As Bitcoin soars to new all-time highs nearly every day, new millionaires are being made all over the world from those who believed in the power of cryptocurrency. Still, a few all-time highs have never been the ultimate goal of decentralized currencies, and while great strides have been made toward mass adoption, there is still a long way to go and and even more development to be done.
As any veteran of the space can tell you, making the shift to decentralized currency and removing power from huge centralized banks means more than just holding bitcoin. It means pushing nearly every industry of the world to its full potential in terms of innovation and technology. Taking control of money is also taking control of technology, business, social media, and every other area that has developed an inappropriate amount of control over our daily lives.
There are companies in a few of these industries that are really pushing the limits, bravely pioneering the space. Their founders started their journeys with bitcoin some years ago, and have since branched into specialized homes from which they can do incredible good for not only mass adoption, but for the entire world. In this article, I will talk about one such company: RFOX Games.
What's a Red Fox?
Red Fox Labs is a Southeast Asia venture builder that started in 2019. They create companies, nurture the success of their companies, then create more companies. Because this is a large company that has even larger plans for different industries, it can sometimes be difficult to understand the difference between terms.
Below is a simple text diagram to explain the situation.
Red Fox Labs - Parent company
RFOX Games - Gaming division
KOGs - First offering of RFOX Games
Check out the "Core Values" table at the Red Fox Labs homepage above!
The best possible description I could offer you of Red Fox Labs is available by simply checking out their website at redfoxlabs.io. The well-organized site makes their purpose and mission quite clear, instills confidence, trust and loyalty into anyone who has been lucky enough to discover their first project, KOGs.
KOGs
First, it is important to know that KOGs is an acronym that stands for Keys to Other Games. This is how they got my attention in the first place. It's easy to create hype for something based only on collectible and sentimental value, which is precisely what they are doing expertly with KOGs in a throwback to Pogs, the nineties milk cap slamming game. Although this in itself was exciting to me and made my childlike inner spirit jump for glee, it was not enough to convince me to really get behind the company. Several other things took it to the next level, and the next, and the next. As I continue, I'll attempt to explain them to you. It all begins with "Keys to other games."
KEYS TO OTHER GAMES
8-Bit "Treasure Chest" 1st Edition KOG
"Keys to Other Games" is a powerful statement from where I sit. It represents everything that NFTs and digital assets can do when pushed to the limits of possibilities. This is an idea that I have preached ever since I first learned what an NFT was, years after I had earned my first cryptocurrency. It promises countless new layers of utility and DeFi, about which most of us can only dream. In my opinion it sums up the potential and the true brilliance of what we're all striving to do: To put power into the hands of the players, collectors, investors... you know, the people, not the corporations. Of course, corporations that buy into these ideas of decentralization and freedom will find tremendous success in the coming years. Alternately, those who do not support the paradigm shift will face losses and failures the likes of which they never thought possible.
As someone who has now spent hundreds of hours listening to the RFOX team (Ben Fairbank in particular) in daily Discord calls, I can assure you that Red Fox Labs, RFOX Games and KOGs are on the right side of this paradigm shift. They know what kind of revolutions are headed for the world, and they will be there at the forefront to organize, empower and educate the masses. But enough rhetoric... let's dig into some specifics before you all fall asleep at the screen.
Collectibles with Utility
First, What is Utility?
Obviously the idea of utility is entirely open to interpretation. Many nay-sayers of NFTs will tell you that there is no such thing as utility in the NFT space, but this is simply not true. Usually these people (the ones most resistant to the NFT world) call themselves "bitcoin evangelists," or worse, "bitcoin maximalists." It is not until these people realize that these NFTs ideas are all expansions and examples of Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision that they will truly flourish in the industry.
My guitar has "utility," but only because I know how to play it.
