Splinterlands is the play2earn realm where any true warrior can forge its destiny. And while doing so anyone who gets to rule over this treasured land will soon discover the precious SPS gems that give them more power. But in order to reshape all this ecosystem to one where righteous and courageous warriors live a thriving life, we need to awake the SPS tokenomics through more utility and mechanics. Nowadays the entire crypto market is red, but somehow Splintershards are bleeding harder. So I believe there is some work to do in order to capture more value into it and terraform this ecosystem not only for sustainability, but also for thriving and for it to be a spear of innovation and technological breakthrough where anyone wants to come, create and fight. Not doing something will get to stagnation or even decline, thus we need to look in the mirror and awake from a bad dream in order to revive everything around us.
Burn baby, burn
One way that I see that we can improve the SPS tokenomics is by introducing more frequent and dynamic token burns tied to high-usage events or marketplace activity. Some will say that if we get more players, this is not needed, but waiting for that is not constructive either. So we need to tackle the economy from every angle that we can and all those mechanics together work for the better. As per Splintercards we have only 62,700,000 SPS burned out of 3 Billion supply, thus a drop in an ocean. For me it looks like permanents selling pressure even if myself I haven't sold SPS in ages just to take profits. The only time that I go on the market is to exchange SPS for DEC in order to pay for the Wild mode where my cards are performing the best. So there must be other's that throw SPS on the market probably because they just have too much.
KE ratio based rewards
Instead of keeping rewarding players that will put SPS on the market every chance that they have, we could change the rewards system by using the KE ratio - get rewards proportionally to your SPS holding score, meaning get more rewards if you stake/hold around or more SPS than earned. This system would be something of the KE ratio on the Hive blockchain where content creators are incentivized based on their dedication and long term vision for holding Hive tokens. I have already brought this possibility to the Splinterlands team's attention in one of the AMA's, but the feedback so far is that with a rather scarce development team is quite challenging to undertake such a task of changing the rewards system. I understand them, but in the same time we must do something. While we are all builders here, we need to get our tokenomics healthier in order to get more players here, thus this is not optional but a must in my opinion.
Sink the submarine
Another angle that we can try is to introduce “sink” mechanics through ways that players can spend or use SPS so supply doesn’t just accumulate. The players at the top earn the most, so having a special ranked mode where access is granted after paying SPS to enter “elite” or “hardcore” ranked ladders could be one such sink. Go after the ego of hardcode players and I am sure some or most of them will get on the battlefield to prove themselves. Land offers the most upside when it comes for sink options and I believe that its development can bring more use cases to lock SPS forever. Switch to SPS for land development and upgrade, implemented features of using SPS to unlock higher productivity or speed up farming. DeGen but fun sinks can bring another layer of SPS spending through mystery cards/packs/chests - buy surprise packs (not replacing normal packs) that burn SPS when opened. Another option can be to hold event raffles and lotteries where you need to pay SPS to enter raffles for limited NFTs, collectibles or promo cards. We simply need more ways for players to consume their SPS and not sell it.
Bottom line I believe that SPS needs burning mechanics, a long term holder rewards system and real sinks to thrive. More use will imply less idle supply and this should strengthen the tokenomics and put Splinterlands on every serious gamer radar. We need consistent utility to retain value and regain the fame of a leading and breakthrough play2earn blockchain game. That's how I see things and that we simply need to put the tokenomics nurturing at the hearth of everything that we are doing here in order to be able to grow this ecosystem for years to come.