This article is a real time analysis of a smaller cap project I have been dollar-cost-averaging. This token falls under a major macro narrative of gaming and entertainment. Although small, Ultra (UOS) appears to a be more risk averse crypto project.
Ultra (UOS)
For American users such as myself, UOS can be found on the Kucoin exchange as the cheapest way to get exposure. UOS can also be swapped on decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap but the Ethereum gas fees make dollar-cost-averaging challenging. Ultra is an exciting project that aims to essentially replace the Steam gaming store with a decentralized blockchain competitor. Ultra seeks to put an end to the current distribution monopoly we see with the likes of Steam, Amazon and Epic game store. Ultra is building a PC game publishing platform and ecosystem that incentivizes users and token holders [1]. Ultra addresses 3 key problems in the current day PC gaming space.
- Monopoly: Developers are having an increasingly hard time paying for the large commission fees from the larger companies dropping games and applications. Ultra also points to the developers losing control of their own customers with the model of today.
- Discovery Failure: Gamers are having a harder time finding games that fit into what they personally enjoy with the ever-growing catalogue or games. The market is saturated with just OK games and gamers are having trouble finding games that are worth their personal dollars.
- Missed Opportunities: With the new play to earn, and earn to play models, current gamers are losing out on potential rewards. Many companies will suffer the same fate as blockbuster if they do not adapt to the times and embrace the future of gaming.
Users who buy games, in game items or DLCs from Ultra will have expressed ownership directly on the blockchain. This concept was briefly discussed in our early NFT article [here]. Imagine you are playing World of Warcraft and you have played for 5 years amassing tons of in game gold, mounts, and the like. Users have spent thousands of dollars on these promotional items and thousands of hours grinding to get certain in game achievements and items. You have now finally decided to quit playing the game but have a sentimental attachment to some of the items, and some rare items you wish you could sell. World of Warcraft forbids selling of gold and accounts, shouldn’t the player have access to these items. If this game was on the blockchain the users could take certain items, mounts and in game currencies with them. They could show case their favorites as NFTs within their crypto wallets and sell others possibly gaining lucrative rewards for their time. Below is a list of the companies team executives have worked for.
Rewarding Users
“Ultra comes with two referral programs. One program rewards you for bringing new users to the platform, the other one pays you for promoting products sold on Ultra. Effective for gamers, influencers, and companies of any size, Ultra allows everyone to enjoy new streams of income by promoting the platform and its content[2]. This will create a thriving ecosystem, streamers, influencers, and gamers will be incentivized to participate in the community. Users will only need to be signed up on the Ultra platform. I myself have played games on steam and found it rather annoying to then be sent to another site to register for EA games or some other service. Ultra will allow third party companies to publish entertainment apps, services, and games with immediate access to a wide community. Ultra boasts less than half the distribution fee of Steam, Google, and Apple.
Ultra will provide stronger filters for exploration to guarantee access of users to the developers building on Ultra. The platform will assist in providing better exposure and marketing to the developers. By building a community and ecosystem, developers will truly be rewarded, rather than preyed upon like today’s markets. Ultra will reduce development costs by providing the backbone infrastructure bringing NFT and other blockchain technology setups for the developer. Ultra will empower developers by bringing about secondary market yields or royalties for years to come. The Ultra Software Development Kits (SDKs) will make it easy for users to turn any virtual item into “powerful on chain digital goods” [3]. This combined with a blockchain capable of tens of thousands of transactions per second will attract developers from all around the world.
Thesis
Ultra has a team of over 65 professionals ranging from gaming developers to marketing specialists. The main net went live in July and the Ultra wallet can be downloaded now. The Ultra wallet will allow for token storage, swaps, and client purchases for games and entertainment apps. The world PC gaming market was valued at 32 billion dollars in 2017. About 12% of this number is on Steam, and more and more developers are moving away from this because of the nearly 30% distribution fees. The global gamers population has been rapidly increasing along with the number of games released per year. UOS is perfect for my preferred investment strategy because it could compete with Enjin which is currently about 10x larger than UOS.
Users can earn UOS tokens by participating in early beta tests and curating games. Blockchain games will have almost no lag, downloads will be almost instant due to blockchain technology. Users buying products with the UOS token will see the prices fluctuating based on the current market price of the token. This means that as the price of UOS goes up, it will require less UOS to buy games. Ultra has a relatively fair initial token allocation, with a tremendous number of tokens reserved for ecosystem growth and network treasury. The main token unlocks should be finished by spring 2022. We could see some level of sell offs during the coming months depending on how married to the project the private investors are.
I have been dollar-cost averaging UOS for the past several weeks starting at about 80 cents. UOS has resisted this market correction powerfully and appears to be building despite the BTC drops. UOS has a unique exposure because it will provide investors gaming and entertainment exposure. Since investing in UOS does not rely on a single game to perform, I believe this is a safer bet than buying a play-to-earn token or single game. UOS if successful will slowly eat market cap away from steam and others. This is the type of project that could continue with positive price action during a bear market. People will not stop playing games if Bitcoin dumps. Providing the community a workable product, with a clear roadmap and vision is important. As always stay safe out there, do your own research, and thank you for reading!
[1] https://api.website.ultra.io/uploads/225c4c5ae4fc4d41b418a538df00ad3e.pdf
[3] https://ultra.io/technology
