The Play-to-Earn (P2E) economy continues to expand. The popularity and adoption of titles like ‘Axie Infinity‘ paved the way for an explosion in this gaming niche. With the P2E ecosystem growing rapidly, there’s some concern about a lack of connectivity between projects.
Merit Circle promises to change all of this. This project offers real utility to the P2E space, bringing a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to develop play-to-earn opportunities for devs that want to add to the expanding metaverse.
This post unpacks everything you need to know about Merit Circle. We’ll look at what makes the project so interesting to the P2E economy and the native token, ‘MC’ used on the platform. Are you ready? Let’s dive in.
Where to Buy Merit Circle MC
This section is our top picks of where and how to buy the Merit Circle MC Crypto token. We chose these based on our experience of using them and considered fees, security, payment options and reputation.
- Binance: Largest Crypto Exchange with Low Fees
- Kraken: Highly Regarded and Easy to Use for Beginners
- Gate: Great Exchange for Newbies & Advanced Users
Visit The Top Pick
Binance: Largest Crypto Exchange
Binance is the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trade volumes. Cryptocurrency investors can enjoy full access to trade over 600 crypto assets, including big movers like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most of the top cryptos. With a minimum deposit of $10, investors can instantly start investing their crypto of choice.
Besides its large inventory of crypto assets, Binance also offers the lowest trade fees in the market. Binance charges 0.1% on all trades, and there’s an option for this figure to be further discounted by 25% for investors who hold Binance Coin – the exchange’s native token.
Funding your Binance account is seamless and straightforward. The exchange supports several deposit channels, including bank wire transfers, peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, credit/debit cards, and payment processors.
However, unlike eToro – deposits are not always free. For instance, Binance charges customers a standard fee of up to 4.50% on all crypto purchases made with debit/credit cards. Crypto deposits, on the other hand, are free.
This popular crypto exchange features a detailed learning curve and advanced trading tools, making it more suited for well-experienced traders and not beginners.
In terms of security, Binance offers the best security integrations. This broker features two-factor authentication (2FA), whitelisting, and advanced data encryption to protect customer funds and data. Also, Binance utilizes cold storage to store a vast majority of its funds, and the exchange also operates an insurance fund that protects customers in the event of an attack.
Pros
- Lowest trading fees in the market
- High liquidity on most cryptos
- Advanced trading tools
- Large crypto inventory
- Wide range of deposit channels
Cons
- Not beginner-friendly
Kraken: A Leading & Well Regarded Exchange
Kraken is one of the longest established exchanges with an excellent reputation for security and integrity.
Started back in 2011 they have built a great reputation among traders and beginners alike and offer high liquidity and lots of different cryptocurrency listings.
Kraken is trusted by some of the largest institutions and traders around the world and can handle high volume trading with ease.
They have lots of coin pairs to trade and also offer withdrawals back to fiat in your currency of choice.
We have no hesitation in recommending Kraken for your trading needs.
Pros
- High Liquidity
- Great Reputation
- Well Established
- Easy to Use
- Fiat Options
Cons
- The KYC process can take a little while
Gate.io: Good Platform With Huge Range
Gate was established in 2017 and has maintained a good reputation since then among experienced traders and beginners alike.
They offer one of the largest ranges of crypto coins and tokens available, currently standing at over 1400 different assets to trade.
The site is secure and easy to use with some nice extra protections such as trading passwords, 2 factor authentication and so on.
There is a mobile app available and their web platform is fast and easy to use.
Gate also offers a lot of other options to trade on the platform such as NFTs, P2P trading, Futures, Leveraged tokens and also some earning options.
Pros
- Huge range of crypto to trade
- Simple & Easy to Use
- reasonable trading fees
- Mobile App Available
Cons
- No Fiat Options
- Not Regulated
What is Merit Circle?
Merit Circle is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) developing play-to-earn (P2E) opportunities in the metaverse. The Merit Circle platform achieves its goal by hosting educational opportunities and scholarships while providing the strategy and network players need to be effective P2E gamers.
The Merit Circle DAO comprises a mainDAO governing several subDAOs functioning across the P2E economy. Independent parties maintain the DAO protocol through governance driven by holders of MC tokens.
Merit Circle comprises the following components.