To a sports fans, baseball cards may have utility. To an art curator, paintings in their collection have utility. To a road worker, a jackhammer has utility. To me (who hasn't a clue how to use it) the same jackhammer has no utility and I'm better off not touching it. My point is that utility is in the eyes and hands of the user. If you can get use from something, then it has utility.
Usually, when bitcoin evangelists are railing against crypto art and collectibles having "no utility," all they really mean is that it has no utility for them. And unfortunately, until they realize this, they have little hope of ever finding utility in these things. Try telling an artist who has poured part of their soul into a piece of NFT art, tortured themselves to determine a selling price and finally listed it on Rarible or NFT Showroom that their art has no utility. They will hate you for it, and they will be right to do so. How can you suggest that something so important to them (and to the world) is useless? Not only is that mentality a heartless way to live, but those deniers are closing off to themselves an entire world of potential revenue streams, which at the end of the day is what they really care about.
In the remainder of this (lengthy) article, I will describe all the ways that KOGs have utility, and will continue to build more utility with every update and new development. You may think that because they were initially wrapped in a pretty package that is far more interesting than an imitation of "traditional" currency, that they do not mean business. I am here to tell you that if you think that, you are just plain wrong. As I have said above, this company means to innovate the DeFi space by bringing a new degree of gamification to boring things like saving, collecting, investing and loans.
So if you choose to read on, please do so with an open mind, and if you choose to respond, choose your words carefully as I have done.
What Hooked Me?
This is just one of my completed sets of KOGs - the Benny Rainbow!
Private beta testing of the first KOGs game will begin on January 15th, and I will be there waiting eagerly. Sadly (for you), chances are you will not be invited to take part in this test, as it carries 1st Edition collection requirements and is by invite only. I have been holding first edition KOGs and building my collection since their first three-hour sale on August 18th, 2020, and while it has not yet been five months since this release, it feels like an eternity has passed. I mention the closed beta test first because it is one of the best (and first) examples of the beginnings of utility for these NFTs.
Since the first days of KOGs (when we knew very little about the future of the company), we were assured that early adopters and collectors would be rewarded for their faith, confidence and loyalty. As I watched the secondary market value of my assets increase literally every day, I looked forward to these rewards, but neither the promise of rewards nor the significant increases in value were enough to earn my complete trust.
How did I know that I was doing the right thing, even though face value was not enough to convince me? The answer is the joy of collecting. KOGs awakened a collector inside me that had been asleep for decades. It was the same collector that was scolded by my mother for holding onto to every shiny thing that I found in hopes that it would one day be a rare collector's item. It was the collector who gathered Magic: the Gathering cards, baseball cards and Pogs, never really knowing what any of them were "worth," but treasuring them nonetheless.
KOGs appeared and breathed new life into that childlike collector inside me, and I could not be more thankful. If I didn't have so many other things to do, I could spend all day organizing and crafting my KOGs collection. Through WAX and AtomicHub, I'm able to buy, sell and trade as often as I would like. As a child collector in the nineties, this idea was merely a dream, but now the entire world of collectors of the same assets are brought into my office and placed before me in the most convenient way imaginable.
While I would never have the discipline to make money as a day trader of stocks or cryptocurrencies, I would be thrilled to make a living trading digital assets such as KOGs. Not only that, but I can imagine actually being able to pull it off in a very real way. Below are just a few of the ways in which I have been "thanked" by KOGs for being an early adopter and a believer in the utility of NFTs.
Early Adopter Utilities
1st Edition tee from the team - just one of many perks that made me feel special!
1. Packs Won - I have witnessed the generosity of the KOGs team firsthand, and have even been the beneficiary of much of it. In the earliest days, when we were a small group, Starter and Booster packs were given away at each call. Many of these packs contained KOGs that turned out to be worth hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars. The 1st Edition Starter Packs themselves are currently trading for no less than $164. I won packs such as these on more than one occasion, and my 1st Edition KOGs collection has grown from an initial investment of $1000 to a pile of some 1500 KOGs worth an estimated $30,000.
