The Power of Avalanche Subnets: How Avalanche Subnets affect and improve the GameFi Industry

The Gaming ecosystem emerged during 2020 amidst the bull run where the ecosystem gained an interest in the majority of the web3 users as a new system had been adopted where games can be played to earn incentives and gains for participation.

For higher sustainability in the ecosystem of play-to-earn, the DeFi ecosystem had to have an overlap of economic structure for functionalities in the gaming ecosystem.

Hence, despite the uprising and the attention popular games like Axie Infinity gained, web3 games experienced a lesser adoption in the long run as most of their tokenomics structure failed due to most games cloning the popular Axie Infinity without successful bootstrapping and other metrics like high inflation of utility tokens as external adoption outside these game was less in demands.

Tokenomics structure hence, became one of the major issues for the gaming ecosystem and a score of other issues that Avalanche subnets help developers solve.

What are Avalanche Subnets and how do they work?

An Avalanche subnet is a network that has its own rules regarding its membership (this defines the condition to be part of the subset of validators on a particular subnet) and its token economics.

Subnets in the Avalanche ecosystem give users leverage to build a network or a different sub-chain on the Avalanche network which can help foster speed through a higher throughput and shorter time frame when carrying out transactions.

A subnet on Avalanche can be analogous to a racing ground with markings, and when compared to other blockchains that do not have subnets can be seen as a racing ground with no markings, and racers can decide to run flexibly on the track as no runner is assigned a specific track.

When racers get to run flexibly without tracks assigned to each of them, clustering happens, and eventually accidents (in real-life cases).

With this view, looking at other blockchains, a similar problem of clustering can take place in the form of high network congestion and unfortunately, games built on these homogenous blockchain networks direct uneasy experience for the gamers when carrying out certain transactions like buying in-game assets, and other occasions such as minting of NFTs.

Subnets give room for a faster set of interactions to be carried out within games as each subnet can have its path and in zero-congestion there is a better flow and seamless experience for users.

The Current State of Gaming Subnets

In as much as subnets are known for their high speed for the recording of blocks into a network. The Shrapnel subnet, Beam subnet, and DFK subnet are the highlighted ones in this article.

Beam Subnet

The Beam subnet records a block with an average time of 3.44 seconds into the chain of blocks hence increasing the speed of in-game transactions. Its subnet is structured and backed by a native token $BEAM, and runs a different consensus mechanism with a threshold of 4 and 8 validators to verify transactions.

The Beam subnet is open-source to give room for other developers to build their games on the network and run with its consensus.

The beam subnet doesn't stand as the only chain on the AVAX ecosystem with the functionalities of enabling other games to be built on the chain.

DFK Subnet

The DFK subnet provides a better room to enable developers to launch games on the chain. The DFK subnet also runs its own game and stands in as a major subnet provider to generate revenue from games utilizing its native token $JEWEL where users get to stake $JEWEL to gain incentives without having to leave the platform to a third party (this is discussed in the next section of this article).

The DFK subnet, with active addresses more than the BEAM subnet, has a total of 10 validators on the chain with an ATH of 500k transactions in the last 3 months.

Sharpnel Subnet

Still, under gaming subnets, the Shrapnel subnet emerges to be the most intriguing on the Avalanche ecosystem - as its game style and type is quite unique and other upcoming games are looking at building on the chain most importantly to replicate its tokenomics and game type.

The avalanche subnets are made different and special from other homogenous chains through one its major feature: The Customization of Subnets.

The High customizability enabled by Subnets for game developers

Subnets are created by developers for specific use cases - as certain subnets can be used for validation of a certain kind of NFT or even on-chain transactions on a platform built on Avalanche, subnets too can be created for games.

These game-specific subnets give room for developers to set up how their games' tokenomics and in-game assets are sold as well as every other thing as there is less rigidity with subnets.

Here, tokenomics of games can be structured to enable users to use game tokens within the games without having to interact with third-party platforms like CEXes and other platforms.
Tokens can be made available as now users have an active blockchain where everything is carried on. Liquidity flow can be made hence and a score of other functionalities added to a subnet.

Customizability extends into making a pathway for revenue creation for subnet developers as third-party games on the avalanche ecosystem can utilize specific subnets built for games while as developers, revenue generated from the game through certain ways through customizing your subnets a fraction of the revenue can be shared evenly with the builders of the subnets. Developers with subnets can be referred to as publishers and these publishers can be listless provided you can build a subnet you can get to be one.

Lastly, lowering costs is vital for developers to look into. Building a blockchain and focusing directly on the economic structure to sustain a game's token can be quite tough as the web3 gaming industry hasn't gained much traction, subnets can bring leverage to the developers to easily customize tokens to fit in any game type, arcade, shooting, etc.

Over and above all, the emergence and relevance of subnets have been dominant and hence as more developers build these subnets, validators are brought into subsets to validate transactions. With the criteria of over 2000 AVAX token to be staked before being accepted as a validator, these large volumes of staked tokens has brought a spike in the price of $AVAX hence, experiencing a pump and rise in price and trading volume.

Exposing Avalanche Subnets

In conclusion, the educational cycle of Avalanche subnets is still in its early stages as users interested in web3 game development are mostly in their training phase before understanding what subnets entail and their architecture.

With full education and exposure, more subnets can and will be created for a better gaming ecosystem and Avalanche ecosystem in the long run.