Hoard: True Ownership

What is Hoard

Friends, imagine you’ve played a game for a long time, worked hard to earn rare equipment or accumulated lots of gold coins. But do these things really belong to you? If you stop playing or the game company shuts down, these virtual items might just disappear. The Hoard project (abbreviated as HRD) aims to change this—it’s like a “virtual item bank” and “trading marketplace,” with the goal of letting gamers truly own their in-game virtual items and freely trade or sell them, just like you own and trade your belongings in the real world.

Simply put, Hoard is a platform based on blockchain technology that provides infrastructure for both gamers and game developers. For players, this means the swords, skins, and land you earn in games are no longer just strings of data in a game company’s database, but become unique digital assets on the blockchain (known as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens—think of them as “digital collectibles” or “digital property certificates” on the blockchain). For developers, Hoard offers tools to easily turn in-game items into these digital assets, and even use the platform for crowdfunding new games.

Typical usage flow:

• Players: You can see all your digital assets from different games on Hoard’s platform, like a unified “digital item backpack.” Here, you can sell unused equipment to other players or buy rare items you need.
• Developers: Game studios can use Hoard’s toolkit (SDK) to “tokenize” their in-game virtual items, turning them into NFTs. This way, the equipment players earn in-game truly belongs to them.

Project Vision and Value Proposition

The core vision of the Hoard project is to achieve “true ownership” of virtual items and revolutionize the entire gaming industry. They hope to bridge the gap between traditional games and digital assets (NFTs) through blockchain technology, making the gaming world more open and fair.

Key problems it aims to solve include:

• Lack of player ownership: In traditional games, the virtual items players spend time and money to obtain are actually owned by the game company. Hoard uses blockchain technology to give players immutable, true ownership of these digital assets.
• Poor liquidity of game assets: In-game items are usually only usable within a specific game, and trading is restricted. Hoard provides a cross-game trading platform, allowing these digital assets to circulate and trade in a broader market, increasing their value and utility.
• Single revenue model for developers: Traditional game developers mainly rely on game sales and in-app purchases. Hoard opens up new revenue streams for developers, such as taking a cut from secondary market transactions or using the platform for game development crowdfunding.

Differences from similar projects:

Hoard focuses on providing easy-to-integrate infrastructure for game developers. Through its SDK, even developers unfamiliar with blockchain technology can easily connect their games to the Ethereum blockchain and tokenize in-game assets. This lowers the barrier to Web3 game development and is committed to building a unified, player-driven virtual item trading ecosystem.

Technical Features

The technical core of the Hoard project is leveraging blockchain’s features to provide games with a decentralized digital asset layer.

• Based on Ethereum blockchain: The Hoard platform is built on Ethereum, meaning its digital assets and transactions follow Ethereum’s standards and security.
• ERC20 and NFTs: Hoard’s token HRD is an ERC20 token (a technical standard for fungible tokens on Ethereum, think of it as “universal currency”), while in-game virtual items are tokenized as NFTs.
• Software Development Kit (SDK): Hoard offers an open-source, easy-to-use SDK, like a “box of building blocks,” allowing game developers to easily integrate their games with the blockchain and turn in-game items into NFTs without needing deep blockchain programming knowledge.
• Decentralized marketplace: Hoard is committed to building a decentralized marketplace where players can directly trade virtual items, reducing intermediaries.
• Consensus mechanism: Since the Hoard project runs on Ethereum, its underlying consensus mechanism (such as Proof of Work PoW or Proof of Stake PoS) is provided by the Ethereum network.

Tokenomics

The core of the Hoard project is its native token HRD, which plays an important role in the Hoard ecosystem.

• Token symbol: HRD
• Issuing chain: Ethereum (ERC20 standard token)
• Total supply: 1,000,000,000 HRD (one billion tokens)
• Issuance mechanism: Fixed supply, meaning the total number of tokens is preset and will not be infinitely increased.
• Token utility:
  • Platform universal currency: HRD is the main value carrier and trading medium on the Hoard platform, used to buy, sell, or trade in-game digital assets.
  • Paying fees: Operations on the Hoard trading platform may require HRD as a fee. Notably, part of the HRD fees are also used to pay Gas fees on the Ethereum network (the computational cost required for transactions or executing smart contracts on Ethereum, think of it as a “handling fee”).
• Token allocation and unlocking information: No detailed token allocation and unlocking plan found in public sources.

Important note: It’s important to note that in the cryptocurrency market, there is another project also using the HRD token symbol, described as a governance and value accrual token for a decentralized stablecoin ($USDH). That project’s HRD token has a maximum supply of 10,000,000 tokens and a different contract address from the Hoard gaming project. The tokenomics information here is based on the Hoard gaming project’s whitepaper and official sources. Be sure to distinguish between these potentially similarly named projects.

