$ 72M Illuvium NFT Land Dutch auction saves buyers thousands on gas taxes

by · July 5, 2022

Open-world blockchain game Illuvium managed to keep the average transaction fee for its nonfungible token (NFT) Land at around $ 20 by holding a Dutch auction of the Illuvium X layer-2 scaling solution.

The cost of embossing the NFTs was a fraction of the cost users paid to make in Yuga Labs’ Otherside sales. Illuvium reports that users spent only $ 350,000 in fees in total to grab nearly 20,000 plots worth around $ 72 million, all without reported network failures.

On the other hand, Otherside sales were plagued with problems. Users paid an average of $ 6,000 in gas fees and some as high as $ 14,000. Ethereum was congested as buyers tried to get their orders filled as quickly as possible.

The 19,969 plots were mainly sold to ILV holders using a Dutch auction format, where the price per unit decreases over time based on how many are sold before it. This allowed potential buyers to wait for a more desirable price range to place an order.

Co-founder of Illuvium Kieran Warwick said the sale was designed as an antidote to Ethereum NFT sales, resulting in wasted bids that reward miners and cost the buyer.

The 4018 ETHs raised for sale, valued at around $ 7.4 million, will be redistributed to holders of Illuvium’s original ILV token. Buyers, however, mostly used ILV tokens to buy. 239 388 sILV2, a bet version of ILV tokens, will be burned.

It was a rather impressive effort, considering the NFT bear market, which has had a large decline in volume over the last 30 days. Sales volume peaked at $ 137 million on May 6 and have fallen 78% to $ 31 million as of Sunda, according to NFT market tracker CryptoSlam.

Illuvium is an epic-scale decentralized fantasy RPG based on massive battles between creatures called Illuvials.

The Illuvium NFT Land plot is a key aspect of the game’s ecosystem. Land generates FUEL, which is used to capture game characters called Illuvials or sold for Ether (ETH). It will also benefit Land on the upcoming Illuvium Zero game.

Warwick believes that Illuvium’s game design and tokenomics set it apart from other game financing competitors (GameFi). But he told the Cointelegraph that Illuvium is free to play for casual gamblers who are not yet willing to raise money. “It was not an option not to have a free to play version,” he said.

The game combines collectibility and built in rarity. Warwick said that each NFT character in the game, called an Illuvial, is unique and the offer is deflationary. One method of deflating the supply is to reach the level of one Illuvial, which requires burning three others.

Each Illuvial also comes in a set that only stays available for six months. Warwick said: “Every six months we produce a new set, and you can never collect these Illuvials again.”

“So people can play for free as much as they want. Use level zero Illuvials and shards. But if they want to explore further with higher-level grades, that’s when they start paying. “

Illuvium will have its work cut out to have an impact under the current conditions with the NFT gaming industry, which sees a problematic fall of 82% in daily sales volume. Daily volume reached $ 70.3 million on January 1, 2022, but reached only $ 13.7 million on Monda, according to decentralized app tracking (DApp) DappRadar.

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