SPS Governance Proposal - Hire SMC To Create a New Mini-Set
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This proposal is for the SPS DAO to hire Steem Monsters Corp., the company behind the Splinterlands game, to design, develop, and operate a new mini-set of cards in a way that is focused on raising SPS tokens and stablecoins for the SPS DAO. The total cost for this project will be 1,200M DEC tokens paid up-front to the @splinterlands in-game wallet.
The upfront cost is higher than in the past because there is not planned to be any revenue share with the company for this set, meaning 100% of all revenues will go directly to the SPS DAO.
If approved, the new edition is planned to be released in December, 2025.
Mini-Set Edition Details
The Mini-Set Edition cards produced will be exclusive to this sales event and will not be available in any other packs or sales in the future. The character designs, art, names, and stats of the cards will be designed by the Splinterlands team, with input and playtesting from select community members.
This new edition will fall under the broader Conclave Arcana set, which means the cards will be usable in Modern format until Conclave Arcana rotates out and they will share all of the same properties as Conclave Arcana cards, such as collection power, burn rates, and production on land.
The edition is expected to be similar in size to the last mini-set (Riftwatchers) which contained 43 unique cards, and will include Gold and Black foil cards as well as the Arcane variants of each.
Pack Types
There are planned to be three pack types available for sale: Standard, Alchemy, and Legendary packs. The details of each of the packs, including number of cards, guaranteed cards, and drop rates, will be the same as the equivalent Conclave Arcana packs. Note that there will be no Starter packs for this edition.
10% of each type of pack will be reserved for the SPS DAO to use as needed via future proposals. The proposed number of each pack type that will be available as shown in the table below:
| Pack Type | Total Available | Reserved for DAO | Total for Sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 250,000 | 25,000 | 225,000 |
| Alchemy | 50,000 | 5,000 | 45,000 |
| Legendary | 25,000 | 2,500 | 22,500 |
Pricing & Availability
Mini-Edition packs will be available for a period of 6 months on a first come, first served basis. After that, any remaining unsold packs will go directly to the DAO and can be used in any way the DAO sees fit.
The proposed pricing for each type of pack is shown below:
| Pack Type | Price in DEC/Credits* | Price in SPS | Price in USDC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 5,000 | 350 | $5 |
| Alchemy | 20,000 | 1,400 | $20 |
| Legendary | 25,000 | 1,750 | $25 |
*Note: For each Credit used, SMC will send an equal amount of DEC to the SPS DAO
The key here is that there is a significant discount for purchasing packs using the SPS token at current market prices. We expect that this will help provide additional utility and demand for the token as well as to help the SPS DAO accumulate more SPS tokens to use for future reward payouts.
Additionally, we propose enabling purchases of these new packs using USDC tokens, which will all go directly to the SPS DAO wallets. This will help raise much needed stablecoin revenue for the DAO so it will have less need to sell SPS or DEC tokens to pay for services in the future.
Presale
As with previous editions, we propose that there be a presale period where players can purchase packs of the new set before the set is released and earn additional bonuses for doing so.
These bonuses are expected to include two limited-edition promo cards (one Legendary and one Rare), a raffle for the Arcane variants of both cards, and in-game titles and promo cards for players who purchase the most packs during the presale via the leaderboard.
Proposal Reasoning & Expectations
The SPS DAO as the supplier of rewards to the Splinterlands reward systems is in perpetual need of SPS to further pay out these rewards. The rough payout for SPS ranked rewards each year runs approximately 100m SPS. It is therefore in the best interest of all SPS token holders to offer a sizable Mini-Set to attempt to replace the rewarded SPS, and possibly to earn more to improve their ability to meet future funding needs.
We believe that sales of a Mini-Set Edition is one of the best ways to bring in significant funds to both the SPS DAO and the Splinterlands company in the short term without distracting from our longer-term priority of bringing new players into the game. The amount of SPS gained could even surpass the yearly consumption of SPS to the reward pools. In addition, any USDC used for pack purchases will also strengthen the DAO’s overall liquidity.
Based on similar past events and the size of this set, we expect - but cannot guarantee - that the Mini-set is likely to sell out, in which case it would provide the following results if the set sells out in each currency:
- 2,588m DEC
- 181m SPS
- $2.588m USDC
+25,000/5,000/2,500 guaranteed Standard/Alchemy/Legendary packs for the DAO ($287,500 at $ per packs)
Of course it's likely that the sales will occur in a combination of the available purchase methods, but it should be clear there is potential for the DAO to receive a very significant return on its investment, while at the same time refilling its coffers to bring stability and extend the life of the rewards system.
Please note that if this proposal, or one similar to it, does not pass, the Splinterlands company reserves the right to produce and launch a mini-set at its own expense and retain any and all proceeds.
Questions and Answers
The People’s Guild and several influencers in the community have requested a special interview with the team to answer questions regarding this proposal. A call with Dave McCoy is planned for Thursday, August 28th at 8:30 pm EDT.
Click here to join the conversion: https://www.youtube.com/live/WNO8eBw8E68
Please post any questions in this Peakd article or in the TownHall section of the Splinterlands Discord so that the interviewers can properly compile the questions for the 1 1/2 hour AMA.
Looking forward to answering questions with @bjangles and his special crew on Thursday! :)
Gonna be our pleasure hosting you and the crew, Dave! Looking forward to it amigo
bjangles, we're counting on you to ask all the tough questions! ;)
Count on it hombre!
Question: CA set seems to have VERY low health especially in lower league decks which is exaggerated if trying to use reckless or other self-inflicted damage. Will the mini-set attempt to provide some beefier cards to better balance the issues with CA?
Question: Usually the number of packs for each guaranteed promo is announced when a set is announce, what will those thresholds be this time?
Question: Will a daily burn be in place for unsold packs like the past few sets have had?
First let me say I support a new set and the proposal to pay SPL as above.
I’m less enthusiastic about so many purchasing tokens, and the change to pricing the set in DEC, SPS and USDC.
Issue 1: For the past several years, the economy has been following the plan that "the SPS-DEC flywheel will create value for SPS."
This has been the mantra.
We saw this dynamic in action at the last two set launches - DEC pressure results in SPS burns.
But this change in strategy will not create any meaningful DEC pressure - just SPS. We are only a few months past the set launch, yet DEC is again sliding 20% below the burn threshold.
As the liquidity token, DEC should be our closest thing to a store of value token, and also the major token that underpins land utilization... it has been called a "product backed stablecoin" and we are going to let it stagnate until the next major set?
Please keep the focus on DEC for buying.
Issue 2: I'm also not really buying the concept of purchasing using SPS and definitely not USDC...
While the article seems to suggest that the DAO will collect "much needed stablecoins" - as the most expensive option, it seems unlikely that buyers will use much USDC unless stable coins become the cheapest available option (aka giving discount utility to an an external token instead of our ecosystem tokens)
So TLDR:
This is great for the ecosystem as a whole. The DAO owns a ton of SPS so it benefits the DAO more than anyone. And totally agree with your point abput the stables. Its totally moot to even bother accepting them except for in convenience but in effect the DAO could sell some of the SPS and receive USDC for it. Would be a hard vote pass but if its needed to pay Clayboyn or cryptomancer im sure it would pass.
Thanks for the comment.
I think my earlier version came across as more negative than I meant to be…
I do love mini sets, I think it is good for the economy and the game.
Great analysis. I 100% agree with you.
This is exactly the type of thing that I wanted to see.
For those that don't see the reasoning:
The DAO owns an enormous amount of SPS, it benefits not only the individuals in it but the DAO as a whole to put value behind the governance token.
Immediately, I have already purchased a few thousand worth of SPS because it is clearer that it is undervalued.
Now, I do think we still need to have a talk about the overall inflation of SPS and how if we are going to value SPS at in essence twice the current market rate in this set, then rewards could effectively be cut in half and the USD value will still be the same but the sell pressure has been reduced.
