Web3 Watch: Based on crypto’s wild history, AceTCG-inspired ‘Alpha Cards’ NFTs go live

The team behind the blockchain-themed trading card game AceTCG is launching this week 192 unique “Alpha Cards” NFTs that are inspired by crypto’s wacky history and culture.

Alpha Cards are digital collectible cards, and an adaptation of the open-source AceTCG trading card game.

The NFT collection will be released across eight drops over four weeks, with mints every Monday and Thursday. Its first mint, which went live on the Base network, has seen about 2,148 mints as of Friday.

The physical trading card game AceTCG features “Magic: The Gathering”-like combat play with crypto-themed cards that capture many of crypto’s historical moments, memes and technical jargon familiar to industry natives.

Read more: Web3 Watch: Classic fighter Samurai Shodown comes to Sui

There are summonable creature cards like “dog wif hat” and “SEC Auditron,” or spell cards like “Centralized Sequencer,” “Account Abstraction” and “Fiat Fountain.”

AceTCG’s intellectual property was intentionally open-sourced to keep in line with the ethos of crypto and Web3.

Colton Orr, founder of AceTCG and ex-creative director at Gitcoin, said: “The open-source nature of the game is core to my values and something I’ve committed to continuing so others can build on this work.”

Read more from our opinion section: Crypto can benefit from patents without losing its open source ethos 

AceTCG was bootstrapped with a Gitcoin grant in March 2023 and was built over the course of two years on a makeshift “treadmill desk” in the basement of Orr’s parent’s home, based on Orr’s blog.

The first “Alpha Edition” of the cards was printed and eventually sold out at DevConnect Istanbul.

Evrloot officially launches on Polkadot

Evrloot, a blockchain RPG built on Polkadot’s Moonbeam network, has transitioned from closed beta to full launch as of Thursday.

Built by a 13-member team at Chainfood Studio, Evrloot began as a passion project by Polkadot fans.

In its beta phase, the game recorded over 1.5 million onchain transactions and peaked at 1000 monthly active users.

Tobi “Deckard” Amann, CEO of Chainfood Studio, said of the game’s mechanics: “Through their in-game actions, players shape the story and forge the lore of this world. As RPG enthusiasts, creating a canvas like this has always been our dream — and with Evrloot, we’ve found an exciting and ethical opportunity to bring our vision fully onchain.”

The free-to-play medieval fantasy game uses the ERC-6220 composable NFT standard to tokenize in-game characters and save files, items and achievements.

One interesting stat:

• NFT trading volumes are making a comeback, climbing roughly 260% from $30 million to $108 million since early November. At its peak in February 2023, NFT weekly trading volumes reached about $632 million.

Also of note:

• Illuvium is collaborating with Casio G-SHOCK to release an NFT card collection. The NFTs are usable in Illuvium’s “Beyond” card collection game.
• A tokenized 1999 first edition holographic Charizard Pokemon card on the Polygon blockchain is going up for auction on the Courtyard platform Friday. 
• Chiliz announced a strategic integration with FanC, the creator economy platform behind the content app CELEBe, which boasts 830,000 monthly active users.

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