GalaSwap hasn’t stopped growing and improving since its initial release earlier this year. GalaSwap is an essential tool for this ecosystem and we want to continually refine it so that anyone can use it to unlock the full decentralized potential of GalaChain.
The past few weeks have been busy and we have quite a few updates to share with you. The Project Token Creation Tool release at the beginning of June brought many new participants to GalaSwap. New people using GalaSwap in new ways leads to more opportunities to make GalaSwap easier and more useful to everyone on chain!
GalaSwap Automation
We have released our opensource swap bot – Mr. Swappy!
This bot is very basic in its standard functions, but can be fully customized to your individual needs.
The bot comes with two basic strategies it can execute. Swap Acceptor will identify and accept swaps that are offered at a rate better than current market rate. Swap Creator can be used to create liquidity for a token, by automatically creating swaps at a specified rate.
New strategies can be added using TypeScript. A debug mode is included to check any new strategies you’re trying to execute.
Please Code With Caution
While the documentation included in the repository explains how to configure, operate and customize Mr. Swappy, it should be noted that this is not recommended for users with no experience altering software or code.
Many users should be able to follow the instructions given to set up their version of Mr. Swappy. Caution, however, should be taken when giving an automated system access to your wallet. If you’re doubtful about whether you’ve configured everything correctly, don’t hesitate to reach out in the GalaChain Discord for help from other developers!
While the documentation included in the repository explains how to configure, operate and customize Mr. Swappy, it should be noted that this is not recommended for users with no experience altering software or code.
Many users should be able to follow the instructions given to set up their version of Mr. Swappy, extreme caution, however, should be taken when giving an automated system access to your wallet. If you’re doubtful about whether you’ve configured everything correctly, don’t hesitate to reach out in the GalaChain Discord for help from other developers!
Quality of Life
You may have noticed a few welcome updates in the past two weeks that make the GalaSwap experience more enjoyable overall:
There’s now a basic search function in the balance page. No more sifting through tons of tokens to find the one you’re looking for!
There’s now a “Max” button when creating a swap if you want to list an offer for the most you are able to of a certain token.
Mr. Swappy can now interact with user-created tokens. Rejoice!
We’ve updated the token name blocklist to be less limiting in some cases.
Pest Control
The bug hunters are vigilant, and they’ve taken out quite a few lurking pests the past two weeks:
Users will now see all their active offers no matter how many offers they have.
Mint allowances will now show even if you have zero balance on a particular token.
Miscellaneous
Some other general improvements made in the past two weeks:
Token authority was added to Gala on the REPS token
The Mr. Swappy code was moved from the dex-api repo to its own galaswap-bot directory on the GalaChain Github page.
Creating swaps now limits increments to 1.
Next Up…
There will be many more updates and improvements to GalaSwap, but here’s a preview of a few things that we’re working on now:
Group distribution through the Project Token Creator
More search capabilities while creating/searching for swaps
We’ll keep you updated as more improvements come through! For now, wen are you going to head over to GalaSwap and start swapping!?
Those were the days, weren’t they. You’d spend all week or month just dreaming about what you’d do with that allowance money when it finally came in. Even if you were flat broke, you knew that allowance was coming, and you couldn’t wait to blow it all on candy, arcade tokens, or fireworks. At the risk of revealing my age, we had some pretty awesome priorities with our allowance in my day.
Mint Allowances on GalaChain
GalaChain is making allowances cool again. When you have a GalaChainAllowance, that item or those tokens are as good as yours. You can even think of them as being reservedfor you until the exact moment when you’re ready to mint them.
This system we call Mint Allowances today is the evolution of the Treasure Chest system we used to use, back when everything we created was minted on Ethereum and GalaChain was only a distant vision. We created a way to reserve tokens for minting, allowing the owners to mint whenever was convenient for them. Back then, this minting event came at a cost, but thanks to GalaChain, minting tokens from a GalaChain Allowance is now free.
When you purchase a Gala item, it’s typically minted directly to you immediately, fulfilling the purchase. However, when you receive various tokens as rewards, your inventory will generally show them as a GalaChain Allowance, meaning that you can mint the tokens at your leisure. They’re set aside to be yours, but they’re not technically yours until the minting event.
I’m cooking up some savory rewards in that Common Georgia Cookery from The Walking Dead: Empires. It’s a GalaChain Allowance (not yet minted).
Other Kinds of Allowances
The idea of allowances also lends itself well to in-game activity. You can give various dApps (such as individual Gala Games) permission to use a certain amount of your tokens. This is why you’re sometimes asked for allowance permission when you launch some of our games. This is a convenient and secure way that allows you to spend your tokens in the game without returning to the store every time.
On GalaSwap, if you decide to create a project token using the Project Token Creation Tool, you’ll be asked to allocate a “Burn Allowance” of $GALA in a quantity of your specification. Upon Founder’s Node approval of your new token, the Burn Allowance will be burned and its value used to establish the initial trade value of your new token on GalaSwap.
