Introducing ICCO: An Interview With Nekoverse CEO Leo Nguyen Discussing DeFi’s Newest Token Model

1. Hi! Thank you for joining us today. We’re quite intrigued by this project you’re building and would like to know more about your background and how you came up with the idea for Nekoverse. 

Hi! I am Leo Nguyen, thank you for having me on board. Well! I have to begin by saying I had quite the unique start to my career and got the opportunity to work with some exciting companies before starting one of my own. I have a Master of Science in Economic and Business Administration and Strategy and Entreprenuership. Soon after graduation, I began my career as an associate at Nexus Group, an M&A advisory firm. Then, I took upon the role of an associate at Velocity Ventures Vietnam, where I had the opportunity to closely work with budding startups. 

Following this, I had the wonderful opportunity to was a Business Intelligence Lead at DTX Asia.  

And, this is when, emerging digital asset and blockchain gaming space soon caught my attention. I was quite intrigued by the sheer number of possibilities with blockchain gaming and  explored quite a few emerging projects in this realm. This is when I realized that most projects were quick to adopt the play-to-earn model without actually providing an interesting game backdrop or satisfying gameplay for gamers. 

So, I came up with the idea for Nekoverse to adopt the play-to-earn model while still upholding the user experience and thrilling gameplays that gamers are used to. 

2. Online gaming is a widely successful industry that has billions of players and thousands of successful titles. Considering this, how do you think the emergent blockchain-based games can carve out a niche for themselves here? What universally appealing factors do you think blockchain gaming brings to the table?   

I think the universally appealing factor for blockchain gaming is the play-to-earn model. Yes! The traditional gaming space is extremely successful, but for decades, gamers have not been able to directly monetize their gameplay. Blockchain gaming, on the other hand, effortlessly rewards gamers for the time spent on the platform and allows them to monetize their efforts in multiple ways. Moreover, blockchain-based gaming titles are community-owned. Users have a say in the development of the game and their progress along with in-game resources are permanently theirs. 

3. Speaking of Nekoverse, please give us an insight into the backdrop and gameplay within this universe? How does Nekoverse stand out from existing NFT-Metaverse titles?

Nekoverse is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game (MMORPG) that is housed on the Solana blockchain. The virtual world is governed by three mythical Gods who are the creators of the three different Neko elements. To enter the Nekoverse players are required to own a Neko NFT which acts as their character within the world. Each Neko has its unique attributes and when combined with elements produces new Neko breeds. 

Within the universe, players choose professions like farming, breeding, or necromancing to harvest resources and unlock rare items. Players are free to interact with others and explore the world on their own while engaging in PvE and PvP battles to win real monetary benefits. Nekoverse stands out from a majority of the NFT-gaming projects by providing not just a simple play-to-earn model but also an intriguing gaming experience to go with it.

4. The most interesting thing about your platform is the new token offering model that you’ve introduced. When the existing models like ICOs and IDOs have proven to be quite successful, what prompted you to introduce a new model? What loopholes, if any, do you see in the existing token offering models?

The main problem with ICOs and IDOs is the fact that they’re not designed to directly benefit users who contribute to the platform. IDOs especially offer smaller token sales which tend to get easily oversubscribed for popular projects. The projects usually tend to limit the number of users with pre-arranged whitelists that only a select set of people can subscribe to. This inhibits a large number of community members from leveraging this opportunity and we wanted to create a change. 

This is why we’ve introduced the Initial Community Contribution Offering (ICCO) to capture the value of a community and redistribute it to benefit all active contributors.  

5. Walk us through the ICCO token offering model and how it captures the value of the community. What is the eligibility criteria and who do you think benefits the most from this model?

ICCO has four core token claiming concepts to ensure that all different types of contributors in the ecosystem benefit from their participation.

The first of these concepts is the Contribute-to-Earn System and it is designed for users who contribute towards the development of the Nekoverse platform. These users are poised to receive real monetary benefits for their participation in the platform’s growth. The Pseudo Token concept is the second on the list and it rewards active participants of our Discord server with the Anima Spirit Fragment ($ASF) token. 

The third element in this new ICCO approach is the On-Chain token and it is how Nekoverse will distribute the native and official in-game token $ASG to its users. This coin can be exchanged on CEXs and utilized as a medium of exchange within the Nekoverse. As a final straw, we have the Conversion Mechanics between Pseudo Token & On-chain Token. Through this concept, Nekoverse provides a way for users to convert the pseudo-ASF tokens to ASG tokens. 

Our main aim is to distribute the ASG tokens to users who will actually use them within the gaming metaverse. This is why contributors are required to own at least 1 Neko NFT  and be verified members of the Discord server to become eligible for the ICCO token offering model. 

6. Despite its immense success in the past few years, the blockchain-gaming space has miles to go before mainstream adoption. What significant problems do you think stand in the path of the industry’s growth? 

I think one of the main hindrances to the growth of blockchain gaming is the user experience on present-day blockchains. Players who are used to the webscale speeds and graphics with online gaming are struggling to make peace with the speeds on popular blockchain networks. In such cases, the gameplay and the gaming experience both suffer. 

Even simple games like CryptoKitties have managed to break the underlying blockchain networks with a sudden influx of users. So, for mass adoption to unfold with respect to blockchain gaming, there is a dire need for networks that solve the scalability issues and I believe chains like Solana have taken the right step in that direction. 

7. Lastly before we go, what advice would you like to give investors eyeing the blockchain-gaming industry? 

With the pace at which blockchain gaming is growing, I believe in the near future decentralized play-to-earn titles will be at the forefront of the global gaming scene. So, I believe investors have an excellent opportunity to benefit from the growth of these early-stage projects today. Investing in the right kind of blockchain-gaming projects will definitely help investors claim a significant portion of the profit pie in the near future.