There is also the effect of the price action exhibiting to outside investors that we are not on a perpetual decline. That there is life and that there is potentially $2M being poured into a set which at current prices means its getting poured into SPS.
BULLISH
"There is also the effect of the price action exhibiting to outside investors that we are not on a perpetual decline. That there is life and that there is potentially $2M being poured into a set which at current prices means its getting poured into SPS." - This is so true, outside investors think that this project is dead, if we get some price actions it could be an interesting 12 months ahead.
Bullish!
(significant discount for purchasing packs using the SPS token at current market prices) how much Discount using SPS 20% 30% because DEC is already 20% below Peg so discount should be more then 20% for SPS
Its a little less than a 50% discount if you buy SPS today. at 0.0075 you are getting a pack for effectively $2.63
Question: Why are we not having a starter pack? In my opinion, having a starter pack will mean more players participating in the set.
Question: do you expect to revisit Midnight potion requirements for the premium packs?
Why go back to having mini sets? Rebellion didn't have a mini set and I think this is better and less confusing.
Rebellion had Hall of Heroes so which option do you like more? A mini set or single card sales?
It's true, Rebellion had too many promo cards. Honestly, I'd prefer just a main set plus the voucher promos and a few other special promos, 4 or 5 at most. And release sets about every year and a half.
I think 43 cards are too many for a "mini" set.
was it? I think Rift was ok. In frontier it is as of now too few - you beat me with rng everytime haha
You're comparing the 40 cards in Frontier to the already stacked Modern... :-) Some call it RNG others call it skill.. ;-)
DEFINITELY RNG!!! I mean, just look at this totally factual quote that I most certainly didn't just make up:
"If not for RNG, I would beat you, @olebulls and everyone else, every time"
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Haha :D You know what the villains in Scooby-Doo say every single time: "And I would have gotten away with the win, if it weren't for your mighty luck!"
Yeah, too many cards to buy all the time. That's why I'm just done with this stuff. I have an opinion on this set, but it doesn't matter, because I'm not buying any of them.
I voted for it and I like the idea in general, but the whole pay different prices in DEC, SPS and USDC is really bad in my opinion to say it in a neutral tone.
Realistically nobody will pay in USDC unless they don't know better, same applies to DEC. I don't know about you guys, but I am not a fan of pricing things differently to create the option for the customer to screw themselves. This is just bad practice, plain and simple. I understand that this is primarily meant to raise SPS for the DAO, but you can do this differently.
Suggested change:
Instead of having the various price tags, just price it at 5k DEC, although I think it would be better to stay in line with the CA pricing. I assume this was the planned price anyway, since paying in SPS is such a heavy discount (which would make it even worse that you punish players who pay in other currencies than SPS). All the DEC (or credits) spent are simply sent to the DAO, who will just swap to SPS regularly. Leave the option to pay with SPS directly in there for all I care, but make sure the price is +/- same.
Result:
Ultimately this suggested change will make it fair for customers and more in accordance to the design and flywheel. It simply shouldn't be up to the customer to figure out what currency the DAO wants by calculating and swapping around to get a discount. It could even be seen as paying a fee for paying in the wrong currency. Seriously, this is so bad. If the DAO wants SPS it can swap like everyone else. Same applies for if it wants stable coins.
There is no difference in price:
Thus:
At Peg... in DEC it will be $5 or 5,000 DEC
At $.01425 per $SPS it will be $5 of SPS
At $1 per USDC or 1,000 Credits it will be $5 per Stable
The only discounts being offered... are at CURRENT market prices...
LET THE FOMO BEGIN!!!!!!
Until it hits 0.1425 cent you simply overpay when you use any other form of currency. By a lot. Imagine you are a new player, wanting to buy a pack, you have most likely credits because you don't bother with this crypto stuff and hive engine. Now you pay 5 USDC for a pack instead of 3 or 4 because you didn't do the swap first? This is bad.
