What is Enjin Coin?
Last Updated: 1st November 2018
Enjin Coin is an Ethereum based token and smart contract platform that aims to facilitate the creation and development of game content and virtual economies. Using Enjin Coin, game developers, content creators and gaming communities can implement and manage virtual goods, therefore, providing the means by which individuals can bring about the creation of numerous virtual gaming ecosystems.
Enjin Coin and all virtual assets on the platform will be deployed as ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Enjin Coin also leverages a collection of smart contracts to provide a set of core functionalities, these contracts include: The Mint, Payment Gateway Contract, Subscription Contract, Custom Coin Registry, and TopList Contracts.
Virtual Goods & Minting Custom Coins
With Enjin Coin serving as the parent currency, users on the platform can create and manage virtual goods such as: in-game items, currencies and privilege tokens. These virtual goods can also be converted back into Enjin Coins at any time, and at the original exchange rate at which the coins were minted.
The Mint smart contract also allows for the minting of custom coins, provided that the following parameters for a custom asset are fulfilled:
- Name
- Icon
- Maximum Supply
- Decimal Places
- Exchange Rate
- Access List
- Data
Once a custom coin is created, a Mint contract will be cloned and registered in the Registry smart contract. By doing this, it allows for the custom coin to be recognizable by all Smart Wallets. Any individual that has been permitted access to the custom coin, under the access list parameter, would now be able to mint the coin. It must also be noted that the properties of a custom coin, such as the name and icon, can be updated at any time by the Mint contract owner.
The Enjin wallet allows users to exchange custom coins back into Enjin Coins when they wish. This is possible because a custom coin’s Mint contract stores all the Enjin Coins that have been used to mint that custom coin. Also, custom assets that are created using Enjin coins will result in a decrease in the number of Enjin Coins in circulation.
Custom Coins & Game Items
The process of minting custom coins using Enjin Coins are also applicable to the creation of unique game items on the platform. In this instance, Enjin Coins are used to mint one or more custom coins representing a game item that has economic value linked to it.
With unique items, they can be considered as being non-fungible in a virtual gaming ecosystem. Thus, unique attributes of items can be reflected by including unique data to them, such as the original player who owns the item, the boss monster it was looted from, or any other irreproducible piece of data that is linked to that item.
Because Enjin makes use of decentralized digital assets, users can trade with others outside of the virtual gaming environment in which that asset originated, and can even also trade and establish value across multiple different games. Custom coins is also compatible with any external digital asset exchange that supports Ether.
Custom coins can also be created to function as privilege tokens, which can serve as a powerful delegation tool. For example, a custom ‘Chest Key’ token could be required to open chests containing rare items.
The Enjin Smart Wallet
The Enjin Wallet is intended to make interacting on the Enjin platform as easy and seamless as possible. The Enjin Wallet achieves this by directly integrating with games and websites that users trust. User accounts that have been created on various trusted platforms will be synced to the user’s Ethereum address.
The following Enjin Wallet functionalities are intended to bring about an easy and seamless experience for the user:
- The Platform API is used to correlate verified gaming and website accounts.
- Transaction Requests are sent from trusted platforms directly to the wallet.
- Subscriptions are confirmed and managed by each local wallet.
- Transaction limits and thresholds enforced by the wallet’s smart contract.
- Smart contracts are used in the background for data and displayed in a user interface.
- Local rules can be set up for accepting and automating Transaction Requests.
Subscriptions
The Enjin Wallet allows for the creation of subscription services. Users are able to provide time-based services, such as power-ups, or unlocked website content for all users that are subscribed.
An Enjin subscription involves 3 parties:
- Subscriber – The customer with an Enjin Wallet installed, with a balance of Enjin Coins.
- Merchant – An account with permissions to withdraw from the Subscription Smart Contract.
- Trusted Platform – The API that creates the subscription terms between a merchant and subscriber, and pushes this as a Subscription Request to the subscriber’s wallet.
The Subscription Request that is sent to a potential subscriber’s Enjin Wallet, once accepted, will initiate a smart contract relationship between the now subscribed individual and merchant.
Escrow for Virtual Items & Trading Platform
The Enjin platform also leverages an escrow system using smart contracts, which allows multiple parties to engage in trading any number of game items and currencies safely.
An example trade between users that are utilizing the escrow system would function in the following way:
Bob wishes to trade with Alice, and so will initiate a contract; the token type that is to be accepted as payment will be determined. Alice can check the contract that has been initiated by Bob, and send tokens that are accepted as a form of payment to the escrow contract. Upon receiving the tokens, the items that Bob is selling in exchange for the tokens will now be released to Alice.
Top Lists
Enjin also features a tool known as TopLists, which allow users to rank games, servers, teams and any other item. TopLists will be deployed as a decentralized smart contract with functionalities that will allow for market bidding or democratic voting. List creators are incentivized to promote and market their list because these creators will receive tokens when users perform tasks such as voting on their list.
The Future of Enjin Coin
Enjin Coin is an ambitious project that aims to integrate online virtual gaming with decentralized technologies. Enjin Coin project promises a lot, and it is only with the passage of time that we will able to see if it can deliver on those promises.
