During this meeting, Peek introduced Funki, discussed the P2A point clearing process, and outlined the timeline leading up to major upcoming milestones.
Most of the content is on the slides. I have included my own conclusions in the text below.
Funkichain (Funki) is an Ethereum L2 chain built by AtherLabs using the Optimism stack, similar to Base Chain. Funki is intended to be the main chain for games The Optimism Collective.
It will have a utility currency during the launch promotion. The main goal is to create speculative interest in the potential reward, which should facilitate with fresh user adoption and drive trading activity.
While this utility currency (currently unnamed) can be used to interact with other projects on Funki, these are points, not tokens. They would not compete with $ATHER operate cases. The Funki utility token is not fungible or redeemable for $ATHER. Projects on Funki will funnel value back into $ATHER through revenue sharing.
L2 chains like Funki generate revenues by charging sequencer fees, which will also generate value back to $ATHER (via share buybacks), similar to other upcoming AtherLabs products.
At launch Funki will have:
- Sipher’s Odyssey
- Sipherian Strife (Game 2)
- AtherLabs Newly Incubated Projects
- Projects from Vietnam and other Asian builders
Even though Sipher Odyssey is Funki’s flagship project, it’s not just AtherLabs’ showcase. Funkichain is supported by Fund of Funks, a network of KOLs and partners who have signed on as advisors and ambassadors for projects on the chain.
Funki strengthens the narrative for the $ATHER token by making its listing on CEX more attractive, a move that investors and partners welcome. Peek explained that Funki will not impact the development of Sipher Odyssey and gives $ATHER multiple paths to a successful token launch.
Peek discussed how AtherLabs handled point purging to address abuse and blatant hacking. The point confiscation was reasonable and justified, and only applied to those who blatantly exploited the system.
A significant 49.9 million points were removed from users who participated in community quests but did not play the game. This cleansing provided valuable lessons for creating a better system for the next P2A season.
The Global Open Beta for Sipher Odyssey has been pushed back from mid-September to early October due to optimization issues and bugs. Everyone who can fix bugs is focused on that now, while the rest of the team is busy building fresh content features.
There will be no country restrictions for the Global Open Beta, and the PC version will likely launch simultaneously — unless there are fresh issues for developers.
Sipher Odyssey is a live service game, not a one-time release. The team always plans content 2-3 months in advance to keep the game fresh.
New features in the first cycle of content:
- New worlds:Sera, Zendor
- New characters: Nezumi, Saru and Hebi
- New Survival Mode: Inspired by Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, the single-player mode focuses on resource gathering and survival.
- Broken Arena:An improved arena inspired by Fragpunk, with gameplay similar to Valorant but with cards.
User Acquisition Testing:The team evaluates the cost per user acquisition, aiming for a positive net revenue for every dollar spent. For example, if the cost per user acquisition is $0.50, the average revenue per user must be at least $0.60. This metric will determine when to scale up advertising efforts.
Global launch: Funki and Sipher Odyssey are the two main events at the end of this year. Everything will come together in a substantial push, including a massive marketing campaign to attract organic Web2 users, video teasers, partnership announcements, PR articles, migration to Funkichain, $ATHER token integration and staking. All of these efforts will culminate in the $ATHER Token Generation Event (TGE), along with airdrops and retrospective airdrops.
AtherLabs will also be present at Token2049 in Singapore to meet with investors and partners.
