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Issue #12: Blockbuster game developers ramp up marketing and launch a proprietary blockchain

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Summary

SymbolGALACirculating Supply (estimated)7,542,496,572
Rank#107Total Supply39,014,717,958
(max 50,000,000,000)
Price (03/15/22)US$0.04562322Market CapitalizationUS$343,915,552 

Complete historical GALA price chart. Source: CoinGecko

In this report, we’ll answer the following:

What is Gala?

Gala Games builds user-friendly blockchain games and is expanding to music and film. Its ecosystem centers around two primary principles:

The platform has over 1.3 million active users and hosts many games, including

Trending games featured on GALA’s website. Source: Gala Games

Eventually, GALA plans to have over 50 games on its platform.

Using blockchain technology benefits players. For example, users can trade their in-game assets with other players. Other companies can create a game utilizing a player’s in-game blockchain assets.

These verifiable blockchain assets provide players with security. Since the asset is on the blockchain, it’s impossible to lose. For example, game developers can’t take your assets away.

The community has a significant say in the development of Gala’s games. Developers build with feedback from Gala’s thriving Discord community. Distributed voting mechanisms determine what games Gala funds or adds to its platform.

Nodes power Gala’s network. Users can run these nodes on their computers. In return, they receive rewards such as limited edition NFTs. Over 16,000 nodes are powering its ecosystem.

Gala is branching into other entertainment-related sectors with Gala Music and Gala Film.

Gala Music aims to give control to music artists. They have creative control to create and distribute their music. The platform rewards popular artists for supporting new artists. Meanwhile, fans can earn by listening. They can also collect NFTs and share artists’ revenue and rewards.

Gala Music features artists from many genres. Source: Gala Music

Gala Film, like Gala Music, aims to help filmmakers and fans connect. Film creators have the creative license to distribute to fans and cut out middlemen. Viewers receive rewards for streaming. The platform incentivizes producers to support new creators.

GYRI is Gala’s proprietary blockchain that will power the entire Gala ecosystem. It aims to increase efficiency, security and speed. 

Meanwhile, it reduces costs and negative environmental impacts. GYRI recently released and currently powers Spider Tanks.

Who’s behind Gala?

Gala’s founders are Eric Schiermeyer, Wright Thurston, and Michael McCarthy. Gala’s LinkedIn shows 274 other employees.

Gala’s co-founders have over twenty years of experience in the gaming industry. They’ve worked on popular game titles and in successful companies. This experience bodes well for the future of Gala.

What are the GALA token’s uses?

The GALA token is the Gala ecosystem’s utility token and uses the ERC-20 Ethereum token standard. Holders can use it to:

The token has had other utilities. For example, it provided “Gala Power” for TownStar. Now, Gala is phasing out the Gala Power mechanic.

In the future, users will use the GALA token to pay for gas transaction fees on Gala’s blockchain, GYRI.

Gala’s CEO comments on Gala’s blockchain burning GALA for gas. Source: Gala Games Discord

How are GALA tokens distributed and released?

GALA’s initial token distribution happened through a fair launch. There were no presales offering discounted tokens to venture capitalists or other investors. 

The fair launch helps protect GALA’s price. No early investors can dump their cheaply-obtained tokens on the market. Some other projects have this risk, which can crash their token price.

GALA tokens distribute daily. Half service as rewards for Founders’ Node Operators. The other half distribute to the Gala Games Conservatorship, which supports game development.

Every year on 21 July, GALA’s emissions halve. From 2022 to 2023, 8,561,643 tokens distribute daily. On 12 July 2023, emissions will drop to approximately 4,280,821 tokens per day. Developers plan to continue these halvings.

Tokens will burn during transactions and gas fees. These burns mean that the circulating supply may never reach GALA’s max supply of 50 billion tokens. The burns could make the token deflationary.

Decreasing emissions and burns reduce circulating supply. This reduced supply makes it easier for the token’s price to climb.

Why could GALA be valuable in the future?

Gaming is a massive market

Some estimates place the gaming market at US$300 billion. Games come in many flavors and are constantly evolving. Players continually move on to new games. 

This dynamic means there is no risk of a single game gaining a monopoly over the market. There is always room for new entrants.

Inside this massive available market, Web3 gaming is growing in popularity. In 2021, Web3 gaming’s market size was US$5 billion. Some projections expect this number to reach US$30 billion by 2030.

Projected Web3 gaming market growth from 2021 to 2023. Source: Fungies

Web3 games provide several advantages to players. One key benefit is that players can own their items.

In non-blockchain games, players often spend a significant time acquiring valuable items. These items are limited to the game, and the player doesn’t own the item. Developers can delete the items since the player doesn’t have control.

Blockchain-based games give more control back to the players. Players’ items are permanent and immutable on the blockchain. Users can trade their items or use them in other games.

Gala collaborates with its community to create enjoyable games

Yet, many current Web3 games face several problems. Sometimes, they’re not fun to play.

This failure can be the result of inexperienced teams or poor game design. Other games are low-effort cash grabs. 

Sometimes they’re thin veils over tedious tasks like managing decentralized finance (DeFi) portfolios. In other games, players need a significant amount of blockchain knowledge.

Gala’s core mission addresses these problems. Their “Fun First” ethos aims to make blockchain invisible in their games. Players can enjoy blockchain’s benefits while avoiding technical drudgery.

Also, Gala has a large platform and proprietary chain. Like other Web3 games, players own their items. 

Yet, players essentially lose their assets if a game’s blockchain shuts down. Gala’s size and team’s experience make it more likely that its blockchain – and players’ items – will survive.

As a bonus, GALA is expanding to other verticals with Gala Film and Gala Music. This diversification helps the company survive through bearish cycles in gaming. 

It also encourages users to spread between verticals. Users of Gala Film and Gala Music may expand to Gala’s games. This ecosystem advantage may help Gala’s games grow faster than competitors.

As more users enter Gala’s entertainment ecosystem, more tokens burn while demand increases. Decreased supply and increased demand make help the token’s price to climb.

GALA aligns with popular narratives

A popular narrative in recent years is giving control back to consumers and creators. Gala does this by working with its community to develop games that the community wants to play. Community members can vote on proposals, giving them a say in developing Gala’s games.

Environmental friendliness is another trending narrative. Some blockchains have ended up on the wrong side of this narrative. 

For example, proof-of-work blockchains often need significant energy to function. This environmentally damaging consumption led to some governments discussing bans on these blockchains.

In contrast, Gala’s blockchain GYRI aims for efficiency. Gala has also partnered with OneTreePlanted to stay on the right side of the narrative. OneTreePlanted plants one tree each time someone purchases on Gala’s platform.

Gala highlights their commitment to reducing negative environmental impact and remaining carbon-negative. Source: Gala Games

Gala’s experienced team is aggressive with partnerships and business development

Recently, Gala acquired mobile game company Ember Entertainment. This acquisition provided Gala with 15 new games and a new user base.

More users can help Gala’s tokens price rise by decreasing supply. Beyond increased demand, more users will reduce the token’s supply. Each transaction will burn GALA tokens. Gala’s CEO estimates these burns could reach 6-35% of the token’s supply yearly.

Also, Gala has secured notable partnerships. These partnerships include Snoop Dogg, Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. These partnerships help bring new users to Gala’s platform.

Gala highlights an NFT track drop in partnership with legendary rapper Snoop Dogg. Source: Gala Music

Gala’s founders also have decades of experience in creating online games. This background helps the company avoid the pitfalls that threaten its less-experienced competitors.

Gala plans to grow through increased marketing

So far, Gala hasn’t invested significant resources in marketing. Asa result, its community is smaller than some competitors like The Sandbox.

Gala waited to finish its product before focusing on marketing. Gala’s blockchain is live and more games are releasing, so they plan to ramp up marketing during 2023.

GALA Discord support commenting on increased marketing efforts during 2023. Source: Gala Games Discord

This increased marketing will help attract new users to Gala’s blockchain. More users increase demand for GALA tokens and will decrease supply through burns. More demand and less supply make the token’s price more likely to climb.

