Good day everybody,
Welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things crypto. Today we are going to look at an NFT project known as Ragnorak Meta which released in early 2022 and how it has progressed so far.
What is Ragnarok Meta?
Ragnarok Meta is a blockchain game and NFT collection which immerses all things lore, metaverse, and role playing gaming into the project. It launched in April of 2022 after being created by a team of crypto and anime lovers. The play-to-earn game was created around a fun and social setting within a metaverse, aiming to allow all players make use of utilities and its own currency, $RAG.
It was billed and hyped as a browser-based, Web3 Multiplayer Role Playing Game. The developers claimed to have created the game due to the lack of immersive games within the crypto space. Their idea was simple, create a Web3 game which contains a strong narrative. There was 77 Manga promised to be released over 3 years as part of the overall development of the game story which would add to the long term value of the game.
Users were sold the idea of a gaming metaverse where players can explore new dimensions, play, and hang out with friends, all through using their in game avatars. There are both PvP and PvE gaming modes to the game, along with levelling, class advancement, looting, NFT crafting, trading and owning real estate, and much more.
The catch, or fun part to it as most NFT metaverse projects sell their ideas as, is that players required a Ronin Zero NFT to enter the Ragnarok metaverse. The Genesis Ronin NFT collection was released on April 27th and featured 7,777 avatars. Each Ronin has its own unique accessories which include weapons, X-ray glasses, VR headsets, and others.
Over 185,000 followers quickly subscribed to the group on Twitter as it gained traction, and once the NFTs went on sale it took only a few days for the floor to raise up to 2.51 ETH on OpenSea, making use of the Avalanche blockchain for the game and Ethereum for the NFTs. Owning one of these NFTs would give access to the Ragnarok metaverse along with both in-game and financial advantages.
A solid roadmap was released, which gave the community much enthusiasm for the project and where it aimed to go. Each month was billed with something new, from the much-awaited Ragnarok marketplace to Ronin Zero breeding and NFT items for sale. It all seemed very official and well planned, with plenty ahead to keep users engaged and focused on the game upon its full release. The demo allowed players to get a feel for the game, with a whole new map, called the Pixel Dimension, due to be the main metaverse of the game.
What's all the Fuss?
As stated above the project launched with its NFT's in April of 2022. The minting managed to generate in excess of $15,500,000 due to its popularity and the ever increasing floor price of the Ronin's. All looked good, with the company stating that the money generated from the sales would be put into a Treasury for the further development and running of Ragnarok Meta.
Time ticked on and four month later there was very little update from the project. The development team kept engaged with their community on Twitter but in terms of meeting the deadlines of their roadmap, that was a non-runner. This was a project which promised quick, swift, and engaging updates on the regular for its community. Alas, like so many other projects, it has so far failed to live up to its hype. Unfortunately, things don't end there, as that $15,500,000 has become quite the thing of contention of late.
To compound things, as of the 30th of August, the latest floor price has been 0.19 ETH. A freefall from the 2.51 ETH high when the project was launched, leaving many who bought in for secondary sales at higher prices now very much out of pocket. I will say however if you invest in such a thing you must accept the risk attached to it, especially when it comes to NFTs. The collection on OPENSEA can be found for anyone who is interested in checking out the activity etc.
Where is the Money Gone?
On the 27th of August 2022 the founder of Ragnarok Meta announced to the community on Twitter that a large portion of the raised funds had already been spent. To the shock of those who invested and had yet to get anything in return bar a Ronin NFT, the founder went on to explain exactly where the funds had been used.
The biggest expenses were claimed to have been:
$1,827,000 lost due to trading, slippage and fees.
$1,900,000 has been paid to the ThreeSigma development ream for audit work and development of the game.
$1,300,000 was used in compensation for the core team members post mint.
$1,250,000 has been spent on salaries for core team members since the beginning of the project.
$2,450,000 became compensation for the founding members.
$1,500,000 was paid to a co-founder as a buyout.
$400,000 became salaries for founding members since the start of the project.