- MainDAO – The MainDAO functions as the ‘ecosystem’ DAO, reaching into all subDAOs under the umbrella of the MainDAO. Staking MC in the MainDAO allows users to vote on future subDAO.
- SubDAO – The subDAOs under the mainDAO represent a game within the P2E economy.
- Vaults – The vaults are strategies deployed by subDAOs to generate income. All profits made by the vaults flow to stakeholders.
Merit Circle Investments
The introduction of Web 3.0 technology saw a massive spike in adoption in 2020 and 2021. Web 3.0 changed the gaming industry forever, providing entertaining games that come with a financial reward incentive for players and investors.
Since its launch, the Merit Circle DAO has invested in several projects in the P2E space. The DAO took on the challenge of creating a treasury consisting of tokens, ventures, yield-farming, and NFT investments. The idea is to have the treasury perform like a mutual fund, with the goal of improving risk-adjusted returns over the long term. This structure serves the promotion of Merit Circle gaming DAO, expanding its footprint and influence in the market.
Merit Circle Gaming
The gaming industry has seen huge changes in the last three years. We’ve seen several P2E projects, like Axie Infinity, dominate the space. However, it’s important to note that decentralized gaming wouldn’t exist without the conventional gaming world.
The Merit Circle team states it aims to maintain its focus on building its foundation and scaling games in sustainable ecosystems. The DAO intends to actively assist members worldwide by allowing them to secure their financial position using P2E technology.
Merit Circle states it intends to focus on this vertical to support and partner with sustainable, creative games that are fun to play and offer a financial reward for the player.
Merit Circle Studios
The Merit Circle DAO is a key industry player in the P2E space. It’s obligated to contribute to the P2E economy on a large scale. Merit Circle Studios is an example of an industry partnership between the Merit Circle DAO and industry veterans in gaming.
Merit Circle Studios will be the platform hosting and incubating future creative projects and games. The Merit Circle team states that, from the beginning of the project, they were gathering considerable knowledge and experience in marketing, in-game economies, game development, organizational efforts, and platform governance.
Merit Circle Marketplace
In development is the The Merit Circle Marketplace which results from the huge demand in the NFT space in 2021. NFTs are a huge part of the online gaming experience, especially in P2E gaming titles. The Merit Circle Marketplace aims to take away the centralized dominance of a few players in the market.
The Merit Circle NFT Marketplace sets a new industry standard for digital asset trading. The Merit Circle team’s experience in decentralized gaming gives them the knowledge they need to fill the gap in the NFT market for a sustainable, decentralized trading platform for digital assets.
Merit Circle MC Token
The Merit Circle Token (MC) is the token governing the Merit Circle ecosystem. It’s an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain. This utility token powers all transactions on the Merit Circle platform, including governance issues.
There’s a total supply of one billion MC tokens, with the token allocation occurring per the following distribution protocol. 29.4% of MC tokens go to community incentives on the Merit Circle Platform. Teams and advisors get 20% of the allocation, and the DAO treasury receives 15%. Early investors receive a 14.1% allocation, while 10% goes to liquidity rewards and 4% to retroactive rewards, with the final 7.5% going to public distribution.
MC Token Sales
Merit Circle issued a public sale of MC tokens in early November 2021. The team used a Balancer Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (BLBP) to host the sale. The structure allows for a fair deal, with all participants being able to secure tokens instead of bots.
The public sale of MC tokens started on November 2, 2021, ending on November 5, 2021. Users could log onto Copperlaunch.com to acquire their MC tokens, with the opening price being $1 per MC token. However, by the end of the sale, the tokens were listed at the cost of $0.0433 per MC token.
The initial MC liquidity pool hosted 75,000,000 MC, including a 7.5% allocation for public sale. During the launch, users had to convert ERC-20 tokens into MC tokens. That required using ETH to cover the fees, and Copperlaunch supports ETH, USDT, USDC, and DAI.
The seed sale of MC tokens raised $4.5 million for 140,625,000 MC, accounting for 14.06% of the token supply. The mainDAO managed to raise $105.6 million in the Balancer Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool, managed by Copperlaunch, for 41,020,000 MC, or 4.1% of the total MC supply. The DAO treasury holds these funds.
MC Token Distribution Schedule
The MC token distribution schedule pays according to the following structure and schedule.
