01 Project Overview
Tabi Chain is a modular game public chain built on Cosmos, with millions of TPS, compatible with any VM (virtual machine), and convenient for Web2 game manufacturers and developers to quickly transplant or develop Web3 games. In addition, Tabi Chain adopts a unique economic model design, allowing game developers and players to get incentives as the ecosystem develops, creating a sustainable economic growth flywheel.
Tabi Chain is currently in the testnet stage and is expected to launch the mainnet in the third quarter of 2024.
Official website: https://www.tabichain.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tabichain
02 Technical Architecture
2.1 Modular Architecture
Tabi Chain is a modular gaming public chain that is fully compatible and interoperable with the EVM. It is built on the Cosmos SDK, which runs on the CometBFT (a branch of Tendermint Core) consensus engine, achieving short block times of about 5 seconds and high throughput of millions of TPS.
Tabi Chain, as a sovereign L1 of the Cosmos ecosystem, has its own native token and can be connected to other chains through IBC. Tabi Chain contains standard modules in the Cosmos SDK and self-developed specific modules, and the two work in parallel.
Tabi Chain's core technology stack is Omnicomputing, which consists of the following:
Omni Execution Layer: A polymorphic virtual machine that is compatible with any virtual machine (including non-Web3 virtual machines).
Modular consensus layer: Uses ParallelBFT (Parallel Byzantine) consensus to propose and organize blocks in parallel, but "services" can use any consensus mechanism.
Modular security layer: Services can choose to share security using protocols such as EigenLayer or Babylon.
Service-centric: In addition to the main service in Tabi Chain, dApps or games can deploy their own independent services. The service is part of the overall consensus of Tabi Chain, but has an independent and customizable execution layer, data structure, consensus scheme, etc.
2.2 Network Roles
In Tabi Chain, there are the following roles:
Validator:
Elected by the Captain Node through dPoS
Verify the primary service
Verify some of the other services (i.e. only verify block format, signatures, etc., but not state)
Supervisor Node:
Elected by the Captain Node through dPoS
Is a special type of high-performance verification node
Load a consistent polymorphic VM for each service
Execute the block proposed by the service node and confirm its status
Initiate a slashing proposal through 2/3 voting (slashing malicious service nodes)
Service Node:
dApp or game can deploy independent services to meet their modular customization needs. Services can be started by a single node (single node mode) or a group of nodes (multi-node mode), the former has a faster response speed, and the latter is more decentralized. Service nodes need to pledge assets on the Tabi Chain main service and EigenLayer/Babylon (if shared security is enabled), and all blocks generated by the service must be submitted to the Tabi Chain consensus system.
Captain Node:
Obtain node operation rights through purchase (detailed in the economic model section below)
Electing Validation Nodes and Supervisory Nodes
Enabling shared security on EigenLayer and Babylon
Act as a member of the random shuffle group in Proof of Participation and other AVS built by Tabi
Use distributed AIGC technology to generate models, materials, art assets and scripts for games to speed up game development
AI-based help for Web2 developers to review and convert game code for Omni execution layer
2.3 Omni Execution Layer
GameFi has experienced several years of development, but the current Web3 games still generally lack playability and are more inclined to financial speculation. The main reason is that it is difficult for excellent developers in the traditional game field to enter the Web3 field, which has extremely high development difficulty and learning cost. The main reasons are as follows:
Web3 applications are fundamentally different from traditional software architectures. Developers need to learn smart contract languages and understand the working principles of Web3 virtual machines (such as EVM), and need to make game mechanisms fully adaptable to Web3 virtual machines and on-chain logic.
The Web3 virtual machine has limitations and lacks mechanisms or functions related to game development, such as lack of timers, no support for multi-threaded or asynchronous operations, lack of the ability to reference external data, limited scalability and performance, etc.
There are limitations on the storage, retrieval, and indexing of on-chain data, and third-party data providers are often required, but delays or errors are still inevitable.
Difficult to integrate with existing game assets. For example, migrating game assets from Web2 games to the chain requires complex integration work.
Difficulty in upgrading. Smart contracts cannot be upgraded after deployment. Although restrictions can be circumvented through proxy contracts or version control modes, this will increase overall complexity. In addition, blockchain cannot roll back data like centralized databases.
The ecosystem is fragmented. Traditional games can use cross-platform game engines to run games on multiple terminals, but in Web3, migrating games to heterogeneous blockchains requires a lot of work.
To simplify the process for traditional game manufacturers and developers to enter Web3, Tabi Chain launched the Omni execution layer, the core of which is to support any virtual machine, namely the polymorphism VM. In addition to integrating Web3 virtual machines such as EVM and SVM, it will also connect to virtual machines commonly used in the Web2 game field (such as Java virtual machines), and share resources and states between multiple virtual machines. Developers can develop games based on any language/framework/virtual machine, and directly deploy them on the main service of Tabi Chain through simple adaptation.
If the polymorphic virtual machine cannot meet the needs of some dApps and games, developers can build services independent of the main service, with complete data isolation, independent and customizable execution layer, data structure, consensus scheme, etc., with higher flexibility. Whether built on the main service or independent service, it needs to be able to be verified by the supervisory node and included in the overall consensus of Tabi Chain.
2.4 User Experience
In addition to the lack of high-quality games, the Web3 game market also faces pain points in terms of user groups and scale. The audience of such games is often the existing users in the Web3 field. In order to cater to the audience, game developers will inevitably tend to make the value of the game financial speculation. For Web2 game developers, facing the extremely low user volume ceiling, there is also a lack of motivation to enter Web3. Therefore, in addition to providing development convenience on the product side, Tabi Chain will also provide a better gaming experience on the user side to attract the influx of Web2 players.
Game developers within the Tabi Chain ecosystem can choose different user registration/login methods. They can use the common wallets used in Web3 games to log in, or they can use the email/ID and password login method in Web2 to reduce the learning cost for new users. In-game interactions can avoid frequent manual on-chain authorizations and support zero-Gas interactions, reducing interference and friction during the game, allowing Web2 players to enter Web3 games seamlessly.
03 Economic Model
3.1 Token Allocation
TABI token is the native token of Tabi Chain, which has the functions of staking, mining, governance, gas payment, etc. The total amount is 10 billion, which will be distributed in the following ways:
Mining: 40%
Team: 14%
Investors: 14%
Ecology: 15%
Public sale: 4%
Airdrop: 8%
Marketing and Consulting: 5%
3.2 Incentive Mechanism
3.2.1 veTabi
Tabi Chain introduces the ve model and innovates the mechanism. Users convert TABI tokens 1:1 to obtain veTabi. veTabi can be reversely destroyed and converted into TABI. It has a certain conversion cycle and penalty mechanism:
Convert now: Get 25% TABI
90-day conversion cycle: Get 50% of TABI, linear release
180-day conversion cycle: Get 100% of TABI, linear release
veTabi holders have the following rights:
Game Rewards: Get rewards for games in the Tabi Chain ecosystem (including airdrops, game bonuses, etc.).
Voting rights: Tabi Chain will periodically issue token incentives to each game in the ecosystem, and veTabi holders can decide the token incentive weights of each game through voting.
Protocol income distribution: Protocols within the Tabi Chain ecosystem (such as DEX, NFT market, etc.) will distribute part of their income to veTabi holders.
In addition, based on Tabi Chain's dPoS mechanism, users can stake TABI tokens to supervisory nodes to participate in consensus. TABI stakers have the following rights:
Token rewards: You will receive TABI token rewards according to the staking weight.
Voting rights: The same as veTabi voting rights, but the voting rights obtained by staking 1 TABI will be much less than 1 veTabi.
3.2.2 Vote Bribery
Web3 games usually use token incentives to attract an influx of players, but they can only maintain short-term prosperity with high returns. Then, due to excessive inflation of tokens, an infinite negative spiral is triggered, and game developers and players enter a lose-lose situation.
In order to achieve sustainable development of the gaming ecosystem and keep high-quality games vibrant in the long term, Tabi Chain periodically issues TABI token incentives to each game (in the form of veTabi). Game developers can distribute incentives to game players to keep them motivated to play the game.
The amount of TABI that each game can obtain per cycle is determined by the votes of veTabi holders/TABI pledgers. Players tend to prefer high returns, and the best way to attract players is to increase the TABI allocation weight in each cycle, and the only way is to get more votes. In addition to attracting loyal fans to vote by improving game quality/marketing, game developers have two options: pledge TABI to get more voting rights, or bribe existing voters to get higher support.
Game developers can reward voters with game tokens, game props and other assets to achieve the purpose of vote buying. Compared with the incentive method of directly issuing tokens to players, vote buying has higher capital efficiency (for example, using a bribe worth $100 in exchange for a TABI incentive distribution worth $200), allowing the game to reduce token inflation while attracting players to enter, thereby achieving sustainable development.
Under this mechanism, the interests of game developers and players will be aligned, and high-quality games can quickly attract more players and achieve long-term vitality in a healthy incentive way. Players can also vote to make high-quality games stand out, get a better gaming experience, and continue to benefit as the ecosystem grows.
3.3 Captain Node
3.3.1 Node Rights
As mentioned above, the Captain Node will select the verification node and the supervisory node through dPoS election, which is an important driving force for achieving Tabi Chain consensus and decentralization. In addition, the Captain Node is also a core participant in the Tabi Chain ecosystem, which will play a decisive role in the launch and incentives of games within the ecosystem, and can obtain multi-dimensional benefits in the long term.
The total number of Captain nodes is capped at 200,000. After purchasing a node, users can run it on a low-configuration computer or cloud server to obtain continuous mining rewards and ecological rewards, as follows:
40% of the total TABI tokens will be obtained in a mining cycle of about 3 years and distributed in the form of veTabi.
Voting determines the incentive weight of each game in the ecosystem.
Get bribes, airdrops and other benefits.
The Captain Node has a strong correlation with some games within the ecosystem and will receive additional benefits and other related privileges.
3.3.2 Mining Rules
The mining rules of the Captain Node are as follows:
The mining income of the Captain node on that day = the total emission on that day * the proportion of node computing power
Node computing power = node basic computing power * e^6.66 * personal pledge rate * personal operation rate
Personal pledge rate = total amount of TABI pledged by the individual (veTabi held) / total amount of veTabi received by the individual
Personal operation rate = node normal operation time / total node holding time
**Total emissions for the day: **A dynamic mining algorithm is used, which is dynamically related to the global node operation rate, staking rate, halving cycle and technological progress factors.
**Halving cycle:**When the number of mined veTabi accounts for half of the total mining amount (40% of the total tokens, i.e. 4 billion), the first halving will be carried out, and each subsequent halving will be carried out when half of the threshold of the previous cycle is mined. For example, the first halving will be carried out when 2 billion veTabi is mined, and the second halving will be carried out when 3 billion is mined.
3.3.3 Node Level
Captain nodes are divided into 5 levels. The higher the level, the higher the basic computing power, and in theory, more mining rewards can be obtained.
Tabi Chain will sell captain nodes of different levels from low to high, and set prices based on the node level/node activation time. As shown in the figure below, the earlier the node is activated, the higher the price. Although they have the same rights and interests, the nodes activated earlier have the first-mover advantage and can obtain the first mining bonus.
3.3.4 Mechanism Advantages
Compared with similar projects that sell nodes, Tabi Chain has made many improvements in mining and ranking rules, providing differentiated profit strategies for different types of participants, bringing many advantages:
Diversified node income: not only can you obtain mining income, but you can also continue to receive airdrops and governance rights.
Tiered pricing: Treat users at all stages fairly, rather than raising node prices in the form of Fomo.
Phased activation: Reduce competition for computing power, ensure fair distribution, and avoid centralization of mining reward distribution.
Early price discovery: During the node sales period, users can complete price discovery for nodes of each level/batch based on pricing strategies, thereby formulating different revenue strategies.
04 Game Ecosystem
Currently, there are about 20 games expected to be deployed on Tabi Chain, the representative games are as follows:
Crypto native games that are highly integrated with the Tabi Chain economic model:
Wizzwoods: A pixel-style social simulation game that will run on multiple chains on Bera Chain and Tabi Chain.
Nowhere3: An open world survival game tied to the Tabi Chain Captain Node economy.
Gabby World: GenAI FOCG (Generative AI-driven Full Chain Game) with D&D gameplay and Fomo mechanics.
Web3 games seeking broad community support through Tabi Chain:
Cradles: A AAA MMORPG game.
Gverse: An MMORPG game similar to Pokémon, with the Pikachu licensed IP.
Web2 games ported to Web3 via Tabi Chain:
Meme Worms Merge: Casual arcade game with over 100 million downloads.
Ludo Master: The Strategy Card Game, with over 50 million downloads.
05 Investment institutions
In April 2021, Tabi Chain completed a US$1 million seed round of financing.
In May 2023, Tabi Chain completed a US$10 million angel round of financing. Investors included Animoca Brands, Binance Labs, Draper Dragon, HashKey Capital, Infinity Crypto Ventures and Youbi Capital. Individual investors included Feng Bo (DragonFly Capital), Riyad AD (Saudi Arabia) and Suji Yan (Mask Network).
06 Community/Partners
Although Tabi Chain is in the testnet stage, it has gained high community and market popularity, with more than one million community members on Twitter and Discord, and has reached cooperation with well-known Web3 protocols such as EigenLayer/Bera Chain and Web2 game giants such as Blizzard Entertainment/EA Sports.
07 Project Summary
The core of growth in the gaming industry lies in the quality of games and the number of players. When a large number of high-quality games appear in the ecosystem, players will flock in. Conversely, the growth of the number of players will also increase the development motivation of game developers, thereby allowing the entire ecosystem to achieve sustained prosperity. To achieve this goal, Tabi Chain innovates at both the technical and economic model levels.
Technical level: reduce development thresholds and costs through polymorphic virtual machines, improve the flexibility of dApps and games through independent services/modularization, improve user experience through zero-gas interaction/multiple login methods, and help Web2 game developers and players quickly enter Web3.
Economic model level: Introduce the ve model and make innovations to enable game developers and players to obtain continuous benefits as the ecosystem develops, and enhance game development momentum and user stickiness through interest binding.
In addition to developers and players, token holders and captain nodes are also important ecological participants, all of which are connected through TABI tokens. The governance and revenue attributes of veTabi may trigger competition for tokens among stakeholders:
Game developers hold veTabi to gain more voting rights and token incentive weights
Gamers hold veTabi to get more game rewards
Ordinary users pledge TABI or hold veTabi to get more airdrops and bribes
Captain nodes hold veTabi to obtain higher pledge rates and mining income
Under the foreseeable Tabi War, the demand, pledge rate and intrinsic value of TABI tokens will increase simultaneously, and the Captain Node, as the main output channel of TABI tokens, may trigger a warm response from the market during the sales phase. Currently, Tabi Chain has not yet disclosed the sales time and price of nodes of various levels/batches. According to the mainnet launch time (third quarter), the node sales are approaching, and we look forward to the official disclosure of more details later.
In terms of operations, Tabi Chain has attracted about 20 Web3 native games and Web2 ported games, has a wide range of external partners and extremely high community enthusiasm, and has received investment from top institutions such as Binance, providing more room for imagination for its future development.
Let the core of the game return to the gameplay itself, and let all participants benefit from the development of the ecosystem. The former is the purpose of the game industry, and the latter is the doctrine of Web3. As the leader of the track, Tabi Chain may subvert the existing GameFi paradigm and inject vitality into the Web3 game industry, which deserves long-term attention.