And assuming it hits 0.1425 cents, what then? Then you have to burn SPS for DEC again unless you want to pay more using SPS. From that point on the DAO gets DEC. Assuming the DAO still wants SPS it has to swap anyway at that point. If it wants stable coins, why not give the same discount for stable coins?
It is just an artificial pump of SPS in the short term, moving all value there at the cost of the rest of the ecosystem. You just push SPS at the cost of DEC and then, after the sale of this mini-set is over, what then? Then its again the climb to peg for DEC during which there is almost no demand for SPS, while all the SPS taken into the DAO will be slowly flowing out as rewards. What direction will SPS go then? Unless you price every future set in SPS it can only go down from there.
Instead of sticking with the flywheel where SPS is valued by the demand of DEC, the currency in which everything should be priced, this pricing model tries to circumvent the flywheel to FOMO people to push SPS price for a couple weeks before the inevitable decline. Well, I guess those buying now to dump at 0.1425 will be happy along with those selling SPS all the time anyway.
Yes, we all want to see a higher SPS price, sure, but the reality is, the SPS discount forces everyone to swap for SPS first and if they don't, they simply pay more for the same product. It is a completely unnecessary imbalancing of asset values in the ecosystem, when the exact same could be achieved by simply pricing everything equally. Nothing stops the DAO from accepting all currencies and then just swap except for the LP fees. All it does is create a very high fee for paying in the wrong currency and what makes it even worse, the proposal even suggests that it wants USDC, so why punish people for paying with it.
They are priced equally...
The only imbalance is that the current price of SPS is allowing for a discount...
I do not understand how this is complicated.
5000 DEC
5000 Credits
1400 SPS (current price is allowing for a discount)
There is no "discount" only a variance in market valuation and thus the incentive to spend the SPS, so the DAO gets a buttload of SPS for the Reward Pool.
Only pay in dec, the rest of it I support.
Question: Will there be any outside marketing and if so who will be funding it, SPS DAO or Splinterlands?
Edit: And can we get rid of GF Variants.
I mean, they're already asking for like a million dollars.
The dhf paid already for splinterlands marketing
Ok so it looks pretty straightforward with a minor oversight that people are making:
Use SPS Token to receive Discount and thus add value to SPS Token (increasing demand and price)
By giving "discount via SPS...", this will encourage the purchaser to use SPS as their primary token of purchase up to roughly $.01425 per SPS...
-- I think most people have made the mistake of focusing on the "discount via SPS" and their brain blocked out the second half of the sentence "... at current market prices"...
This should effectively put enormous buy pressure on $SPS up to $.01425... or almost double what we are at now
The goal is to generate funds for the Reward Pool - SPS being the Token rewarded thus the pay option in SPS
Once $SPS reaches/passes $.01425 then DEC/Credits/USDC would become equal purchasing options and allow for accumulation of other Tokens with accumulation of USDC allowing the DAO to generate Stablecoin Revenue WITHOUT SELLING $SPS AND REDUCING THE VALUE OF IT or spending $SPS (which it will need for the Reward Pools).
My conclusion: Unless I missed the mark on any of this, this seems like a brilliant move to increase the value of our Token and refill the SPS Reward Buckets...
My only hope/thought/wish: Of the packs given to the DAO, I would love, love, LOVE to see them take a % of those packs... and use them for "Jackpot" Rewards!
They could even livestream opening a portion of them and then using those individual cards at random as smaller "Jackpot" Rewards. After livestreaming, post a Peak'd article with the link to the video and the link to Pack Opening for Blockchain Verification
All in all - this seems like a great idea for a mini set and I think it will drive the price of SPS and DEC up :)
Great proposal, I’m definitely in favor.
The addition of SPS and USDC as payment options is excellent for strengthening both the DAO treasury and token utility.
However, one crucial improvement compared to CA would be to introduce a proper dashboard in the shop page showing:
Why?
Because this is not just transparency, it’s marketing.