2. Info First - Those who joined in the daily open Discord calls have been able to receive information first every step of the way. We have known of every update and we have heard everything directly from the source (Ben Fairbank). Many companies' CEOs would never take time even once a month to talk directly to their communities, much less five times a week in an open forum with honesty and transparency.
3. RFOX Airdrop - 1st Edition collectors all received an airdrop of RFOX tokens following RFOX's migration to the Ethereum blockchain. This airdrop was based on several variables, such as the rarity of the collection and completion of various sets. I received RFOX totaling about $300 (I have 2 completed Supersets, and 2 ultra rare Rainbow sets), with which I was able to purchase more Starter packs from the time-limited 2nd Edition sale.
4. Sharing Incentives - In addition to all the perks that came directly from the Discord calls, there were also email giveaways of exclusive NFTs and social media contests such as trivia and #KOGSmeme, which awarded participants with even more generosity.
5. Opportunities Galore - Several members of the original community have been invited to work with RFOX on some level, having demonstrated their abilities and their loyalty. Some of them have gone on to be offered life-changing employment with what has become the employer of their dreams. After all, a strong part of Red Fox Labs' mission is to connect projects with passionate people that suit them. They are a creator of opportunity.
6. Feedback - Whenever a member of our early adopter community has expressed feedback of any kind, it has been listened to and responded to by the core team of RFOX. This has made us all feel valued and important, especially in a world where people are often ignored or drowned out by those with perceived louder or more important voices.
7. Scarcity - Both of the first KOGs sales were called Collectors' sales. Packs in the primary sale were available only for three-hour windows, and those who were not able to pick them up during these windows were left to the secondary markets only, where scarcity has caused prices to increase substantially. The 3rd Edition will not be done this way. Instead, 3rd Edition KOGs will be the ones meant to be used in games. They will be available for months instead of hours, assuring us early adopters that our 1st and 2nd Edition collections will have far greater rarity and scarcity than the KOGs to come.
The list does not end there, but I will stop listing the details of this section now, assuming you get the idea. To me, and anyone else who has been part of our club of early adopters, they have already proven their utility tenfold, and I have not even yet begun to tell of the future.
Future Utility
The first KOGs game will be coming out in the next couple months, and as I said above, beta testing will begin on January 15th. I will write another article outlining my experience as a beta tester and offering valuable tips to prepare you for the main release of the game, so keep an eye on my blog.
Read the Litepaper by clicking on the image above.
The following will be my interpretation of the future utilities of Keys to Other Games, not information from the horse's mouth. To get the best and most informative explanation, please refer to the RFOX Litepaper HERE. This paper outlines the plans for utility surrounding the RFOX token. I'm not any kind of financial expert, so many of these aspects continue to elude my own understanding. Please do not feel badly if you are in the same boat. We all bring different things to the table, and understanding will always come eventually with focus and research. Don't rush this understanding, and remember that just for being around this world, you are ahead of the curve.
1. Tokens on Multiple Blockchains - Bridging the divides between blockchains and overcoming the tribalism of my blockchain is better than yours is a high hurdle, and one that must be cleared before mass adoption can be reached. RFOX has solid plans for accomplishing this in many ways.
2. Staking - Most of the blockchain use-cases with which I have surrounded myself for the last several years have involved staking in one form or another. With Splinterlands, owning cards is the way they are staked. By holding more cards, you can have a greater collection power, which allows you to rise to greater leagues and earn greater rewards. When transferred, cards are subject to a cooldown period of 7 days, similar to the period of unstaking that comes with powered up tokens like STEEM or HIVE (the blockchains with which I am most familiar).
