[230224] Proposal for Improvements for Sustainable Mainnet - In Pursuit of Sustainable Protocol

** You can find the same article posted on our Medium*
Link: [9C Announcement] In Pursuit of Sustainable Protocol 👼 | by Nine Chronicles | Feb, 2023 | Medium

[ Abstract ]

This proposal includes suggestions and plans for additional rules to ensure the sustainability and health of the Nine Chronicles’ protocol against abnormal activities, such as having an advantage in Nine Chronicles by owning multiple accounts in areas where the mainnet has unfortunately been unable to respond due to its openness.

Of the methods we are proposing, one involves utilizing the Transfer Asset action to curb those who, with or without intention, disrupt the Nine Chronicles’ tokenomics with abnormal activities. Another method includes the first stage of proposing solutions to the needless accumulation of undesirable Transactions due to the lack of a default fee for Transactions on the mainnet.

[ Motivation ]

There are various types of abnormal account behaviors in Nine Chronicles.

  • Accounts that repeatedly register and cancel large quantities of items in the shop and prevent other users’ transactions from executing normally by sending a large number of transactions in a short time (especially during recent arena seasons).
  • Accounts that generate profits by employing multiple sub-accounts to take advantage of the crystal grinding bonus rate of the NCG staking, Monster Collection. Then, funneling their profits back into specific accounts.

These various patterns negatively impact the network or token economics system, as these transactions are by-products exploiting non-existent transaction fees and openness of actions. Therefore, after repeated requests from the community and internal deliberation, we have decided to propose and implement additional rules to ensure the protocol’s sustainability.

[ Rational ]

This proposal is not intended to be a document aimed at special voting but is intended to be a document written to inform users of the reasons for our actions, the actions which will take place, and our ongoing efforts.

[ Action ]

Change in TransferAsset Action

  • Conditions for ‘Crystal Transfer’ via ‘TransferAsset’ action to be added (scheduled for update v100370)
    • Crystal transfer will only be possible from designated addresses.
    • The designated address will only be able to process transactions agreed upon with the community.
  • Additional fee to be added for transferring NCG TransferAsset action (scheduled for update v100380)
    • Regardless of the amount being transferred, 0.5 NCG will be deducted as a fee for the TransferAsset action (transfers of 0.5 NCG or more will be processed).
    • This fee is expected to serve as a means of deterring and tracking down abnormal account behaviors, which involve withdrawing small amounts of funds in bulk.

AP Cost to be added for Shop-related actions during gameplay (scheduled for update v100380)

  • Registering, cancelation, and batch re-registering from the shop will cost a small portion of AP(Action Points)
  • This cost is intended to deter actions that burden the network and maintain a healthier network state by adding costs to all actions.
  • However, the design for optimizing user actions that do not consider costs, such as batch re-registration and individual cancellation, will be continuously updated to prevent inconvenience to players due to increased costs.

Adjustment of various reward sizes in the Onboarding Portal (scheduled for next month)

  • Among various rewards in the Onboarding Portal, daily rewards will be changed in terms of eligibility and reward amount.
  • We will continuously monitor abnormal patterns and adjust the Onboarding Portal access rights and revenue sharing for those accounts in order to provide the best rewards to players.
  • All rewards from the Onboarding Portal are subject to changes without prior notice.
1 Like

I strongly support measures to make the blockchain stronger for better gaming experiences. However, I don’t think that charging AP fees for all actions will help reduce network attacks. I thank it only change th way they attack the network.
Instead of using a single account to attack, they have to use more accounts. If they have 1000 accounts, each with 120 AP every 5 hours, they can almost continuously spam transactions whole day if the transaction fee is 1 AP.

In my opinion, the biggest problem now is that there are too many ways to perform transactions, such as OC, GraphQL, mod, and other tools, which leads to the existence of bots and other destructive behaviors. If all transactions are created only from the original game client, I think the problem will certainly be solved.
In addition, the availability of mods and automated gaming tools makes gaming too easy, and the in-game items lose their value over time. Why do we need mods when, if they are necessary features, they shouldn’t be updated into the OC version directly? If not, then it’s best for everyone to use the same game client.
Mobile version will will be release soon, but who would want to play on mobile when using a PC with mods or tools provides too many advantages?

What is your goal, making a game or making a blockchain? If you are making a game, I think you need to make it more closed to reduce destructive behavior. Of course, your project is still open source, and someone who can do better can build a new game to play. But that doesn’t mean that the game should be open and easy to exploit like this.
I think you have seen this problem for a long time, but it seems that the action to keep a clean environment for honest players is a bit slow.

1 Like

These seem to be steps towards the right direction. Really glad to see improvements that will further solidify the longevity of the blockchain.

One suggestion that came up and might be worth exploring regarding the ‘AP cost for market actions’ is if players who stake more than 500 NCG should be included in this change. I’m assuming that a lot of these measures are targeted towards accounts with very little stake in the game. It seems highly unlikely that a person who has staked a decent amount of NCG is going to knowingly take actions that are aimed towards harming the ecosystem and the health of the chain.

Moreover, after said update, it would be another incentive to stake your NCG to improve your gameplay experience.

Hoping that this is something you would consider

1 Like