$423,000 were used as sweeps for Ronin.
Below is an image from the Ragnarok website which gives an idea as to who the "founders" are, the beauty of crypto being anonymity.
So lets break this down further to really see what's been happening to all that money:
They lost the $1.827m trading in Crypto. This is the last thing anybody who invests in a project expects to discover. You buy your Ronin NFT expecting a metaverse and the developer has been buying and selling crypto with that money. Surprise, surprise, they lost money in the process.
The $1.9m is being spent on an outsourced developer. After so many promises and plans, roadmaps announcing a host of releases, it turns out the company was not even developing the game itself, instead outsourcing it to another set of developers.
Possibly the worst part of it all, $6.9m has been taken to compensate the original development team. These are the core member", "founder", and "co-founder" but on closer inspection this equates to a small handful of people, with the payments spread out to make it look like a larger group sharing the funds.
Finally, $423k to repurchase their own NFT back from the community. This is often one of the biggest signs of a failure, when they company does a buy back. Often the worst part is the floor price has dropped by then and the buy back is minimal compared to what was originally spent to buy the NFT.
In those four months the company basically released a pretty but fairly basic JPEG NFT along with some graphic content released on their website and the demo version of the game. It is a far cry from what had been promised in the months ahead from the development team, especially seeing as it had gained so much traction at the NFT mint, mainly due to these promised enhancements and developments. Of course the developers behind it all got highly compensated with their $6.9m spread out between them, while the source of that money (the community) is left waiting on an unfinished product.
The Team's Response and Plans
The CEO released a post on his blog on the 26th of August where an apology was given to the community for the loss of funds and delays to the project. It can be found here: https://fanfaron.substack.com/p/from-fanfaron. I have also added in some screenshots from the blog post below.
Basically he goes into detail of how the business had converted their ETH from the NFT sales into USDC, and as the price of ETH crashed bought back in at lower prices. While this sounds good, it also led to selling the ETH at losses, which is where the $1,827,000 lost due to trading, slippage and fees comes from. Personally, without seeing any transaction to verify this, I would take it with a pinch of salt. Maybe someone else has scanned and confirmed it, but crypto ventures can be very misleading, especially about funds.
From there the post continues to explain how they will look to restructure how things are ran at the company, while the have also promised to forsake payments due from the NFT sales in a bid to pay back the losses from the trading. $850k has already been given back and another $200k will be given back over the next four months, totalling $1.05m. It sounds good, but the sceptical side of me thinks it may be to deflect away from the remainder of the $6.9m taken by the founders group. I will let you decide on that for yourselves.
What next for Ragnarok Meta and its Community
The Twitter community has remained active, with regular artwork and content released on the page, along with updates for the Roadmap etc. One recent update, on the 29th of August, is attached below and can be found here https://mobile.twitter.com/RagnarokMeta/status/1564336708061171714. Basically the developers have continued as if nothing has happened, giving the impression that once they have released their blog post apology they have done their bit. Not everyone agrees with this, but like with a lot of things in crypto, you either continue with it or sell out (likely at a loss). It is the employees, media staff, etc, who are running the Twitter page, meaning getting direct contact with someone in charge is somewhat impossible.
The response from community seems quite split as expected, with a lot of outrage shown on the responses to the above Tweet, along with the die hard fans who will defend the project till the last. Many are outraged with the loss of funds, many still show faith and belief in the development team, and some just want the product the paid for.
All in all it is an experience for anyone who has been involved with crypto as to how quickly things can turn away from the initial intended path. I cannot say whether or not the creators had good intentions or if this was just another rug from the off. The consumers have a product, but it is nowhere near the level of what they were promised. Can we have any faith in the crypto world anymore or should we wait for others to buy in early and hope we don't miss out on one of the projects which might actually live up to its self proclaimed potential? I will leave that up to you to decided, but hopefully with an open mind and learnt lessons from the many misleading projects released over 2021 and 2022.
Have a great day.
CryptoGod-1.
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