Some big Splinterland news broke on yesterdays town-hall. That news is that the Splinterlands team is thinking about making Reward Cards Soul Bound. For those who might not be familiar with the term Soul Bound; Soul Bound Reward Cards would mean Soul Bound Reward cards would be non-transferable. Put another way one could not trade their reward cards. Currently the Brawl System has their own set of cards that can be found in Gladius Packs. Cards found in Gladius Packs are Soul Bound so making cards Soul Bound to a specific account isn't something that is completely new to Splinterlands. To the best of my understanding of the potential new change current Reward Cards would remain tradable. This change would be placed on new, yet to be introduced Reward Cards.
RentMoney's Thoughts
As much as I hate to say it as it would hurt my overall ROI if/when implemented. In truth I think Soul Bound Reward cards is likely the best idea the Splinterlands team has come up with that fights against bots in which I heard them speak of. When cards become Soul Bound bot owners will have to sell accounts instead of individual cards. This turns some of the negative impacts bots have on the game into a positive as its likely a percentage of players who actually purchase an account with Soul Bound cards attached would be human players. A percentage of those human players will likely be new players. Its not the most ideal situation but its an improvement over allowing bots to continuously earn and sell individual cards. Selling an account of bulk cards is likely to mean that account will have to be sold at a deep discount when compared to selling individual cards. Thus hurting the overall ROI of bots (something I'm in favor of).
I've always said that Reward Cards hurt the sale of the main packs. The reason being; why purchase a pack of five cards for $4+ USD when you can open "packs" for free in ranked play. I'm a classic example of a person who implements such a strategy. If you take a look at my collection its two main card sets is BETA and REWARD Cards. How does this get in the way of my Splinterlands Play/Earnings? It doesn't, if I wanted to I could still make it to diamond league using the same cards I had Since ALPHA/BETA with a mixture of Reward Cards to help my progression. Now imagine someone with my mindset that has an army of bots in which they unload any won rewards onto the marketplace. Soul Bound cards removes those sales from market and guess what happens to the extra income that previously was spent on Reward Cards. That's right it migrates to other cards thus pushing up their prices. So while I'm not ecstatic about Reward Cards potentially becoming Soul Bound I can see the logic and reasoning for it. HOWEVER and this is a big HOWEVER; current and past Reward Cards should never be changed to Soul Bound as they were earned and purchased on Market while advertised as Tradable. Lets hear your thoughts below in the comment section.
What is Splinterlands
Splinterlands is a blockchain game built on the Hive Network. The game itself utilizes NFT's for game play. These NFT's can be won in battle and/or purchased from the official Splinterlands marketplace or many other secondary markets. Game play rewards players with cryptocurrency and in game assets. Click here to get started with Splinterlands.
