Stablecoins have emerged as an important part of the web3 world, playing a crucial role in providing financial stability to a typically volatile cryptocurrency market. For those new to blockchain and crypto, stablecoins might seem like a complex concept, but they’re actually quite simple.
Think of them as a “digital version of the dollar” or other traditional currencies, designed to maintain a steady value rather than fluctuating like Bitcoin or Ethereum. In this blog, we’ll break down the concept of stablecoins, why they exist, how they work and their importance in the growing web3 world.
What Are Stablecoins?
A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that is pegged to the value of a stable asset, typically fiat currencies like the US dollar or Euro. Unlike Bitcoin, which can experience dramatic price swings, stablecoins aim to stay steady. It should be noted however that no financial asset is perfectly stable, but stablecoins are comparatively stable to most cryptocurrencies.
Imagine you’re traveling to a foreign country and you exchange your money for local currency. When you return home, you expect your leftover foreign currency to hold roughly the same value. This is the idea behind stablecoins—they are designed to ensure your digital assets don’t lose value overnight, especially in the often volatile cryptocurrency world.
Why Do Stablecoins Exist?
Cryptocurrency is known for its wild price swings. Bitcoin, for example, can rise or fall by thousands of dollars in just a day. While this can be exciting for traders, it’s risky for businesses and individuals looking for stability. Enter stablecoins—designed to minimize this volatility by pegging their value to more stable assets.
Here’s why stablecoins are essential:
1. Price Stability for Transactions:
In a world where cryptocurrencies are becoming more common as payment methods, having a stable unit of currency is vital. Imagine buying a coffee for $5 worth of Bitcoin in the morning, only for that Bitcoin to lose value by the time your payment processes. With stablecoins, the value of your purchase remains consistent, making them ideal for everyday transactions. Depending on many variables (complexity, blockchain, amount), web3 transactions can take time. Vendors must rely on knowing that the price paid for a product or service is consistent with their asking price, even if the purchase takes a variable amount of time to fulfill.
2. Cross-border Transactions:
Traditional banking systems often charge high fees for international transfers and can take days to process. Stablecoins make cross-border payments faster, cheaper and easier. Since stablecoins are based on blockchain technology, you can send money across the world in minutes without worrying about the value changing dramatically during the process.
3. DeFi (Decentralized Finance) Applications:
Stablecoins have become an integral part of the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, where people can lend, borrow and trade assets without relying on traditional banks. In these systems, having a stable currency to work with makes it easier to manage risks and avoid the extreme price swings common in other cryptocurrencies.
How Do Stablecoins Work?
There are a few different types of stablecoins, each using different methods to maintain their stable value. Here are the three main types:
1. Fiat-collateralized Stablecoins:
These stablecoins are backed by actual reserves of fiat currency (like US dollars) held in a bank. For every stablecoin issued, there’s an equivalent amount of fiat currency sitting in reserve. One of the most popular examples is Tether (USDT), which is pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. So, for every USDT in circulation, there should be a dollar in reserve.
Example: If you have 100 USDT, theoretically, the company behind it holds $100 in a bank somewhere to back up your digital assets and allow your tokens to maintain their precise value.
Instead of being backed by fiat money, these stablecoins are backed by other cryptocurrencies, often over-collateralized to account for the volatility of crypto. This means for every $1 of stablecoin, there might be $2 worth of cryptocurrency backing it. DAI, created by the MakerDAO platform, is a well-known example of a crypto-collateralized stablecoin.
Example: If you want to create $100 worth of DAI, you might have to lock up $200 worth of Ethereum. If the price of Ethereum falls, the system will liquidate your assets in order to keep the value stable.
These stablecoins are not backed by any collateral. Instead, they use algorithms to control their supply, automatically increasing or decreasing the number of tokens in circulation to maintain a stable value. When the demand for the stablecoin rises, the algorithm issues more coins to bring the price down. If demand falls, the supply is reduced to increase the price back to its pegged value.
Example: TerraUSD (UST) was one of the more well-known algorithmic stablecoins before it collapsed in 2022 due to its inability to maintain its peg to the US dollar, highlighting one of the most important risks associated with this type of stablecoin.
Stablecoins have become indispensable in the broader Web3 ecosystem because they serve as the bedrock for many financial activities on the blockchain. Here’s why:
Liquidity and Trading
Stablecoins are often used as a medium of exchange on decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Traders use stablecoins to quickly move in and out of more volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum without needing to cash out into traditional fiat currencies.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
DeFi platforms rely heavily on stablecoins. Lenders and borrowers use stablecoins as collateral, ensuring that their loans or savings won’t lose value overnight due to market volatility.