Community Incentives require a vesting period of 36 months, with token distribution requiring approval by the DAO and treasury. Teams and advisors face a 12-month cliff and a vesting period of 42 months following the cliff. The DAO Treasury requires a vesting period of 36 months, with tokens only distributed on approval of a proposal.
Early investors into Merit Circle face a six-month cliff, followed by a 36-month vesting period. There is a 12-month cliff after claiming liquidity rewards. All tokens distributed in public sales will not require a vesting period.
Retroactive rewards receive a 10% allocation with an 18-month vesting period. The allocation and distribution schedule ensures the long-term commitment of investors, consultants, and the management team to Merit Circle.
Use Cases for MC Tokens
Merit circle is a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) investing in the Play-to-Earn (P2E) space. Players can collaborate with the DAO to create education and tooling players can use to increase in-game earnings on any platform.
In 2022 Q1, Merit Circle added functionality allowing players and managers to play through the Merit Circle dashboard.
This functionality provides the Merit Circle meta-game experience for users. It offers gamers challenges and rewards layered into the game they’re playing. This structure allows users to play two games simultaneously while earning rewards from both platforms.
MC token offers the following functionality to users.
Governance
Holders of MC tokens earn the right to vote on governance issues on the Merit Circle platform. Governance issues include voting on future changes or additions to the Merit Circle platform or protocol.
Play-to-Earn (P2E) index
Merit Circle is a DAO comprising several smaller subDAOs operating specific games. The profits generated by operating subDAOs create revenue for the mainDAO. The mainDAO maintains the finances and acquires other gaming, NFT, or yield-farming projects. Holding MC tokens allows the user to access various games and rare NFTs.
Staking
Users who stake MC tokens receive MC tokens as rewards. Merit Circle connects several game projects. Therefore, staking your MC tokens entitles you to receive special offers and incentives from partners.
Early Access to NFT Projects
Holders of MC tokens get early access to NFT drops from native NFTs to the Merit Circle platform and its partners.
Platform Rewards
Merit circle intends to offer product discounts and platform rewards for MC token holders. These rewards will be proportionate to the number of MC tokens the user holds.
Merit Circle Roadmap
The Merit Circle roadmap is nearing completion. The project’s first three phases ended in Q4 2021, Q1, and Q2 2022. As of Q3 2022, the team is busy rolling out the subDAOs, its on-chain voting mechanism, and subDAO weighted staking.
After finishing this section of the roadmap, the team will move on to creating brand leverage, implementing the marketing strategy to attract eSports teams, sponsor players, and develop NFT deals and liquid vaults.
Merit Circle Team, Partners, and Investors
The Merit Circle team was introduced by the founders of the 420 Scholarship program on ‘Axie Infinity.’ The primary sponsor is Flow Ventures, a fund dedicated to creating an early investment into startups with good potential.
This combination of the factors mentioned brings the platform excellent financial resources while securing the experience and expertise it needs for its future development.
Merit Circle completed a seed fundraising round in October 2021, raising $4.5 million in capital for developing the Merit Circle ecosystem. The team received funds from high-level investors and VCs like Mechanism Capital, DeFiance Capital, Maven11, Spartan Group, Bitscale Capital, and OP Crypto.
The project also benefitted from several angel investors’ involvement. Since securing its seed round investment, Merit Circle has received plenty of attention from large funds and projects interested in the project. Some of the biggest inquiries come from the Axie Infinity team and CoinGecko.
All investors in the Merit circle have years of industry experience and expertise. Therefore, they’re only interested in investing in long-term projects they feel have value to the P2E economy and Web 3.0 as a whole.
The majority of partners involved with Merit Circle come from the gaming industry. For instance, Merit Circle partners with ‘Cyball’ to push its P2E football game to the masses.
Other partners like Nyan Heroes, Sipher, UFO Gaming, and Vulcan Forged are a few of the high-quality companies involved with the Merit Circle project.
In Closing
Merit Circle is a promising technology offering real value to the P2E gaming space. Its unique approach to enhancing the gaming experience will bring more users into the P2E gaming space and more interest in its economy.
With P2E gaming continuing to explode, we feel there is a huge opportunity for Merit Circle users and investors in the coming years.
As the P2E industry expands, projects like Merit Circle will be in high demand. However, with the crypto winter limiting risk-on mode in investors, we wait to see how the team will approach the market during the next few years.
