⛓️Chromia Blockchain
Chromia is a relational blockchain platform, making it easy for people to build decentralized apps in the real world, for a better world.
My Neighbor Alice is powered by Chromia.
Chromia’s Relational Blockchain Brings Powerful NFT Features to My Neighbor Alice
My Neighbor Alice (MNA) is fully blockchain-based and incorporates NFTs to represent land parcels, in game items and player avatars
The Chromia blockchain will be the cornerstone of the game’s backend functionality, and MNA will pay CHR to the network nodes. This will allow its players to join the game without needing to own any cryptocurrencies
Many of the in-game items will be represented by NFTs. These NFTs will use a unique hybrid structure - an NFT will exist on Binance Smart Chain or Ethereum where they can be bought and sold, while a ‘paired’ Chromia Original NFT will exist on the Chromia blockchain storing additional metadata. This will allow these NFTs to have new use cases and features that go beyond what has been possible with any previously existing token standard
Chromia’s Relational Blockchain architecture will allow MNA to run without a centralized server - game world information, procedural logic and player’s progress will all be stored seamlessly on a Chromia sidechain
My Neighbor Alice seeks to remove the barriers to blockchain gaming faced by casual users. Our philosophy is summed up by the phrase “It’s not just a game for blockchain players. It’s a game that will introduce blockchain to millions of players”. These lofty goals require capabilities never seen before in the world of blockchain - and this is where Chromia comes in.
A Unique Hybrid System
My Neighbor Alice (MNA) is a multiplayer persistent world game, where users own ‘plots’ of land and farm, collect and trade items amongst each other. Users play as customized avatars that can be dressed and outfitted with various add-on items.
MNA is unique in that the entire game is encapsulated on blockchains - there is no reliance on centralized servers. Land parcels, in game items, avatars and even your avatars add-on items are all represented on a blockchain. Some of these items are NFTs (powered by Ethereum/BSC and Chromia simultaneously), while Chromia stores information about game logic, placement and orientation of objects, users inventories and more.
Chromia Killer Features
MNA relies on Chromia for several key functionalities:
Flexible transaction fee model
SSO Keypair login
On chain logic and data storage
Chromia Originals NFT standard
Flexible Transaction Fee Model
Chromia sidechains allow dapp developers to choose from a variety of fee models. MNA will pay CHR tokens to reserve storage and computational power on the Chromia network, allowing its players to play without holding any cryptocurrency. These users will have a Chromia cryptocurrency wallet which is seamlessly integrated into the UI, but they will not have to acquire CHR tokens or any other token to get into the game and start playing. If they decide not to buy and sell the NFTs they acquire in-game, they can play without even understanding how cryptocurrency works. The idea here is as these players realize they have earned NFT resources with real value, they will be incentivized to look into cryptocurrency markets and discover how to interact with the cryptocurrency outside of the game.
Keypair Sign In Powered by Chromia
Players will be able to sign into the game using a Chromia wallet keypair. This method is entirely non-custodial, and this sign in information is not stored on a server. (Users will also have the option of logging in the traditional ‘custodial’ way by using a username and password, in case they are intimidated by the non-custodial method).
On Chain Logic and Data Storage
Chromia’s powerful relational database architecture allows it to store and handle datasets far more efficiently than other blockchains. This allows the procedural logic that generates land parcels and governs the rules of the game to live on the blockchain. In addition, information about the persistent world such as the location and orientation of objects is also stored on-chain. This means that MNA has no central server that it relies on to stay online and available to users. As long as MNA continues to pay CHR tokens to the network nodes, the game will remain live.
Chromia Originals NFT Standard
Chromia Originals is an advanced NFT standard native to the Chromia blockchain. It allows for more advanced metadata sets, as well as new features and flexibility. Originals have six key attributes: Ownability, Exchangeability, Composability, Mutability, Programmability and Portability.
This set of properties allows for several groundbreaking possibilities for NFTs that are covered in depth in this article. In the context of MNA, a simple example would be that a rare NFT item could have 5 uses. You could use it once, and then sell it to another player with 4 uses still left in the item. This item would be worth more on the open market than another instance of the same item with only 1 use.
Hybrid NFT Architecture
BSC has seen rapid adoption as of late, due to the speed and affordability of transaction costs compared to Ethereum. The ERC-721 NFT standard is commonly used on Ethereum, and this was ported to Binance Smart Chain as the BEP-721 standard. The 721 standard is suitable for simple operations like buying, selling, and breeding - but the limited amount of metadata prevents it from being used for more complex operations.
By deploying a hybrid architecture, MNA can access the liquidity and user base of both Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain for its NFT market outside the game, while harnessing the advanced features of Chromia Originals in game.
Since MNA’s backend runs on Chromia, the events of the game directly alter the NFT data stored on its blockchain, which are in turn linked to the ‘paired’ NFT token that exists on Ethereum or BSC.
Chromia Offers New Possibilities
MNA is one of the first examples of Chromia being used extensively as a backend Layer 2 for a decentralized application. The salient point here is that Chromia isn’t just being tacked on for scalability, it offers a feature set that no other blockchain can provide. The Chromia Originals NFT standard, relational blockchain architecture and flexible fee model are all essential to shaping MNA into an end product which can achieve mass appeal and bring power to the people.
Last updated