Merit Circle

What is Merit Circle (MC)?

Merit Circle is a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) on a mission to revolutionize gaming by empowering people to play a role in shaping its future.

As the Web3 gaming movement gathers steam, the industry is being dragged, kicking and screaming in some cases, toward a transparent, dynamic, and participatory ecosystem. Games are starting to be governed by players, owned by players, and reward players’ merit.

For this reason, Merit Circle has emerged as a vertically integrated gaming DAO, taking on the challenges in the game industry at the investment, development and publishing, education, and marketplace levels.

When was Merit Circle Launched?

Merit Circle launched in 2021 and quickly built partnerships with various gaming brands but also investors such as the Digital Currency Group, Spartan, Mechanism Capital, Bitscale Capital, and DeFiance Capital.

The DAO ended the year with a treasury worth over $115 million, a strong position from which to weather the troughs of 2022. Risk-bearing assets were down-scaled, and yield-generating positions prone to serious risk were removed. Still, Merit Circle invested in 50 projects across the gaming industry during the year.

July 2022 saw the first iteration of the project’s gaming platform, focused on enabling players to discover partner games and sign up to become scholars. The second iteration of the platform shifted it into a gateway to Web3 gaming, teaching players about Web3 and rewarding them with additional benefits and partner exclusives.

2022 also saw the introduction of Merit Circle Studios and its first title, Edenhorde, along with the addition of an NFT marketplace called Sphere.

Who are the Founders of Merit Circle?

Merit Circle was founded by Marco van den Heuvel, an early adopter and ‘breeder’ of Axies on the Axie Infinity play-to-earn game. Van den Heuvel started out as a one-man operation in July 2021 called “Axie 420,” onboarding scholars to use his extra Axies and earn an income.

The model’s success led to the idea of scaling, and Merit Circle came to life to bring social entrepreneurship, gaming, and generating yield together.

How Does Merit Circle Work?

Merit Circle is a DAO, which means that every owner of its native MC token has the right to vote when determining the DAO’s future.

Anyone can make a Merit Improvement Proposal (MIP) via the Metis Circle governance forums, and any proposal has the potential to reach a vote. This is in stark contrast to many other projects with DAO structures that implement a minimum token holding to table a proposal, sometimes to the exclusion of a vast majority of DAO members.

Votes are held through the project’s Snapshot voting platform, and any and all holders of MC tokens can connect to the platform and vote. When a vote is held, the majority decides whether that proposal will be acted upon or not.

The Merit Circle DAO aims to support every opportunity that plays into the idea of games becoming something much greater thanks to blockchain technology and themes such as ownership of game assets.

To meet this aim, the DAO’s activities have been separated into four verticals that collectively add value to the DAO and the MC token that confers voting rights.

Merit Circle investments, the first vertical, has invested in multiple projects across the Web3 landscape and has created a resilient treasury. The second, Merit Circle gaming, is focused on advancing gaming infrastructure and scaling engaging and well-designed games.

Merit Circle Studios are focused on building new games and incubating projects to contribute to the industry on a larger scale. Finally, the Sphere marketplace focuses on providing the best fit for gamers as a digital asset exchange.

What Makes Merit Circle Unique?

Merit Circle’s multiple verticals allow it to support the industry as a whole rather than simply attempting to silo games away under its own platform. Merit Circle gaming features some of the top games across the entire blockchain industry, from pioneering titles like Aavegotchi, Axie Infinity, and the Sandbox to eagerly awaited titles like Illuvium.

The platform even features a lot of valuable educational resources for gamers who may be new to blockchain and cryptocurrency in general.

How is the Merit Circle Network Secured?

Merit Circle is a DAO deployed on the Ethereum blockchain and features a range of on-chain decentralized applications and smart contracts that also rely on Ethereum.

Fortunately, Ethereum is one of the most decentralized and secure blockchains in existence, and it has recently shifted to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism that has dramatically reduced its environmental footprint.

What is the Use of MC?

The MC token grants membership and voting rights within the Merit Circle DAO, entitling all token holders to a say in the platform’s future direction and core decisions. Any holder can table a governance proposal, and all holders can vote on these proposals when the time comes.

How Much MC is In Circulation?

At the project launch, the MC token had a supply of 1 billion with no possibility for future inflation. In the token generation event, the project team and advisors were given 20% of the supply, while early investors took away 14.1%. The DAO treasury was allocated 15%, and 7.5% of the MC supply was used for public distribution via the Binance Launchpool.

Before the launchpad sale, Merit Circle was able to close a seed round raising $4.5 million from various venture capital firms as well as angel investors representing projects such as Axie, Illuvium, Hashrush, Sipher, and Quantstamp.

How Do You Buy MC?

You can buy MC tokens on various top exchange platforms, including Launchpool host Binance. As an ERC-20 token, though, several Ethereum-based decentralized exchanges can be used to acquire MC.

How Do You Store MC?

You can store MC tokens using any Ethereum-compatible wallet. To vote and stake MC using the DAO’s staking dashboard, you’ll need a non-custodial wallet like Metamask.

Is MC a Good Investment?

Merit Circle is an excellent example of the power of play-to-earn gaming as a viable model, given its humble beginnings as a one-man operation on Axie before expanding into a DAO with a ten-figure treasury.

The MC token offers a way for investors to attain exposure to some of the best and brightest projects in the play-to-earn industry while also claiming a part of platform governance going forward.