Weekly insight into blockchain and Web3 apps
Immutable X is a Layer 2 blockchain focused on NFTs, which supports the minting and trading of digital assets on its Ethereum-based Layer 2 network.
If you’re looking for the next Spotify, Google, or Amazon on the blockchain, DappRadar can help with our weekly Dapp Trends articles. With so much happening across various categories and verticles, it’s crucial to stay abreast of vital info to uncover which blockchains, dapps, and NFT projects generate value and build audiences for the right reasons.
At DappRadar, we track more than 11,500 dapp projects across more than 40 blockchains, and these weekly trending articles dive into the latest and most exciting projects and ecosystems. Sometimes projects are short-lived, sometimes they surprise everyone, and other times it’s just right there slapping you in the face.
Of course, even our eagle-eyed team misses things, so think of this as a point in the right direction and not a definitive guide. These articles aim to share this knowledge and information with others who can dig deeper and make their own decisions.
Projects are chosen based on their merits, future potential, and on-chain metrics. This is not a paid promo piece or an attempt to promote a specific project or blockchain.
Immutable X
Immutable X is a Layer 2 blockchain with a tight focus on NFTs, which supports the minting and trading of digital assets on its Ethereum-based Layer 2 network.
The big pull, however, is Immutable X’s zero gas fee promise for person-to-person NFT trades. Alongside its claim that all NFTs on its network are carbon neutral. Furthermore, users can mint ERC-721 (NFT standard) and ERC-20 (native tokens standard) assets on the Immutable X network.
The project also states that it is unlike other centralized side chains in that Immutable X is unaffected by any so-called 51% attack. The other highlights are the instant trades of minted assets and their use in gaming and marketplaces.
Layer 2 solutions are the talk of the town in the crypto space. They are independent blockchains built on top of Ethereum. They are often called solutions because they try to solve Ethereum issues such as speed and cost. One of the main features of layer-2 is that they are fast and offer low-cost transaction fees. These are vital for gaming on the blockchain.
A few other examples of Layer 2s are Polygon or Optimism. But lately, Immutable X has grabbed our attention. Its partnership with GameStop has been one of the most talked-about events.
The Immutable X ecosystem is all about Play-2-Earn games and NFTs and is expected to power the next wave of web3 gamers. It has been steadily building value and users, and we think it’s time to shine a light on the blockchain.
Setup for games
Straight out the gate, Immutable X designed itself for games and NFTs and attempted to build the most logical setup to achieve this goal. Several factors have been considered, including some basic features that make user onboarding easier.
Firstly, Immutable X appeals to regular gamers because their wallet has an integrated credit card payment system. This often undervalued feature is helping regular gamers get involved without needing to understand crypto in detail.
Immutable X’s promise of free NFT minting has resulted in more than 28 million NFTs minted, with zero gas fees. Furthermore, Immutable X sends created NFTs to all the connected marketplaces.
Alongside this, developers can build and launch projects on Immutable X in a matter of hours by tapping into API and toolkits provided by the team. This means that the Immutable X ecosystem can grow exponentially in the coming years and potentially become the home of play-2-earn gaming on the blockchain.
Permissionless developer experience
Immutable X kicked off 2022 by announcing a significant milestone: everyone could now onboard and mint on Immutable X without using a sign-up form or contacting the team first. At the same time, and to celebrate this milestone, all projects that launched and met the milestones laid out in the announcement received a share of 250,000 IMX tokens.
In short, this means that the Immutable X dapp ecosystem has been almost entirely untethered, and developers can start working on web3 projects and dapps without needing to get a green light from Immutable X. This is vital for a healthy and vibrant dapp ecosystem to develop on any network.
Arguably, a blockchain can only be as successful as the projects willing to operate there. Immutable X already has some strong brands, such as the VeVe Marketplace, Gods Unchained, and more. Moreover, dapp games and other projects on Immutable X tend to show a level of quality gameplay and UX instead of free tokens, helping them build and maintain audiences.
Custom fees
To encourage the best NFT marketplace experiences to be built on Immutable X, In February 2022, the team announced that marketplaces building on Immutable X would now be able to add custom fees to their orders.
From marketplaces that aggregate collections to more curated, content-specific marketplaces to in-game trading experiences, Immutable X plans to incentivize the best developers to build the best ways of trading NFTs on Immutable X
This is important because now, each marketplace can apply custom fees, and prices for the same NFT listing could differ across the network. An asset could be listed for 5 ETH on one NFT marketplace but on another for 5.02 ETH, as they charge different fees.
This adds another layer of competition for NFT marketplaces to compete on fees and offers better discovery mechanisms and enhanced user trading experiences. Ultimately the goal is to create liquidity, not to monetize.
Immutable X Unveils Cross-Rollup Liquidity
In May 2022, Immutable X announced its expansion to be the world’s first cross-rollup liquidity platform for NFTs, built on StarkNet. This announcement allows players to directly trade any asset matched across multiple Ethereum Layer 2 and Layer 3 roll-ups, solving the liquidity fractionalization problem with every individual roll-up today while attempting to scale to billions of users.
