Facundo and the current Zed team have a grand vision for this game we love.
A vision that includes a complex economy of moving parts.
A vision that is being built live and in real time, in full public view.
Not an easy task by any means.
First the game had to be restructured and, in a way, rebuilt from the ground up.
Since then, new components have been layered on one by one which at times can be confusing for players who see a change but don’t understand how that change will interact with future changes or how all these changes will function as a whole when the vision is complete.
We’ve come a long way since that process began and the forward momentum continues.
Next up we have another two major changes coming in the form of XP trading and Sit N Go tournaments.
After these changes have had time to take effect, I believe we will begin to see Facundo’s vision start to take shape.
We will see how these upcoming changes and the previous changes interact with each other to create something special.
That will be the beginning of the future for Zed Run.
For now though I would like to share my take on some key aspects of Facundo’s vision.
My view on how several of these components will complement each other in the economy of Zed Run.
First, we have XP, which could be viewed as a horse improvement currency.
As we know, the more XP you earn the better your horse performs on the track.
The better it performs in paid racing and tournaments, the more real money it earns for your stable and the higher the horses value becomes in the open market.
XP has real money value, potentially a lot of value but that value is dictated by how much money is available from paid racing and tournaments.
We have regular paid racing but with the addition of Sit N Go tournaments and other cash prize tournaments the benefits of increasing a horses XP to become competitive is dramatically increased and so is the value of the XP required.
With a value on XP and the opportunity to buy and sell it on the open market we unlock a new layer of the Zed economy and two main types of market participants.
There are those players who have a lot of time on their hands, the guys that can spend all day joining free races, chasing XP tournaments and participating in challenges to accumulate XP to sell on the open market.
These are the XP traders or “Grinders” and they will love XP trading when it arrives.
Then we have the players who have less time on their hands but money to spend on boosting their horse’s competitiveness for the paid racing environment.
These are likely the bigger stables and cash heavy players of Zed Run and they will love XP trading when it arrives.
This XP economy then leads back into our other currency, the native Zed Token.
From my understanding, to sell XP on the open market you will need to take the earned XP and burn Zed Token to mint the XP for sale.
This will be the first step in utility for the Zed token adding in game demand and deflationary pressure.
This will give Zed Token life.
I’m sure initially the price of the token and XP will fluctuate substantially but with Zed using the price of minting XP as a lever to control supply and demand it shouldn’t take to long for both to find some market balance.
Then once XP and the Zed Token find that balance the Zed Token rewards treasury can be unleashed.
It’s hard to speculate on what the XP and token prices will be in a complete version of Zed but at a price of 0.05 USD for the Zed token that releases $17,000,000 in treasury value that Zed can use to juice tournaments and offer in game challenges/incentives.
Of course, the use of the token would have to be done in a careful controlled manner but once it flows into things like juiced tournaments and classing up incentives it will create more demand for XP which will drive more demand for Zed Token which will further increases the value of the Zed Tokens that are used to juice up prize pools.
What a beautiful loop.
So Paid Tournaments/Sit N Go’s fuel demand for XP which fuels demand for Zed Token which then juices paid tournaments and so forth BUT with each as standalone items the economy doesn’t work.
Hence the Twitter posts about the pointlessness of XP tournaments when they first arrived.
No one buys or grinds for XP to improve a horse if it isn’t for the purpose of winning money and with no one buying XP there is no reason to obtain Zed Token to mint that XP for sale.
This is why paid cash tournaments are essential for this economy to function effectively.
The bigger the better.
They are much needed, and they are on the way in the form of Sit N Go’s.
Standard paid racing has its place but when Sit N Go’s arrive, we will have a low entry high reward jackpot style option that players should find more exciting than current formats.
They will also be far more enticing when marketing to new users.
For example, a knockout tournament for 192 horses with a $10 entry and a $1,920 prize pool is a lot more exciting than the current 6 gate $10 entry single race with its much smaller reward.
Furthermore, if there is a $20 entry WTA for 768 horses with a prize pool of $15,360, I’m entering that on a regular basis and I’m sharing the win on Twitter for weeks if I take it home.
Sure, the chance of winning is smaller, but this is the type of action that people play slot machines and visit casinos for.
Yes, Sit N Go’s and the like are key pieces of the new Zed economy and soon they will be popping off all day.
Completely sustainable and player funded.
Zed is building a complex system.
The new class system earlier this year was a foundational stone that was followed by XP and aging.
More recently XP juiced tournaments arrived, and they will appear more important as the next items are put in place – Sit N Go’s and the XP marketplace.
With the addition of these two components and their complementation of previous changes the game will be a far more complete package.
Facundo’s vision for Zed will become much clearer.
The game as a product and an economy will be functional, exciting and dare I say it ready for marketing to a broader audience.
Get your saddles ready guys.
The starting gate hasn’t even opened yet!