Onboarding to Crypto
Stablecoins offer a familiar value system for people new to crypto. Instead of having to understand complex pricing of volatile assets, newcomers can start by using a digital currency that mirrors traditional money.
Safety from Market Crashes
During significant market downturns, investors often convert their holdings into stablecoins to protect their portfolios. This acts like a “safe haven” during turbulent times.
Popular Examples of Stablecoins
Let’s take a look at some of the most widely used stablecoins in the cryptocurrency space:
Tether (USDT): The largest and most popular stablecoin, pegged to the US dollar.
USD Coin (USDC): A highly regulated stablecoin backed by US dollar reserves, known for its transparency.
DAI: A decentralized stablecoin backed by crypto assets, primarily used in DeFi applications.
Because of their proven stability, both USDT and USDC are accepted as payment methods for many products sold in the Gala ecosystems. Additionally, payments are also accepted in both GUSDT and GUSDC, the GalaChain-bridged versions of these Ethereum-based stablecoins.
Each of these stablecoins offers unique benefits depending on the use case—whether it’s transparency, decentralization, or regulatory compliance.
Stablecoins are the unsung heroes of the cryptocurrency world, bringing much-needed stability to a notoriously volatile market. They are an essential bridge between the traditional financial system and the world of Web3, facilitating everything from day-to-day transactions to more complex decentralized financial activities. Whether you’re new to blockchain or a seasoned crypto trader, stablecoins play a pivotal role in making digital assets more accessible and usable.
Season 6 of Eternal Paradox is nearing its epic conclusion. Are you prepared to fight for The Ring?
Alex: Fight is basically all I do, mysterious voice.
Emma: Yes, that is apparent from all the giggling and horseplay.
Alex: Oh yeah? And meanwhile you’re blinding us all with your constant cheeriness.
Emma: I was indeed cheering when I defeated you at the Storm Ruins last weekend.
Alex: Hey! That one wasn’t fair. The sun was in my eyes!
Emma: Indeed… it was bright. Good thing I can beat you with my eyes closed.
The Road to Conquest
The second Conquest event of Season 6 has wrapped up… and it was definitely an interesting battle!
This Conquest involved battles all across Elysium and some unexpected results. While S12 has historically controlled 4-5 ruins for the first 30 minutes and forced everyone to play catch up, this time they encountered extreme resistance from other guilds early on. The result was the Ring of Ruin opening with all 4 guilds at the top of the leaderboard in surprising proximity to each other.
It was a hard fought conquest again and we were again fighting the whole server. We are proud of our members who did a great job. In the end it was a close result.
-CaptWusl, leader of S12
While the leaders were close, it was GFX sitting in front at the end of the first period. Through the second period, BTB and EPX continued to challenge each other and S12 so that none of them were really able to break away. During this time the Ring exchanged hands several times with Ozknights (OzK) getting in on the action and holding the central point for significant amounts of time. Throughout the second period, three of the four guilds fought each other while GFX went largely unnoticed as they quietly held ruins and extended their lead.
We can do it guys! Just need a final push!
-HumPlays, Leader of EPx
During the third period the action heated up, but for most guilds it was too little too late. S12 made huge gains on their point total relative to other guilds during this time, but they were unable to hinder the other guilds enough to catch up. Each GFX ruin they took seemed to be replaced with another right away. In a photo finish at the end, EPx nudged BTB out of second place with just a handful of points to further shake up the rankings!
Score with ~13 minutes to go. S12 made a valiant and explosive bid to catch up at the end, but fell short in the final minutes.
The conquest was tough and challenging, the score was tight and the last seconds decided the ranking to a great extent.
-OMH, leader of BTB
Congratulations to all the top guilds and captains!
GFGroup (GFX)
Eternals (EPx)
BTB-I (BTB)
SQUARE12 (S12)
Whether a player’s season is awful, good or great, everyone enjoys when his guild places good on a leaderboard. Over the course of the few seasons we all have built up relationships. It Is sad to see players leaving because of “imbalances”. Especially when a “game” is so time consuming… And make no mistake, Top 1 would mean nothing if there are very few left to play with and enjoy the ride together.
-Domin0, leader of GFX
The Coming Battle
While the reigning champs may have been unseated for two conquests in a row, they’re probably not planning on staying out of the top spot.
It’s no secret that S12 has dominated the last few seasons… but it seems like their rival guilds are trying out new tactics to see how competitive these battles can really be. S12 is powerful, however. They will adapt and come back hard in the third conquest, when their power is at its full zenith.
