Gala

What is Gala Games (GALA)?

Gala Games is a blockchain-based gaming platform with the mission of making “blockchain games you’ll actually want to play.”

Even though gaming is one of the biggest industries out there, it’s also one in which customers have the least ownership over the products they buy and use. Many gamers have found this out the hard way, losing expensive in-game assets and even the right to play games at the whim of a publisher or game development studio.

Gala Games is a platform for game development and an ecosystem of games with a decentralized governance structure that allows players to have a say in what sort of games are funded.

Who are the Founders of Gala?

Gala Games was founded in 2019 by Zynga co-founder Eric Schiermeyer. Zynga is an extremely successful mobile games firm known for hits like Farmville, Zynga Poker, and Mafia Wars.

Schiermeyer has been operating on the cutting edge of technology for a long time. He co-founded Myspace, a well-known and extremely popular social media hub, before the rise of Facebook.

In a 2020 interview, Schiermeyer said that Gala aimed to disrupt the stranglehold big tech companies have on the $190 billion game industry and pass some of that revenue back to the players.

How Does Gala Games Work?

Gala is one of a handful of gaming platforms seeking to decentralize the gaming industry and allow players to truly own their in-game assets. The company accomplishes this easily by making in-game assets and other variables verifiable on the blockchain.

Purchasable in-game items within the Gala ecosystem are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain. These items can have a utility that differs wildly, ranging from cosmetic changes for player characters to items or even character progression elements.

Thanks to this technology, many games on Gala can allow players to Play-to-Earn. In some games, players are even rewarded for various activities in the game’s cryptocurrency beyond being able to sell NFTs that they have accumulated.

Smart contracts even allow rental systems to be utilized in games. Here, players can lend NFTs for others to use, benefiting from the code’s safety as well as returns from the NFT’s utilization.

Gala’s games are developed through constant community engagement, with the players and community members of Gala having a significant voice in design direction and funding.

Gala’s focus also extends to the domains of music and film. It allows artists to sell their creations directly to their fans via NFT technology, cutting out predatory intermediaries. It also allows users to participate in a decentralized music streaming platform.

Regarding film, Gala is developing a system where creators can also sell their content directly to supporters. Gala Film will also involve Watch and Earn, a decentralized streaming platform similar to the music offering.

What Makes Gala Unique?

Further empowering players, the network backing all of Gala’s games also depends on the players. This is accomplished via the player-owned Node Ecosystem, where Gala users operate Gala Nodes from their home computers.

Each type of node has a specific workload critical for the network’s operation. For example, some nodes can run a game server, meaning that developers of games on Gala don’t have to rent or use their own server space.

By buying a license to operate a Gala Node, users open up opportunities to receive rewards. These can include GALA tokens, limited edition NFTs, and opportunities to help the Gala ecosystem grow further.

Of particular importance are the Founder’s Nodes, of which there will only ever be 50,000. GALA tokens are distributed to Founder’s Nodes daily as long as they meet certain requirements.

This is done via a point system, where a node running for 6 hours in a cycle receives a point. At the time of GALA distribution, all points are added up, and the tokens are split between these points. A user can have multiple nodes, thereby allowing them to earn more points every day.

To buy a Founder’s Node, you need to make an account on Gala Games' website, navigate to “Nodes,” and click “Buy Now.”

According to Gala, more than 16,000 player-run nodes currently power the network, making it exceptionally decentralized.

Per statistics published by Gala Games, the platform has 1.3 million monthly active users and has sold over 26,000 NFTs. The most expensive NFT sold for over $3 million.

How is the Gala Games Network Secured?

The Gala network is powered by its innovative Node system, which relies on users and community members to use their own hardware. However, the GALA cryptocurrency and transactions using it are secured by the Ethereum blockchain.

Ethereum is a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain with blocks created and validated by nodes called “validators.” To become a validator, node operators must bond at least 32 ETH to the protocol.

They then earn an income proportional to their bond if they behave according to the protocol but can lose their bond via a mechanism called “slashing” if they do not. In this manner, Ethereum is secured by a system of incentives that keeps the vast majority of its validators honest.

What is the Use of GALA?

GALA is the main cryptocurrency of the Gala Games ecosystem, serving as a utility token. It is also a medium of exchange throughout the ecosystem, and player nodes earn rewards in GALA tokens.

Within the Gala Games ecosystem, GALA serves as a blockchain-verified and secure mode of payment and settlement for digital goods and services, such as in-game items. However, it does not represent any shareholding in Gala Games or entitle the user to any kind of revenue sharing or other benefits that could liken it to security.

Who Controls Gala Games?

Gala Games offers an element of decentralization not just by involving the community but also by running direct consensus voting for all Founder’s Nodes. Node operators can then vote on various matters, most commonly about which games are featured on the platform.

Gala itself is an entertainment company focused on pioneering the gaming, music, and film industries. The team of over 90 employees includes some of the minds behind brands such as Command & Conquer, Doom, Unreal, Halo, Left 4 Dead, and Call of Duty.

How Much GALA is In Circulation?

According to Gala Games’ documentation, GALA has a total supply of approximately 50 billion, and per Etherscan, over 7.5 billion are in circulation and held by over 188,000 wallets.

GALA tokens are distributed daily to node operators, but this distribution follows a halving schedule. On the 21st of July each year, the number of GALA tokens distributed halves.

Beginning on the 21st of July 2022, 8,561,643 GALA tokens became the amount distributed daily, down from 17,123,286.

GALA was never offered at an ICO, and GALA tokens cannot be bought directly from the company. They can only be earned by running a Founder’s Node.

How Do You Buy GALA?

Of course, you can also buy GALA tokens from various cryptocurrency exchanges since plenty have been sold onto the market.

Reflecting its status as one of the top decentralized gaming platforms, GALA is listed on almost all top-tier centralized exchange platforms. However, you can also buy it on Ethereum-based decentralized exchanges like Uniswap.

How Do You Store GALA?

You can store GALA using the native Gala app or any other Ethereum wallet. You can also store GALA on a cryptocurrency exchange account, but you can’t use it as easily as if it were in your own non-custodial wallet.

Furthermore, using an exchange account to store cryptocurrencies opens you up to various risks, as the recent collapses of FTX, Voyager, and Celcius have shown. If you use your own wallet, your GALA tokens aren’t exposed to the risk of third-party failure.

Gala Games Energy Consumption

Gala doesn’t operate its own blockchain yet, despite signals that a proprietary blockchain is on the roadmap at some point in the future.

Therefore, Gala cannot be accused of significant energy consumption since its Nodes operate on the computers of players, who would likely be playing games and staying online regardless.

Furthermore, its transactions and the GALA token are upheld by Ethereum, a blockchain that powers thousands, if not tens of thousands, of other tokens in addition to GALA and Gala Games NFTs.

Is GALA a Good Investment?

It is important to note that the GALA token is not a security issued by Gala Games, nor is it an entitlement to any ownership of the Gala company or ecosystem. Holding GALA also doesn’t confer any governance privileges.

Rather, GALA is a utility token and medium of exchange on the network and a means of rewarding Nodes for their service. For this reason, the value of the GALA token may well depend on the growth of the Gala ecosystem and, therefore, the demand for the token to use it.