That’s about all there is to it! Now, when you see Allowances in your Gala account, you’ll know that you’re ready to mint and doing a great job collecting Gala rewards!
Ready to up your poker game? Sweep It Poker, Gala Games’ free-to-play casual poker game, is here to help you hone your skills while giving you a chance to win $GALA in our weekly Sweepstakes!
In this series of blog articles, we’ll dive into the basics of poker to get you playing like a pro in no time. In this series, we’ll stick to the games currently included with Sweep It Poker, Texas Hold’em and Omaha Hold’em.
Let’s start with the fundamentals
Understanding the Basics: Poker Hand Rankings
Mastering poker begins with knowing the hand rankings. Here’s a quick rundown from the highest to lowest:
Royal Flush: A, K, Q, J, 10, all of the same suit.
Straight Flush: Five consecutive cards of the same suit.
Four of a Kind: Four cards of the same rank.
Full House: Three cards of one rank and two cards of another.
Flush: Any five cards of the same suit, not in sequence.
Straight: Five consecutive cards of different suits.
Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same rank.
Two Pair: Two different pairs.
One Pair: Two cards of the same rank.
High Card: When no other hand applies, the highest card wins.
Betting is a crucial aspect of poker that can make or break your game. Here’s a breakdown of common betting actions:
Check: If no one has bet, you can choose to check, passing the action to the next player. This action is signified by the player saying “check” or knocking on the table felt.
Bet: Wager chips into the pot. Once a bet is made, players must call, raise, or fold. Betting can be verbally announced or visually as the player slides or tosses chips into the pot area.
Call: Match the current bet by announcing “call” and contributing chips to the pot.
Raise: Increase the current bet by announcing a raise or adding at least 2X the chips that have already been bet. If you don’t have twice as many chips in your stack, you must raise all in or fold.
Fold: Discard your hand and forfeit the current round, indicated by tossing cards face down onto the table.
Your position at the poker table affects your strategy. Position in this case refers to your location on the table relative to the “Dealer” button, which moves clockwise around the table hand by hand.
Early Position: The first few seats to act. Play conservatively here because you have less information about other players’ hands. If you’re first to act in a new round of betting with several players, you’ll probably want to let another player open the betting for that round.
Middle Position: The seats in the middle of the table. You can start to play a bit more aggressively in the middle position, but you should still be cautious. A raise here could risk a reraise from a late-position player with awesome cards.
Late Position: The last few seats to act, including the dealer. You have more information on how opponents are playing, allowing you to be more aggressive. The player with the Dealer button has the last choice, allowing them to “position bet” if every other player has checked in that round.
Play Tight-Aggressive: Focus on playing strong hands aggressively. This makes you less predictable and maximizes your winning potential. Play into your patience and fight the urge to play every hand no matter your cards.
Bluff Wisely: Bluffing can be powerful but should be used sparingly. Always consider your position and your opponents’ tendencies. More chips are won by betting appropriately on mathematically winning hands than bluffing with rags (bad cards).
Observe Opponents: Pay attention to how your opponents play. Look for patterns and tendencies that you can exploit. This doesn’t necessarily mean only physical and vocal mannerisms– More often, it’s patterns in their betting and raising habits. Any time the cards are shown at the end of a hand, there is a lot to learn from your opponents.
Bankroll Management: Set a budget for your poker play and stick to it. Whether you’re playing in a real money game or a casual free game like Sweep It Poker, never chase losses.
Sweep It Poker offers a fantastic platform to practice these basics without the risk of losing real money. The more you play, the more entries you can stack for the weekly Sweepstakes, enhancing your skills in a fun and engaging environment surrounded by members of the Gala community.
Stay tuned for our next blog post where we’ll dive deeper into advanced strategies and tips to help you dominate the poker table. Thanks for being a part of our vibrant community and may your hands always be winning!
Greetings, Common Grounders! This week, we are excited to introduce a new delicious twist to your town in Common Ground World. Starting tomorrow, you can sell tangy, mouthwatering Kimchi crafted from fresh Lettuce and a Shrimp-based Fish Sauce at the new Korean Restaurant. Spice up your town and ferment your way to the top with this new exciting addition!
As always, landing on the leaderboard in the Kimchi Craze will get you standard $GALA rewards at the end of the competition, depending on your final rank.
As you collect more Stars for producing and selling goods, you’ll rise on the leaderboard.
The higher you finish on the leaderboard, the greater your $GALA rewards!
New Crafts
Kimchi
Cash: $22,460
Stars: 518 (increased to 50K for this week’s event!)
To ensure you get the best results from playing Common Ground World, here are some crucial reminders:
When using offline mode, make sure to log back in before the event ends to trigger fast forward.