Staking is one example of how to defeat the gas crisis that is present in the world of Ethereum today. Variable network fees ("gas" costs) have made it so that even transferring small amounts of money can cost absurdly. This has even led many ETH-based projects (combined with poor planning) to bitter failure and a bad reputation. The fact is that operating on a blockchain costs money, like every type of operation in the world. By placing these costs into a model in which they are covered by (regenerating) staking power of some sort, certain blockchains have been able to remove the cost. With WAX, RAM is required for computing power on the decentralized network to make transactions. Simply by holding WAX in their wallets, users typically have the RAM necessary to transact. With HIVE, resource credits are required, a regenerating resource that comes with having even a small amount of "powered up" HIVE in a user's wallet.
There will be multiple ways in the future to stake KOGs, sets of KOGs, and RFOX tokens to earn different types of rewards.
3. Loaning/Delegating - This was the promise that led me to collect the holy grail of KOGs sets, not once but twice. I'm talking about the Superset. A Superset is a collection of every Ultra Rare KOG of a given border type. Some of them, such as the jagged edge slammers and the elusive Bitcoin have risen drastically in price, making them extremely difficult to find today. They are all rare, and they are all treasures. Here is an example of how they will be used to create passive income for me in the future, and why I would not sell one of these sets for any less than $7000.
Not only will these KOGs be Keys to Other Games, but they will often act as admission tickets for exclusive tournaments in these games. The following is an early example of how this would look, shared in the first weeks by Benny in the Discord calls.
A specialized Esports tournament in which the prizes are in the range of several thousand dollars will only be entered by those who hold completed 1st Edition Supersets (I hold two). While I may not wish to always play in these tournaments, my Supersets will always be valued by those who do. Furthermore, the sets will be able to be loaned, in the same way that Splinterlands cards can be delegated to other players' collections. Many players who are newer to the game will have very little hope of acquiring their own Superset, but they will always have the ability to rent one from a collector such as myself (for a price).
Suppose that a certain tournament has 2 options for entry: $200 cash or the submission of a completed Superset. This essentially means that as long as players are interested in joining the tournament, I can offer my Superset as a loaned admission ticket for a discounted price. Perhaps I'm willing to let another player use one of my sets for a fee of $100. This would give that player the opportunity to enter the tournament at a 50% discount, and my superset would be returned to me following the tournament.
Think of the extended possibilities of this. I could find a player with huge skills, but a small collection, and I could create a mutually beneficial relationship with them. Through the power and potential of applied smart contracts, I could allow them to use my set for a deep discount, while asking them to agree to share a portion of their winnings with me. It would be like offering a table stake to a skilled poker player in a WSOP championship in exchange for a portion of their rewards. Such an arrangement will be possible with KOGs in an undetermined number of future games, and I could not be more excited for it.
4. Liquidity Providers - For those who are willing to provide liquidity to the RFOX/ETH pairing on Uniswap, there is another layer of potential rewards to be earned by the community. I personally have not gotten involved with the aspect of DeFi, nor do I intend to try and explain it in this article.
You will find more details about DeFi at KOGs, RFOX, and Red Fox Labs. For even more resources, visit the KOGs Discord server and ask the extremely helpful mods there.
5. Other Games - It's part of their name. There will be other games. Watch closely, because they move fast and there is bound to be a game that is perfect for YOU.
Phew. I have to stop there, because believe me, I could go on for thousands more words about how and why I love RFOX and KOGs. Instead of boring you with more words, I'll leave you with some more valuable resources for KOGs.
RedFox Labs YOUTUBE - Video news is released consistently here.
Atomic Hub - Main Secondary Market for KOGs.
Waxplorer - Collection info available here.
RFOX Uniswap Info - do not trust links other than through the official website
The RFOX Team
KOGs on Twitter
RFOX on Twitter
RedFox Labs on Twitter
Please do all your own research using the links, tools and insights that I have provided, and don't blame me for making uninformed financial decisions. Thanks!
Finally, here are some referral links that I stand behind 1000%.
Play Splinterlands
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Join PUBLISH0X and Earn Crypto Rewards!
Learn Why I Believe in Referral Business (Article)
Thanks for reading NON-FUNGIBLE STEW!
-Chris
