This is part 2 of a 3 part series that I am putting together to discuss the different ways that you can earn crypto with Splinterlands. If you haven't seen it yet, please stop by and read Part 1 (link below).
Part 1: @atbui89/ultimate-guide-on-earning-crypto-with-splinterlands--part-1-of-3
Part 3: (will update with a link)
As I mentioned in the first part, although #Splinterlands is a #Play2Earn game, you can invest without actually playing. I highly recommend giving the gameplay a shot because it'll help you understand the investing side (it's also very fun) but I understand that there is a steep learning curve and may require more time than you have or are willing to put in. At least try to complete your daily quests in order to receive the daily chest.
So, what can I do if I don't want to play the game?
There are a few different opportunities that the Splinterlands economy presents:
- Staking SPS
- Daily Airdrops
- Liquidity Pools
- Renting
Staking SPS
The first and easiest way to passively invest in the game is to simply stake SPS. SPS is the governing token of Splinterlands and the team is providing some incentives for you to stake your SPS.
To stake, click the SPS counter in the top right section of the screen. You then need to have in-game (liquid) SPS and click the "Stake" button. Simple as that. Over time, you'll see some amount of SPS that is 'Ready to Claim.' If you click the claim button, it becomes liquid SPS that you can stake, transfer, or hold. It's all yours!
But what is staking?
If you aren't familiar, staking your tokens essentially locks them up while they are used to support the network and confirm transactions. That means your SPS are no longer liquid and you cannot use/transfer them until they are unstaked. If you need to unstake your SPS, you will be receive 25% at a time every 7 days for 4 weeks.
Staking SPS will currently give you a 28.62% APR paid out immediately in the form of more SPS. You also receive special offers and bonuses. Currently, you receive airdropped vouchers depending on how much SPS you have staked. Additionally, some Splinterlands tournaments require you to have a certain amount of SPS staked in order to participate.
#Splintercards has a great tool to help you calculate what you staking rewards will look like.
https://www.splintercards.com/tool-sps-stake.html
Daily Airdrop Rewards
Next, we have daily airdrops. Airdrops are a daily rewards given to players in the form of SPS. The amount of SPS you are given is based on your airdrop points which are essentially a total of your in-game assets. The airdrop is scheduled to drop 400M SPS tokens over the course of 365 days (at the time of writing this article, we have 127 days left).
This is also found on the same SPS page where you stake SPS (see above). Each day, you can come here and claim your daily airdrop. It is currently processing around 12:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time and will be ready to claim about 30 minutes after.
Below are all of the current ways to earn airdrop points.
- Collection Power : 1 airdrop point for each point of collection power you own
- DEC : 1 airdrop point for every DEC you own
- DEC Liquidity Pools (LP) : earn double airdrop points for each DEC in the SPS:DEC LP
- Card Packs : airdrop points for each card pack you own (1 Chaos Legion pack = 300 pts, for example)
- Land Plots : 10,000 airdrop points for each land plot owned
- Champion Points : 10 airdrop points for each Champion point
- SPT (Splintertalk Tokens) : 0.25 airdrop points for each SPT
- Card Skins : 1,000 / 2,500 / 5,000 / 10,000 airdrop points depending on rarity
- Totems : 1,000 / 5,000 / 25,000 / 100,000 airdrop points depending on rarity
- Titles : 100k (Untamed / Explorer) / 1M (Praetorian / Custom) airdrop points
Airdrop Example
Here's an example of what the daily airdrop would look like with a Silver III collection of cards and some in-game DEC and card packs. Visit https://www.splintercards.com/tool-sps-airdrop.html to calculate how much you can earn on your daily airdrops.
Liquidity Pools
A liquidity pools are crowdsourced pools of cryptocurrencies that are used to facilitate trades between the two assets on the exchange. By committing your crypto to the liquidity pools, you are essentially providing the liquidity necessary to make trades happen between the two assets. Without the pool, trading becomes difficult and very inefficient (wide bid/ask spreads and low volume).
Like staking, you are locking in your coins to this pool and receiving an incentive in return. These incentives can be in the form of other coins, an increased number of shares, or in the SPS:DEC LP case, you will receive double airdrop points for each DEC you have in the pool.
The difference between staking and LPs are that you will need to commit an equal amount of SPS and DEC. So at the current price, every SPS needs to be paired with 37.3 DEC so you're not exactly getting double the DEC airdrop vs DEC held. However, it allows you to hold SPS if you're interesting in receiving airdrops without going all-in on DEC. Additionally, removing your liquidity does not have a hold time like unstaking does.
The Danger of Liquidity Pools (Impermanent Loss)
Now this all sounds great but there are some downsides that you must be aware of. First, the amount of coins you invest can change. Because the LP is trying to keep the value of DEC and SPS held equal, the ratio can change if there is a change in price of either coin. For example, you may initially put in 1 SPS and 40 DEC, but it's entirely possible for you to receive 0.5 SPS and 60 DEC when you remove your liquidity. Second, there is something called impermanent loss which is a loss in profits compared to simply holding the original 1 SPS and 40 DEC. This generally happens when there is a large change in the value of 1 asset in relation to the other.
Renting Out Cards
Even if you don't enjoy playing the game, you can still earn passive income through rentals. All cards that you own can be rented out for a daily DEC fee that allows the renter to use your card. The more rare/useful your card is, the higher the rate you can charge. As the season approaches the end, rates typically skyrocket and can potentially allow you to bring in more income than all of the previous days in the season. Renting out your cards will still allow them to be counter towards your daily airdrop for card collection points.
You can use Peakmonsters as an excellent tool to manage your rentals. Not only does it make it easy to list your rental, it also has built in tools to help you determine what kind of returns you can expect.
In this example, we'll look at the Void Dragon, a Legendary Chaos Legion card. You can see that Peakmonsters has already calculated the 'Yearly Return on Asset' (yROA%). This price is calculated based off of the lowest BCX price. The yROA% for a Level 4 Void Dragon is a whopping 62%!
You can shop around find the best cards to rent out which would have the highest yROA, buy them, and easily list them on the rental market. It will automatically be relisted if someone cancels on you.
Something to be aware of is that on the last day of the season, rental prices will skyrocket on cards that provide a good amount of CP. A lot of people are looking to rent cards on the last day in order to jump to the next league for more end of season rewards so they'll be looking to rent a lot of CP. We're talking 10-20x the price of the first day of the season. A card that is normally 2 DEC/day can easily go for 20-40 DEC/day assuming it has a decent amount of CP.
If you want to maximize your rental earnings, it will be a little bit more involved near the end of the season. For a more hands off approach, you can set it and forget it.
Final Thoughts
Whether you want to actively play the game or passively invest in its economy (or both!), Splinterlands provides a great opportunity for all types of players and investors.
In the next and final part of this series, I will be discussing ways to earn crypto that are adjacent but not necessarily specific to Splinterlands itself.
Stay tuned and thanks for reading!
Referral link : https://splinterlands.com?ref=atbui89