Regularly check in if you use Fast Forward to keep your town up to date.
Ensure the game runs as the only tab in your browser for optimal performance.
Relaunch the game if another window covers the browser fully while playing.
Join a Guild
Guilds are live, and a great chance to enhance the Common Ground World experience with cooperative strategy while unlocking new levels of competition!
Every Common Ground World Node represents a Guild, as described in this blog. If you don’t own a Common Ground World Node, ask an operator friend to invite you to their Guild. You’re likely to find Guild leaders recruiting in the Common Ground World Guilds Discord channel. Go make some friends!
Community Feedback
We are actively seeking feedback on the lite paper released a few weeks ago. Your insights are invaluable to us. Please share your thoughts using the links below:
Don’t forget to catch up on the latest updates and discussions from our recent biweekly Town Hall. Watch the YouTube replay to stay informed about all the exciting developments in the Gala ecosystem.
Have you taken your fate into your own hands in Elysium yet? The battle can’t be won alone… to rise to this great of a challenge, you need a team at your back.
Grab Your Squad
While there’s definitely individual glory to be gained in each season’s battle for dominance, Eternal Paradox is, at its core, a team game. If you’ve taken to the battle in Elysium but haven’t jumped into a guild to fight for common goals, you’re missing out!
There are many guilds in Elysium. You could peruse Discord communities to find the right one for you, or you could just grab an open spot right in the game! Each guild sets specific requirements to join. You’ll find some guilds that require a certain headquarters level or Captain level, but also others that are just happy to have any new Captain among their ranks!
To search for a new guild, just go to the “Guild” menu in game. From there, you can type the name of a guild in or scroll through the list. If you find a guild you’re interested in, you can request to join right away if there’s space. Some guilds will want you to reach out first though, and you can always contact the Guild Leader through a specific guild you’re looking at.
Team Perks
Having a guild means fighting together. You can start or join rallies with other guild members to defeat Black Sun Cultists or Shakram Legions that you could never best on your own. Keep in mind rallies against Black Sun Cults only cost seven stamina… attacking by yourself costs ten. That’s a huge advantage and let’s you save stamina for more battles!
When you’re attacked, your guild will be notified. If you’re in over your head, you can ping your guild for help. Guild members can even support your fortress, sending an entire army to help defend you.
Did you ever notice how resource sites have more than one gathering slot as you get into the higher tier sites? Guilds play a powerful part in the gathering game. If you take a gathering site, inviting five of your friends to work alongside you definitely makes you a much harder target to oust from the location.
Shared Goals
Guild Raids cannot be participated in outside a guild, and they are massively rewarding to players who give it their all.
When your guild attacks the Followers of Doom, you’ll get big rewards based on the damage you’ve dealt. It takes a while to summon the first boss, and grinding your way through each enemy is difficult. Those who persist and work with their guild to triumph, however, will receive resources, speedups and plenty more goodies!
The Guild Arena is another major aspirational task for many guilds out there. In this competition, you square off against another guild to prove you’ve got what it takes to stand tall at the final battle. No one guild member can carry the whole team. To reap the rewards, everyone will have to do their part. The first Guild Arena just started for Season 5… there’s plenty of time to get in there and fight some epic battles!
The Guild Festival also recurs throughout the season. In this event, players accept guild missions that they have 24 hours to complete. That’s not the only time pressure though, as a new mission won’t spawn until you’ve complete your current mission! The rewards for the top guilds can include Gems, titles and speedups. Everyone will get rewards along the way though, and even a guild who doesn’t land in the top of the leaderboard won’t walk away with nothing for their efforts.
The Final Battle
We can’t talk about Guilds without talking about Conquest.
Conquest is the major seasonal battle in Eternal Paradox, played out in three skirmishes throughout the season. If you’ve played but not taken part in Conquest, you’re missing one of the biggest parts of the battle for Elysium!
In Conquest, Guilds battle to maintain control of the 16 Ruins and the Ring of Ruin itself over the course of a 90 minute event. There’s lots of room for creative strategy here, as alliances between guilds and clever coordination can quickly tip the scales of power. Battles are major events, with whole guilds desperately trying to attack enemy Rally leaders to destabilize their opponents’ efforts.
Conquest is only a 90 minute event, and each happens several weeks apart – starting just before the middle of the season. They always happen on Saturdays (by UTC time at least), but each conquest rotates to another part of Saturday so that no time zone is totally left out of the fun. The first Conquest for Season 5 is coming on Saturday, July 6th!
What Are You Waiting For?
Season 5 is just now starting its second week in a 49-day season. The first Guild Festival and Guild Arena have just kicked off, and Conquest is still weeks away. Now is a perfect time to hop in and find your team!
Dozens and dozens of Guilds active in the game are looking for more teammates! Go find a team to help you grow and prepare for the coming battle!
We’ll see you for a glorious fight in the battle for the Ring!
