Leon Zorin

DeFi Kingdoms (JEWEL) is a browser-based blockchain game combining several DeFi elements in an intriguing and compelling way. Its gameplay elements merge together a DEX, an NFT marketplace, and a liquidity pool all under an umbrella of fantasy pixel art, giving the game its trademark combination of DeFi and retro game design. In this fashion, the team behind DeFi Kingdoms wants to “embrace the full potential of the blockchain in game form” and create synergies between gaming and decentralized finance.

In its roadmap, the DeFi Kingdoms game has completed the first three of six phases at the time of writing. So far, the team has released:

The game interface and the DEX that is based on the Uniswap V2 Protocol.

The JEWEL token.

The game’s “Hero” NFTs and quests.

A world map expansion of the purchasable in-game land called Kingdom Plots.

Further on, the developers plan to launch land building features for the Kingdom Plots and equipment for the Hero NFTs, as well as several gameplay modes for the heroes to earn JEWEL tokens.

The DeFi Kingdoms team consists of 12 people, although this cannot be verified since the team section in the game’s Docs has been removed. All members of the team have remained anonymous, a common feature in community-driven projects as the examples of SushiSwap and LooksRare show. However, several team members can still be found through various AMA sessions the team engaged in:

Frisky Fox, Solidity and React Developer God

Professor Tango, Dev Project Manager

Jericho Splendershoes, Technical writer and developer in charge of Game Mechanics and Tokenomics

Tadakichi, a game developer with 10+ years of game developing

Sinstar Necro, Lead Team Design and lore writing

Furthermore, the game’s code can be checked on GitHub and in AMAs. The team has outlined several trust-building measures, including the exclusive use of multi-signature wallets and vesting on JEWEL tokens.

First and foremost, DeFi Kingdoms stands out thanks to the clever integration of DeFi functionality with game elements. In contrast to countless other games incorporating similar features, the combination of financialization and gaming feels natural on DeFi Kingdoms. This is aided by the several key features of DeFi Kingdoms.

Its decentralized exchange uses the Uniswap V2 Protocol and allows players to swap tokens and become a liquidity provider to earn fees on token swaps.

LP tokens can also be staked in The Gardens, where players can receive more JEWEL for buying rare NFTs and other items. The Gardens are visualized in a unique way through different plants and crops the players have to tend to and harvest to receive their rewards. Each garden is a unique LP pairing and harvested yield is deposited in the storehouse. Based on a player’s total stake in a specific garden, gardening heroes earn JEWEL and increase the rewards of gardening with the help of mining heroes.

Heroes in DeFi Kingdoms are more than standard NFTs, as they are playable characters that can earn JEWEL and level up. Being one of the game's key features, they are assigned to go on quests and battle in different gameplay modes. Heroes are bought and sold in The Tavern and new heroes can be summoned in by combining genes from old heroes to create an entirely new, potentially extremely rare, NFTs. Furthermore, players will be able to equip their heroes with various equipment NFTs, enabling them to have special passive and active abilities. Quests that heroes can go on will allow them to gather in-game resources and JEWEL to increase their farming yields from The Gardens. Finally, heroes will even have the option to have pets.

Players can also buy land plots in DeFi Kingdoms. These plots will differ based on their location, in turn providing a different quantity of resources. In the future, you will also have the option to build on your lands to increase bonuses for your farming and your heroes. Owning land will also enable players to forage and find new valuable resources for their heroes.

JEWEL is the game’s governance token and utility token. Players can spend their JEWEL on leveling up their hero or buying new NFTs, or they can stake it to receive xJEWEL and benefit from token swap fees and quest rewards. The total supply of JEWEL is 500 million according to the following distribution:

30% — Quest Reward Pool

25% — Developer Fund: funds game development and expenses

17% — Founder Wallet: team allocation based on milestones

17% — Marketing

10% — Staking rewards

All funds are secured by a 3-of-4 multisig contract controlled by several founding members. Tokens are subject to an undefined vesting schedule. In addition to the token distribution above, 10 million JEWEL have been pre-minted and distributed as follows:

• 5,000,000 JEWEL: game development
• 2,000,000 JEWEL: promotion and marketing
• 2,000,000 JEWEL: liquidity
• 1,000,000 JEWEL bounties

DeFi Kingdoms is built on Harmony One, a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain with sharding. Using a verifiable Random Function (VRF) for unbiased and unpredictable shard membership, Harmony can significantly reduce node validation times and deliver better performance than rivaling PoS or proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains.