Splinterlands promised to remove Dark Energy Crystals from chest rewards, replacing them with SPS tokens instead. Now that day is nearly upon us. This is another important economic shift for Splinterlands as their pseudo stable DEC token has been off peg for some time. This update also includes additional functionality for the SPS token and a mention of community governance!
The Spliterlands team hopes to release this update with their weekly maintenance on August 23rd. But, if they determine that more testing time is needed, the release may be pushed back to August 30th. Either way, the time of finding DEC tokens in chests is coming to an end. Instead, rewards chests will sometimes contain SPS tokens, the governance token for Splinterlands that launched last summer.
Speaking of which, Splinterlands also hopes to put the first version of their governance proposal system in front of the players. We should get more details on how the governance system will work closer to its release.
But, of course, the big change comes with the daily and seasonal rewards. Once this update goes live, players will now find SPS tokens in some of their reward chests instead of Dark Energy Crystals.
SPS Tokens in Rewards Chests?
Each player tier (ie, Bronze, Silver, etc), has their own pools for daily quests and season rewards. As with DEC, the exact amount of SPS tokens can vary widely. But, on average, the team expects Bronze chests with SPS tokens to contain about 0.12 tokens per chest, while Champion level SPS chests average nearly 18 SPS each! In addition, since the rewards come from a shared pool among all players, the amount of tokens found can vary based on the number of chests earned.
SPS tokens found in chests won’t drop automatically into your account. Instead they will accumulate until claimed on the SPS Management page. Once claimed, the system automatically stakes the SPS tokens to your account. Unstaking requires vesting the tokens over four weeks. This will slow down those looking for quick cash outs, and may even encourage then to participate in the governance system. But, traditionally, offering up daily token rewards leads to token dumping.
As for the DEC tokens, they aren’t going anywhere. They will just be issued at a much lower rate now. And not surprisingly, the value of DEC saw a 30% rise on the back of this announcement. Even with that boost, it’s still below the expected peg (1000 DEC = $1). So, until it reaches that level, purchasing Splinterlands packs with DEC comes with a built-in discount! Each pack costs 4,000 DEC (expected value of $4 USD), which can be bought for about $2.90 at the moment.
With this change, the only DEC generated would come from card burning and rewards from liquidity pools. To help balance a potential shift in the other direction for DEC token value, Splinterlands will allow holders to burn SPS tokens for DEC. One SPS token can be burned to create 975 Dark Energy Crystals. This is an interesting mechanic, as it relieves buying pressure on DEC if it pegs above the expected value, while also giving increased utility and value to SPS tokens, and adding an additional deflationary mechanic for them as well.
What is Splinterlands?
Splinterlands is a play-to-earn, trading card game running on the Hive blockchain. The game plays in a browser. And thanks to cross-chain functionality, cards and tokens can also be traded on the Ethereum and Wax blockchains. Splinterlands has a governance token, called SPS.
Splinterlands is a cross between a deck-building game and an auto-battler. Players use their cards to build a combat lineup based on the rules of the match. Then, once both sides submit their teams, the cards run in auto battle mode until only one team remains. Players earn rewards for winning matches, and can also earn additional rewards through Daily Quests, Seasonal rewards, and a recurring, two-week leaderboard contest.
Players combine cards to level them up for better stats and additional abilities. This makes all the cards deflationary, with fewer and fewer existing as time passes. Cards come in both regular versions and rarer, gold foil versions. Splinterlands features its own in-game market and allows for buying, selling, and even leasing cards!
Read our full Splinterlands Game Guide here and visit Splinterlands.com to start playing.