With the top four spots in the rankings being thoroughly scrambled up compared to the first conquest, we’re somewhere we haven’t been since maybe season 1 or season 2… there really is no favorite for the season win at this point. It’s anybody’s game. Whoever wants it the most and strategizes the best in conquest 3 will take the Season 6 title.
The top 64 places on the individual conquest leaderboard are all a mishmash of EPx and GFX, but S12 and BTB are biding their time just below. If the first two conquests this season are any indication, absolutely anything could happen in the third… it’s still anyone’s game!
Time will tell though. The final conquest of season 6 is only 10 days away. Will you be ready?
Battle Looms
Alex: …And frankly Emma, I’d have beaten you any other day! You had to get the help of multiple guilds to beat me!
Emma: It is not help, boom man. You have simply made too many enemies and now you reap your harvest.
Alex: Well, to show you that I’m not too salty I’ve gotten you a present Emma. I hope you like it.
Emma: That is very thoughtful of you, pirate. I accept your gift. You honor my – BOOOOOOOOM
Alex: Mwuahahahahha… buhbye Emma! It was fun hosting with you! Roll credits, disembodied voice!
It was a glorious playtest, adventurers! The rolling hills were alive with exemplars crafting, hunting and exploring this great land!
The test was fun, but brutal. Wolves were waiting to devour unwitting exemplars who got too focused on chasing the golden rabbit… but that’s how it goes in Mirandus. This land is as dangerous as it is enchanting.
Adventure carefully. Keep your wits about you and Mirandus will lead you to the prosperity it offers!
So Much Fun. So Much Death
937 brave adventurers took part in this playtest over the course of four days. Each and every one of you will receive “A Terrifying Sight” – an all-new commemorative NFT unique to this playtest.
Players crafted a total of 403k items during the event… Including 347k arrows, many of which could be seen stuck in various objects around the zone.
Players died a total of 5696 times ☠️, with four exceptionally squishy players dying over 100 times each!
104 players successfully looted the golden rabbit. Each of these victorious adventurers will receive the exclusive “The Covenant of the Wild” commemorative NFT.
All participants will receive their commemorative NFTs before the end of September.
The Future of Mirandus
The future of Mirandus is nothing but potential, and this is but an early foreword to the much greater story coming.
Development continues to race ahead, and in our next playtest we’ll have more than ever before to show off to players taking their first steps in this mysterious land.
Expect to hear more updates before too long, and don’t let the adventure stray too far from your mind – soon it will be time once again to sail to the shores of Mirandus together.
Common Ground World is a cornerstone of the Gala Games ecosystem, a truly remarkable and memorable game and always a great time to play.
With a constant flow of new features and updates, regular competitions to win $GALA, NFTs given to active players just for playing the game each month, and an amazing community of players from all over the world, it really pays to become part of the CGW community.
This game was created by some of the most experienced pioneering developers in the social gaming industry, some of the same brilliant minds behind famous titles like Farmville 2, Zynga Poker and Words with Friends.
Originally called Town Star (and renamed alongside a strategic partnership with award winning film project and generative agriculture project “Common Ground”), Common Ground World represents the intersection of one of the world’s most beloved gaming genres with web3 empowerment. In fact, the game was one of the earliest titles in the world to integrate web3 functions with features like real item ownership and crypto rewards for competitive gameplay.
Launching the Game
When you launch Common Ground World (directly in your browser with no need for an app download), you’ll be cheerfully greeted by the Farmer hero and presented with three different gameplay modes:
Common Ground mode
Casual mode
Events
Common Ground
In Common Ground mode, your mission is to dig into a heavily damaged plot of land and create something that thrives and grows. Capturing the essence of regenerative agriculture and the Common Ground movement, this gameplay mode is not for the faint of heart.
When you first begin, reinvigorating the earth will be a daunting task. You’ll only find a small workable corner of land that can be teased into growing anything. The rest must be carefully worked one tile at a time, restoring the proper biomes that will make soil and vegetation thrive.
Think of Common Ground Mode as a long-term and advanced form of gameplay. If you can turn the situation around and unlock the true potential of the land, you may consider yourself a Common Ground World expert, no matter how long it takes to accomplish your goals.
Casual Mode
Relax into CGW’s beautiful 3D gameplay!
In Casual Mode, you’ll get a taste of core gameplay with a prebuilt town whose structure varies week to week. The starting formats of these towns are designed to give you well-rounded examples of CGW gameplay, giving you a chance to see what you’re in for as you construct a town from scratch in the game’s core Competition mode.
You’ll start off with a fresh town, which may already have Wind Turbines that produce Electricity, an industrial water supply ready for more advanced production, a Windmill capable of making Flour, Sugar and Salt, and much more.