Team, Governance, and Funding

The success of any project depends on the effort and support of its team. The Hoard project brings together professionals with experience in software development, blockchain, and finance.

• Core members:
  • Kuba Lesisz: System architect with full-stack development experience at Microsoft and macroeconomics knowledge from the finance industry.
• Advisory team:
  • Piotr Janiuk: CTO and co-founder of the well-known blockchain project Golem.
  • Kuba Kucharski: CPO and CEngO of Golem, also an experienced blockchain product builder and engineering leader.
  • Vansa Chatikavanij: Former CEO of OmiseGO, with extensive experience in the digital asset field.
• Team characteristics: Team members have backgrounds and experience in both blockchain technology and the gaming industry, and the advisory team brings industry expertise and resources to the project.
• Governance mechanism: No detailed information on the specific governance mechanism of the Hoard project found in public sources.
• Treasury and funding runway: No detailed information on the project’s treasury and funding operations found in public sources.

Roadmap

A project’s roadmap usually shows its past milestones and future development plans. Although Hoard’s detailed roadmap is not easily available in public sources, we can see some key dates and events.

• Important historical milestones and events:
  • July 2019: Hoard project released a draft version of its whitepaper.
  • May 26, 202X: Hoard Marketplace officially launched.
• Future key plans and milestones:
  • Hoard’s official team has raised the question “What’s next for Hoard Exchange?”, hinting at further development and updates in the future, but specific details have not yet been announced.

Common Risk Reminders

Investing in any blockchain project comes with risks, and Hoard is no exception. Before participating, it’s crucial to understand these potential risks. Remember, the following is not investment advice.

• Technical and security risks:
  • Smart contract vulnerabilities: Blockchain projects rely on smart contracts, and if there are vulnerabilities, assets may be lost.
  • Ethereum network risks: As a project on Ethereum, Hoard is affected by Ethereum’s network performance, congestion, and gas fee fluctuations.
  • Complexity of blockchain technology: Blockchain technology is still evolving and may face unknown technical challenges.
• Economic risks:
  • Market volatility: The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile, and the price of HRD tokens may rise or fall sharply.
  • Virtual item market risks: The value of in-game digital assets is affected by game popularity, player demand, and overall market sentiment, and may fluctuate significantly.
  • Project adoption rate: If the Hoard platform fails to attract enough game developers and players, its ecosystem development may be hindered.
• Compliance and operational risks:
  • Regulatory uncertainty: Global policies on blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies are still evolving, and future policy changes may impact the project.
  • Platform operation: Ongoing operation, maintenance, and upgrades of the platform require funding and team support.
• Market competition risks:
  • The Web3 gaming and game NFT space is highly competitive, with many projects vying for market share and users.

Verification Checklist

When researching a project in depth, checking its publicly verifiable information is an essential step.

• Block explorer contract address: The HRD token contract address for the Hoard gaming project is:
  0xc617d51e3a1f621da8ae67b2f652d6ac02eb8d95
  . You can look up this address on Ethereum block explorers (such as Etherscan) to view token holders, transaction records, and more.
• GitHub activity: Current search results do not directly point to a GitHub repository for the Hoard gaming project’s code, but mention other projects like Hoard Memory Allocator on GitHub. For blockchain projects, code openness and activity are important indicators for assessing development progress and transparency. It’s recommended to further search for whether the Hoard gaming project has a public code repository.
• Official website: Hoard’s official website is an important channel for the latest information and official statements.
• Whitepaper: The draft of the Hoard gaming project’s whitepaper was released in July 2019.

Project Summary

The Hoard gaming project is an attempt to bring “true ownership” of virtual items to gamers through blockchain technology, especially NFTs. It aims to empower game developers by building a decentralized trading marketplace and providing easy-to-use development toolkits, and to offer players a freer, fairer virtual asset experience. The HRD token serves as the universal utility token within its ecosystem, used for paying fees and value transfer.

However, it’s important to note that there is another project in the cryptocurrency market also using the HRD token symbol, related to a decentralized stablecoin, with a different total supply and contract address. Therefore, when researching the Hoard project, be sure to carefully verify information sources to ensure you’re focusing on the specific project you’re interested in.

Overall, the Hoard gaming project represents a direction in the Web3 gaming space—using blockchain technology to reshape in-game economies and player experiences. But any blockchain project comes with multiple risks, including technical, market, and regulatory. Anyone interested should conduct their own in-depth research (DYOR - Do Your Own Research), fully understand the project’s details, potential risks, and market prospects, and always remember this is not investment advice.