The GALA token may become deflationary

Gala plans to burn tokens now that its propriety blockchain GYRI has launched. Users will pay for transactions on Gala’s blockchain using the GALA token. These transactions will burn GALA tokens.

Burning tokens reduces GALA’s supply. If enough users are on the blockchain, these burns could outpace emissions. This scenario would result in deflation.

If GALA becomes deflationary, it becomes more scarce. Users will still need the GALA to take part in Gala’s ecosystem. This deflation and demand help propel the token’s price upward.

Gala’s CEO comments on future token deflation. Source: PlayToEarn

What is the market saying about Gala?

Gala has retained its social volume

Social volume has dropped for most crypto projects during the bear market. Yet, Gala’s recent social volume has stayed high relative to its 2022 levels. This volume shows that users remain interested in the company’s efforts.

Gala’s focus on entertainment may help it keep users’ interest. Its audience expands beyond the blockchain niche. This broad appeal could make Gala’s popularity less dependent on the crypto industry’s cycles.

Total social volume for GALA. Source: Santiment

Gala has significant room to grow

Gala’s large community has

These numbers are significant – but smaller than one of Gala’s competitors, The Sandbox. 

The Sandbox has over 1 million Twitter followers, 295,501 Discord members, and 744,895 Facebook followers. It’s invested more in marketing, which may explain its larger community. 

Yet, Gala is planning to expand its marketing. The Sandbox’s community size highlights a significant audience for Gala to reach.

What are the risks for Gala?

Technology is prone to hacks, exploits and bugs

No technology is safe from potential problems. There have been many high-profile hacks on blockchain companies. For example, the blockchain game Axie Infinity suffered a US$620 million hack in 2022.

Gala also suffered an incident in November 2022. A wallet address printed US$2 billion in an unknown GALA token through an exploit on the bridge pNetwork. This event temporarily crashed GALA’s price.

Gala made an official statement on the pGALA incident and its resolution. Source: Gala Games on Medium

Gala made an official statement on the pGALA incident and its resolution. Source: Gala Games on Medium

Yet, Gala’s audited and functioning layer-1 (L1) GYRI chain reduces this risk. Its ERC-20 smart contract also passed an audit by AnChain.AI.

Nonetheless, investors should manage their risk when investing in technology.

Increased crypto regulation could threaten the platform

The crypto industry got regulators’ attention after the past years’ significant collapses. 

Gala may be safe. It positions itself as a reward-offering entertainment platform, not as an investment. 

Still, regulators hold absolute power. Regulatory decisions could threaten Gala’s business model or decrease its available market. 

Gala could lose traction, causing the circulating supply to keep growing

A key element of Gala’s anticipated deflation is many users triggering token burns.

Yet, suppose Gala begins losing traction. This loss could happen through poor business decisions. It could also come from a reduced interest in Web3 entertainment. Competitors could steal Gala’s users.

With fewer users, fewer tokens will burn to reduce supply. The higher supply makes it harder for the token’s price to climb.

Bottom line

Gala has made solid business decisions. It’s focused on player and creator ownership in easy-to-enjoy entertainment.

By expanding to many verticals, Gala is less prone to downturns in the crypto industry. Its celebrity partnerships help it access a larger market than some competitors.

When GALA launches token burning, its token could become deflationary. These tokenomics and popularity would increase the odds of the token’s price rising.

What can I do from here?

  1. Buy and hold GALA tokens [Difficulty: Easy]
  2. Play Gala’s games [Difficulty: Easy]
  3. Support Gala Film development by purchasing access NFTs [Difficulty: Easy]
  4. Join Gala’s Discord to talk with the community and weigh in on proposals and [Difficulty: Easy]
  5. Buy a Gala Founder’s node to support the ecosystem and earn rewards [Difficulty: Moderate]

Who should I follow?

Sources

The information that Ticker Nerd provides is general in nature as it has been prepared without taking account of your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not intended as legal, financial or investment advice and should not be construed or relied on as such. Ticker Nerd is for information purposes only. Ticker Nerd is not responsible for any damages or losses that may occur as a result of reliance on this information. Before making any commitment of a legal or financial nature you should seek advice from a qualified and registered legal practitioner or financial or investment adviser.
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