You’ll first notice that the workers from each of their houses are already hard at it – The Lumberjack is heading out to harvest wood from natural trees on your land, and the Farmer is fetching water from the well to bring it to your Brine fields where a crucial ingredient for salt is grown. Once you have ingredients to mill, select your Windmill to choose a craft and the Miller will also get to work.
Events
The Events category is where you’ll find the weekly competition server, as well as any other competitions that might be happening.
A typical weekly competition takes place over the course of 72 hours, beginning at 10am PT on Tuesday and ending at 10am PT on Friday.
Starting from scratch with a new town, each competitor must build the most efficiently functioning town possible as quickly as they can. Leaderboard positions come down to stars – The more stars, the higher your position on the leaderboard. When the competition ends, the top places on the leaderboard win $GALA prizes, and sometimes additional rewards such as Blueprint NFTs.
The weekly competition event always observes a special meta that gives favor to a single craft or family of crafts, keeping players on their toes and exploring a more focused strategic aspect of the game. Additionally, each weekly competition comes with a new biome combination (type of land and surrounding land) that each player must work into their build.
To ensure you’re ready for the next weekly competition, watch the Common Ground channels of the Gala Discord community. There you’ll find all necessary details of the upcoming competition as early as the previous Wednesday.
COMING SOON – Daily Challenges for Greater Rewards
A new Daily Challenge feature is coming soon that will unlock additional reward opportunities for owners of specific NFTs. These challenges will offer rewards in $SOIL, the upcoming reward token of Common Ground World. Daily Challenges will update every 24 hours, creating a new dimension of strategy for NFT owners!
For the latest info on this exciting new feature as it gets closer to launch, be sure to watch the bi-weekly Common Ground World Town Halls on Youtube (every other Friday at 8am PT) and keep your eyes on the Common Ground World Discord channels!
Play and Win with Free Monthly NFTs
Each month, all Common Ground World players are rewarded with a free NFT in either Common or Rare rarity, depending on how much they played the game.
To receive the Common free NFT, play for 10 days within a calendar month, making at least one in-game trade each day and a minimum of 25 trades for the whole month.
To receive the Rare free NFT, play for 25 days within the month, making at least 1 trade per day and no less than 75 trades for the whole month.
Free monthly NFTs are a great way to start a Gala digital item collection for nothing more than playing an awesome game each day!
Getting Started Strategies
Common Ground World is most enjoyable as you discover tactics for yourself. Strategically speaking, it’s a deceptively complex game, especially for its simple and charming farm town appeal. For a skilled player, a CGW town is a robust ecosystem of timing, resource and workforce management and competitive strategy.
The Gasoline Challenge
The first (and many would say the most important) challenge of Common Ground World is producing a supply of Gasoline that can keep up with the Gasoline expenses of delivering your chosen crafts to neighboring towns. In normal gameplay, you’ll always start a fresh town with 40 units of Gasoline. At first it may seem like a lot, but sooner or later it will dwindle, so start right away working on a way to create Gasoline within your town.
Wages
Your town’s workers won’t get out of bed for free. Literally, they’ll return to their homes and go to sleep if you don’t have any work for them (or worse) if you don’t have anything to pay them! This is why as more workers and more specialized workers enter your town and start earning a living, you’ll need to continue elevating your production tiers to bring in more money with new deliveries.
Selling for More
It takes 10 units of any crop or craft to sell, and with each successful sale delivery, you’ll receive cash and stars based on the difficulty and resources required for the production. For example, Wheat is a low-tier crop – It can be grown simply by watering a field and carrying the harvested wheat to a Silo. So you can expect Wheat to earn a significantly lower haul of cash and stars than a load of Flour, which is a next-tier product crafted from Wheat.
Basically, the more generations of refinement that your raw resources go through, the more money and stars you’ll get for them in the end when it’s time to deliver. And that’s the name of the game.
Build Balanced
The key to Common Ground World is building a balanced town where the various workers and buildings work perfectly together in carefully orchestrated detail.
If you’re producing a certain resource too quickly and don’t have anywhere to store it, then some of the energy spent producing that resource will be wasted.
Layout Matters
IRL towns employ city planners for a reason. Functional towns and cities don’t just build themselves or fall together from a bunch of coincidences. Early on, you’ll want to imagine the expanded vision of your town in the future. Think in long term goals, even when you may be several steps away from their completion.
Because of proximity effects given off by certain types of structures, you’ll want to create designated areas for different types of operation in your town. For example, you don’t want the pollution of a Gasoline operation interfering with your ability to grow crops, nor would you like your Warehouses to cast shade and negatively affect your fields’ access to the sun’s rays.
Most buildings require adjacent Roads, and the placement of Roads is not to be taken lightly. Your workforce will move much faster on Roads
Learn Your Passives
Passive production is one of the keys to becoming a successful builder in Common Ground World. Basically, passive production means creating a situation where resources are automatically provided to a unit or structure that needs them. The simplest example is placing a Wheat Field next to a pond, where it will receive the passive water it needs to grow. If placed where it can get water naturally from the ground, the Farmer will not need to bring buckets of water, effectively eliminating the need for a well in that instance.
Playing with NFTs
Common Ground World is a web3 game with real player ownership of certain in-game items. Items owned as NFTs carry several advantages compared to their in-game counterparts, and some NFT items provide benefits that cannot be found through any standard in-game item.
NFTs can be transferred and traded
NFTs can be instantly placed and removed for no additional cost
Earlier in 2024, Guilds were first introduced to Common Ground World gameplay, bringing a new level of cooperative strategy and team competition. Spend some time in the Common Ground World Discord community and you may get invited to join a Guild, unlocking greater potential rewards and access to new types of competition.
Guilds are led by owners of Common Ground World Nodes. Each Guild comes with a unique feature called the Guild Library, which allows Guild members to check out NFTs from the Guild Leader’s collection for use in the latest competitive events.
Guild membership is controlled entirely by the Guild Leader (invite only), but there’s a good chance that you’ll find actively recruiting Guild Leaders in Common Ground World’s Discord community!
We’re excited to introduce you to this charming farm sim game. Hopefully you’ve found some helpful information in this getting started blog. We look forward to playing with you and seeing you rise up the leaderboard in the weekly competition.
Last week it was reported that OpenSea, the world’s leading NFT marketplace, received a Wells notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), leading to lots of noise in the crypto space.
What is a Wells Notice?
The name of this type of notice comes from the Wells Committee, a legal advisory group created by the SEC in 1972 to review the agency’s enforcement practices, named after the SEC general counsel at that time, John A. Wells.
A Wells notice is given to a person or company following a completed investigation. It is a formal notice used to inform the subject that infractions have been discovered by the SEC, giving the investigated company or person an opportunity to publicly address and respond to the investigation prior to any rulings that might follow.
While the SEC neither confirmed nor denied any such regulatory investigation of OpenSea, in the NFT platform’s August 28th response, it stated that the notice “indicates that the SEC is considering bringing a lawsuit against OpenSea.”
OpenSea’s Position
OpenSea has received a Wells notice from the SEC.
We're shocked that the SEC would make a move that threatens creators and artists, and we're ready to stand up and fight for our industry. https://t.co/7FyFH3NLdm
OpenSea has not wavered in its position that NFTs on its platform should not be regulated as securities. Openly taking a stand for the rights of creators, artists and innovators who use the OpenSea platform, CEO Devin Finzer has pledged $5M (in addition to its own defense) to assist with legal fees for any creators or developers who have also received a Wells notice related to their NFT activity.
“NFTs are fundamentally creative goods: art, collectibles, video game items, domain names, event tickets, and more. We should not regulate digital art in the same way we regulate collateralized debt obligations.”
“We hope that the SEC will reconsider its stance and approach this issue with the open-mindedness it deserves.” –Devin Finzer, OpenSea CEO
Ongoing Debate
The question of whether regulatory agencies would consider treating non-fungible tokens as securities has been looming over the web3 space for the last few years.
While the debate has attracted the attention of the wider crypto world and concern from NFT collectors, the consequences of classifying NFTs as securities under US law would fall primarily on the creators and sellers of NFTs.
The SEC’s mission is to protect investors by maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets. If NFTs were considered securities, then those who purchased them would be considered “investors” – The SEC would then be obligated to protect them.
Previous Enforcement Actions
While this is the first Wells notice from the SEC to target an NFT marketplace, several exchange platforms have received Wells notices, including Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, and decentralized exchange protocol Uniswap.
The question of whether or not certain types of digital goods will be regulated as securities has been approaching for some time, and veterans of the space have seen it coming.
Looking Ahead
Like regulation of cryptocurrency, regulation of non-fungible tokens on some level is inevitable. The majority of web3 innovators welcome such regulation with openness and compliance, because it allows the clarity needed to create and effectively execute projects.
At Gala, we stand with OpenSea that NFTs are not securities and their owners are not investors. We are however fully committed to regulatory compliance as these questions are settled over the coming months and years.
Ultimately, coming regulations should be seen as a sign of web3 adoption and we look forward to a world where such issues are settled, where we can fully focus on the empowerment and progress made possible by blockchain technology.