Clear numbers create hype, generate trust, and spark FOMO (“packs are running out, I need mine now”). In CA this information was hidden behind manual calculations after the presale, and it made the sale feel less engaging without the opportunity to see directly the number of each individidual day.
With such a limited supply of packs, a live sales tracker could make the difference between a normal sale and a frenzy.
Thank you for the cool suggestions @meredorn!
Love the "Dashboard" idea Meredorn!
Are we getting to the profitable point where share holders can start getting a quarterly piece of the action or a piece of the action when there is a profit as part of a profit share to give additional returns on investments? Or how in the future will investors be compensated as profits and cash flow can be easily changed by giving bonus etc or accruing expenses or doing other things to zero out the profits which works great for employee shareholders but does not do much for investors.
Is there a level in the business health where part of the fees paid to SMC will go to dividends and be backed into the compensation as its how we would get a ROI on sales and fees since that is how SMC makes money is either through some sort of dividend or dividends paid when ever we have a profitable sale.
Why is the set so small in terms of print numbers? It's half of what was available in the CA presale.
I'd love to see a higher print run if we want to seriously refill the DAO! If feel we are selling ourselves short.
Also if we want to fill the DAO with USDC shouldn't that be priced a bit better than DEC? I think it is unlikely that we will sell much in USDC if DEC can be used at the same price point or better.
Espeically with how low the current print run is planned to be!
I'm shocked to see how many people are voting Yes for this. To me, it's a clear no, as there already are way too many cards in the game. All this will do is suck more value out of existing cards and move it elsewhere creating more and more card fatigue.
Also, how come the team can design the Foundation cards just like that but needs to be paid 1.2 Billion DEC for this. DEC is below peg and having more of it recycled into the system won't help to get it back to where it should be.
None of it makes any sense, the game needs a full card print stop and an actual new game mode (that isn't the same copy-paste pay2win game mode). It needs to be fun and give back real utility and value to cards.How To Fix Everything in Splinterlands
"Also, how come the team can design the Foundation cards just like that but needs to be paid 1.2 Billion DEC for this"
This is actually a REALLY interesting point...
No, because SPS purchase option.
Edit: plus too many cards
Thank you for your witness vote!
Have a !BEER on me!
To Opt-Out of my witness beer program just comment STOP below
Here you go guys, a more detailed breakdown to help understand: THERE IS NO "DISCOUNT" for buying in $SPS...
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@captaindingus/create-demand-price-follows-dollarsps-soon-to-hit-dollar01425-if-my-guess-is-right
Has the price of alchemy packs changed? If so why ? Tia
I voted against this in protest. Not because I believe a miniset is bad or because I don't want the team and DAO to have income. But because I continue to believe we should not be expanding the pool of assets every time we come out with something new.
Mini sets used to be a way to soak up and burn excess DEC. They were a fun way to bring balance back to the economy. Now every new release just dilutes the asset pool further.
5% of the packs should only be available by burning 25-50x worth of old card CP that is expected to be in a new pack. Even at 50x that's a discount on new packs. It would barely affect revenue but it would be massively card negative. Millions of cards gone overnight, giving us a much healthier economy.
Indeed, it baffles me that only a few of us have been hammering on this fundamental problem for years, yet nobody in a position to actually do something seems to understand while it's so obvious.
You all need to stop making so many damn cards and start returning value to older cards and get trading, renting buy and selling back on the table. Those fees generated will be what fuels the company then. This constantly selling and devaluing everything has got to stop.
Casting a vote of no on this to be more in favor on better groundwork of economics of the game over some pretty designed cards. Learn from the mistakes of 2020-2021 don't repeat them.
This exactly, everything now is done with an eye to bring some instant short-term benefits to the game, but it will all turn out as future sins of the past since they are making exactly the same mistakes that took years to recover from.
Interesting! I do like the idea of the DAO increasing its position in SPS and stablecoins. Will this take the current Rebellion cards out of Modern mode?
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