About Magic (MAGIC)

In late summer of 2021, a mysteriously non-descript Ethereum NFT project, called Loot (for Adventurers) --and comprising randomized, on-chain gaming items -- gave game developers a free collection of what amounted to blank-slate storage bins of future intellectual property. Loot eventually flamed out but not before confirming the notion that a game could be crowd-sourced from the bottom up.

The experiment spawned what Decrypt called a "Lootverse" of user-driven projects. One of them was Treasure, later becoming TreasureDAO, run on Arbitrum, a layer-2 network built on top of Ethereum, and governed by holders of staked MAGIC. Treasure describes its core mission as "building bridges between metaverses."

Supporters describe Treasure as being a "decentralized Nintendo," referring to the community-run platform’s role creating games and related consoles/cartridges, and also distributing them. A shared infrastructure and set of interchangeable resources are underpinned by the MAGIC token. Treasure is developing its own games while also facilitating an NFT marketplace, a form of distribution. Third-party game developers are expected to join in the project. Treasure has a Venture Studio that screens projects for ecosystem inclusion with decision-making regarding selections controlled by Treasure DAO. The flagship Treasure game is Bridgeworld, described by the project as the central metaverse within Treasure, and where "MAGIC is emitted and harvested."

Bridgeworld utilizes a three-part resource economy: Legions use treasures to mine for MAGIC and build larger forms of infrastructure and equipment; MAGIC is the resource that allows legions to quest and craft new items using treasures. The relationship between treasures and MAGIC is the equilibrium underpinning Bridgeworld. MAGIC is an increasingly scarce resource needed to “power on” treasures and allow them to function as productive assets. Treasures produce the instruments and materials needed to continue mining MAGIC. This interplay between treasures and MAGIC, says the team behind the project, forms a base layer metaverse on which other metaverse economies can be built and connected.

Projects receive 50% of MAGIC emissions during first two weeks after launch. In exchange, the project sells its NFTs on the Treasure platform. TreasureDAO takes a fee on NFT trades, producing revenue for growing the ecosystem. New projects are expected to integrate MAGIC into their games/worlds.

In March of 2022, the Treasure platform experienced a code exploit that resulted in some of its popular Smol Brains NFTs to have been sold for zero cost, resulting in $1 million in losses, Cointelegraph reported.

John Patten, CEO of Treasure DAO, recently published a blog post outlining an upcoming NFT project called DAO Cats that plans to launch via SudoAMM, Decrypt said. DAO Cats refers to itself as “an experiment in DAO-owned IP.”

When was MAGIC created and how much was it worth?

Treasure was founded in September of 2021. Its native token MAGIC, via a fair launch, initially traded for two cents before surging, on the back of a popular NFT launch, Smol Brains, to an all-time high above $6; that was in February 2022.

Treasure says it has a "globally distributed team of developers, product managers, artists and designers, marketers, and economists, all supported by a wealth of DAO contributors and passionate community members."

How is the price of MAGIC determined?

The circulating supply of MAGIC is roughly 200 Million, according to CoinGecko.

MAGIC’s supply is capped at 350 million.

Staking MAGIC to NFTs generates newly minted MAGIC. Emissions mimic the model used by Bitcoin, with supply halving over time. In the case of MAGIC, its emissions are set to be cut in half every year (versus every four years for BTC).

Why does MAGIC have value?

MAGIC is the primary currency within the Treasure ecosystem. It's used to purchase NFTs. And it's staked to the platform (in exchange for access to games).

"It is the fuel for the entire Treasure economy," ONE37pm said. "Without MAGIC, there would be no way to build Treasure or any other associated projects."

Because MAGIC was released via fair launch, there were no pre-sale venture capital funds that got an early taste, only to sell the asset later upon being unlocked.

Creators envision MAGIC will become a digital currency for use across multiple games and metaverses. The more games that adopt MAGIC, the more MAGIC tokens get accumulated by holders within these games, reducing supply on the open market. If this kind of cycle even partly plays out as envisioned, and demand were to spike, MAGIC, considering the token's deflationary properties, could see appreciation over time.

Is MAGIC secure?

Treasure runs on the Arbitrum, a layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution.

Arbitrum boasts the benefits of being built on Ethereum, known for its robust security. 

What are the main benefits of MAGIC?

• According to ONE37pm, Treasure connects the expanding network of metaverses by taking an open and modular approach to the integration of NFTs, DeFi and Gaming.
• Game developers are said to often confront hurdles trying to bootstrap projects and expand user bases when first starting off; Treasure's MAGIC token facilitates an economic model that provides early funding to get projects off the ground, said a popular YouTube crypto analyst who goes by the handle of Giancarlo buys tokens.
• Treasure is seeking to build a strong ecosystem that game developers will want to join. Token holders vote on projects with which to partner.
• The NFT platform, as games proliferate, could become a high-volume, revenue-generating proposition in and of itself, a la OpenSea, open to all types of tokenized assets and projects.

What do critics say about MAGIC?

That it’s not the most liquid market, owing to its reliance on staked NFTs and the Arbitrum layer-2 application, a kind of next-level obscurity that makes awareness more challenging relative to ERC-20 tokens that trade on exchanges.