Click on it, and you’ll be redirected to your wallet’s transaction page.
Step 4: Buy Silks Avatars
Once the crypto wallet is connected, the next step is to determine the total number of Silks Avatars you want. Each Avatar comes with one Sky Falls land plot, too, and loads of other unique benefits. Hence, the more Avatars that a player buys, the more land they will own within the Silks ecosystem.
Step 5 (Optional): Credit/Debit Card to Buy Silks Avatars
If you don’t have a crypto wallet, don’t fret. In order to make the purchasing process even more seamless, there’s an option to buy Silks Avatars using a credit or debit card too. This can be done through Venly, one of the world’s leading blockchain technology providers.
To get a Silks Avatar with a credit or debit card, click ‘Buy with Card’ on the Silks website. The buyers are then asked to create a Venly account or log in if they already have one.
Once done, just link your debit or credit card that is valid on the platform. Venly’s mechanism is able to take care of the conversion process thereon.
Alternatively, the players can buy Silks Avatar NFTs via secondary marketplaces like OpenSea now.
- For someone to buy a Silk Avatar NFT from OpenSea, they need to connect their crypto wallet to the platform.
- Once done, the platform will show the option to buy the NFT via card or via cryptocurrency.
- Review the fees after choosing a suitable payment option
- Confirm the order and done.
What is The Future Roadmap For Silks NFT Game?
The Game of Silks has an interesting roadmap present in front of it. Here’s what it’s planning on doing in the coming months, and what has already taken place to revamp the horseracing metaverse space.
Phase 1: Q2 2022
The Silk Genesis Avatar Collection comes into play. According to the Silks website, the Silk Avatar helps the players gain an early lead within the Game of Silks. It puts you on the fast track to gain access to Silk racehorses, rewards, and an exceptional experience that combines metaverse and horseracing. There are 10,000 unique Silks Avatars available that will represent the identity and an asset’s ownership within the ecosystem of Silks.
Phase 2: Q3 2022
The Sky Falls Genesis Parcel Claim. According to the developers, the Sky Fall is inherited by the Avatar holders and it will serve as the core foundation of the vast metaverse. These are pieces of land that are rare and rich in utility. The players owning a piece of Sky Fall get exclusive development rights and privileges At the moment, 1 Silks Genesis Avatar equals 1 Sky Falls Genesis Parcel Claim.
Phase 3: Q3 2022
Skills Genesis Yearling Sale. It’s the racehorses that make Silks what it is. Each racehorse is a digital clone of one of the top registered 1-year-old thoroughbred horses in the United States. These Silks horses will be replicating their real-life version’s bloodlines, training progress, and on-track performance. This will help the owners earn rewards when the real-life horse wins races and breeds real offspring.
Phase 4: Q4 2022
The Play-To-Earn Era begins. This is where the players will be able to use their strategic knowledge, and available data to buy and sell racehorses. The players can syndicate their horses by selling interests, earning a percentage of the rewards when the real-life horse wins the race. The players will also be able to speculate on the available land by purchasing plots for development, resale, or acquisition even.
Phase 5: Q1 2023
The Silks Metaverse opens its doors. The Silks metaverse will give the players the ability to maintain their horses, join pools of ownership, and interact with a variety of other horse owners as well as in-game assets such as land, stables, and farms. This will further start taking shape as the real-world horses start racing too.
Conclusion: Silks NFT is Bringing a New Sense To Metaverse
Silks is one of the recent genre defining NFT projects with major utilities and upsides for gamers and enthusiasts, making it one of the best NFTs to buy.
As the P2E games and metaverse come together to create unique gaming experiences and make them seamless, the addition of a real-world game like a racehorse is truly unique. Moreover, it’s the amount of data taken from real-world events that make this game a bit more special. It has the right utility, which doesn’t just promise short-term explosive returns, but a sustainable method of how to keep the returns coming and how they can be increased over the years. Land ownership was one of the first use cases of the metaverse, and Silks has integrated it beautifully into this game.
Moreover, it’s real life equivalent- horseracing in the United States is on its own growth trajectory. According to a report, the US horse racing business reported its biggest annual betting handling numbers since 2009, with more than 30% lesser races. In 2021, it exceeds $12.1 billion and is only expected to go up from here, which would make Silks a great deal for those looking for potential upsides down the line.
For players and users who want to foray into horse racing, Silks offers an affordable, smart and efficient way to do so.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Silks Avatars NFTs?
Silks Avatars NFTs are a unique take within the non-fungible tokens space. They are a cross between real-world horse racing in the United States and the metaverse.
Is the Silks NFT game worth it?
The Silks NFT game is special in the sense that it is very much linked with real-world horse racing in the United States. Moreover, due to its unique proposition, it is gaining popularity quickly. For fans of NFTs and horse racing, it offers a way to combine both and earn free cryptocurrency while playing.
What are the benefits of the Silks NFT Game?
Silks ecosystem is a DAO project. With several ways to earn an income, it can be a lucrative source of a side income. The players can earn via owning a farm, a racehorse, staking their racehorse, or by developing and speculating a land too.
Does the game offer staking?
Yes, the Silks metaverse offers to stake racehorse owners. They can stake their horses by outsourcing their maintenance to another private farm. The earnings earned via staking are then shared with the farm owner.
Can I customize my Silks Avatar in the game?
Silks Avatars act as your identity within the game and can be customized. They can be bought and customized.
Where can I buy Silks Avatars?
At the time, Silks Avatars are available for sale via secondary marketplaces such as OpenSea.