For gaming, it means that the protocol can facilitate hundreds of thousands of transactions per second, supporting games with hundreds of millions of daily players to own their in-game items.
Using StarkNet, developers can deploy custom, composable smart contracts, making it easy for projects to migrate layer-1 smart-contract-based games to Immutable X. They also want to lead the charge in offering layer-3 solutions to games with more than 10 million active users who require dedicated throughput and don’t want to compete for capacity.
Blockchain games have different needs, and Immutable X will support multiple Layer 2 and Layer 3 zk-rollups for other use cases. This update to Immutable X’s platform will allow liquidity to flow freely between these L2 and L3 environments so that the biggest games on Ethereum can build without constraints and achieve scale.
Polygon Executive joins Immutable X
In July, Immutable X announced the appointment of Aviral Avasthi as Senior Vice President of Marketing to leverage expertise acquired in prominent web2 and web3 roles for Polygon, Uber, Tinder, and others.
Avasthi was deeply rooted in the web3 ecosystem, cooperating with several projects as an advisor, angel investor, and consultant. Before joining Immutable X, he served as Vice President of Marketing at Polygon Technology, responsible for the company’s rebranding and marketing function. His team helped establish the brand, creative, social, events, and co-marketing frameworks.
Before his employment at Polygon, Avasthi headed Business Development for Tinder and Match Group across the Indian sub-continent, developing critical Brand and Growth partnerships with Netflix, Amazon, Euronet, Paytm, and Flipkart, among others.
With experience gained at leading network Polygon, Aviral will be critical in developing a robust marketing and communication strategy for Immutable X. He joined the company shortly after Immutable launched a $500 million web3 gaming fund designed to bolster Immutable’s GameFi ecosystem.
$500 million Web3 gaming fund
Immutable X announced the launch of a $500 million fund to boost developer adoption of the platform in June 2022. The Immutable Ventures fund will invest in and provide grants to projects that build on Immutable X using a mix of IMX tokens and cash in partnership with an array of VC funds and ecosystem partners. Including Animoca Brands, BITKRAFT Ventures, GameStop, Arrington Capital, King River Capital, AirTree, and Double Peak.
Immutable Ventures will target NFT and gaming projects committed to growing the digital ecosystem and support them to launch on the platform and find traction. According to the Immutable Ventures website, the fund is expected to allocate investments and grants over four years, with an average investment of around $100,000 to $500,000 in both IMX tokens and cash.
GameStop NFT Marketplace
In February 2022, GameStop announced it was building its first NFT marketplace on Ethereum. Immutable X was chosen to integrate its Ethereum Layer 2 protocol marketplace and work closely with GameStop’s team to bring gaming NFT projects to GameStop customers. To create significant opportunities for participation and more liquidity for all involved.
Fundamentally, Immutable X integrated its global order book of NFTs into the GameStop NFT marketplace, bringing existing and future projects on Immutable X to GameStop. Games like Gods Unchained, one of the top-3 blockchain games by users. Alongside projects such as Guild of Guardians, Ember Sword, Illuvium, and many more.
On Monday, July 11, the GameStop NFT Marketplace went live to a strong reception. Reports suggest that The video-game retailer’s marketplace opened to $7.2 million in weekly sales volume, with the MetaBoy collection being the top seller.
Comparisons were also made with the Coinbase NFT marketplace, which had arrived a few weeks earlier. According to data from Dune Analytics, the Coinbase NFT marketplace did just 1,913 ETH or around $2.8 million in sales since its public launch on May 4 up to July 19, 2022.
Immutable Dapp Ecosystem
Immutable X already has a strong lineup of games and NFT marketplaces. Some of the highlights include:
- Illuvium – Open-world RPG adventure game built on Unreal Engine 5. They use never-before-seen 4D holographic shading methods—one of the big triple-A blockchain games in the making.
- Gods Unchained – P2E tactical card game. Although it’s in beta, it has 450,000 registered players.
- Guild of Guardians – a mobile RPG game
- EmberSword – MMORPG with PvP and PvE players’ experiences. Ember Sword has been on fire since their move to Immutable X. The game’s user number increased by a stunning 1,292% in June. DappRadar reports that during June 2022, all other games dropped in user numbers. As a result, Ember Sword made a surprise #1 position in the DappRadar Game of the Month chart for June.
- PlanetQuest – sci-fi fantasy exploration game
- Wagmi – Sci-Fi Tower Defense Game
- VeVe Marketplace – integrated with Immutable X
In summary
While inconclusive, these reasons point towards a more exciting dapp ecosystem on Immutable. Interestingly, Immutable X is cultivating a unique ecosystem of gaming and NFT dapps. Moreover, users will unlikely find 20 different forks of Uniswap available on Immutable.
Immutable X has just started its journey, so it will be fascinating to see how things unfold throughout the rest of 2022 and beyond.
Explore dapps on the Immutable X network on DappRadar.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in various cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, and RADAR.
