We built a space MMO where the in-game currency is real money — no faucets, no token printing. Here's what we learned about player-driven economies.
🎁 Exclusive for r/CryptoCurrency : We're giving away 20 Founder's Edition (OG) Commanders to this community. Details at the bottom.
Most "crypto games" I've played have the same problem: the economy is a faucet. The game prints tokens, players farm them, sell them, and the price collapses. Classic P2E death spiral.
We took the opposite approach with Law of the Abyss, a browser-based space MMO. There is no faucet. The currency players use in-game (Abyssal Credits) is just real money on a 1:1 basis. If you want credits, you either earn them from another player, or you deposit. Nothing is minted.
A few things this changes:
- Every transaction is zero-sum. A market trade, a salary, a bank loan — every credit on one side came from another player. There's no "the system pays you."
- Taxes are revenue. A small % of every market transaction goes to a Central Bank pool. That's literally how the project sustains itself — no token sale, no VC round structured around dumping.
- NPCs don't exist as money sinks. Companies are player-run. Banks are player-run. Press, factories — all owned by players. If you want a service, someone built it.
- The economy can break in ways traditional MMOs can't. A whale hoarding a resource is a real problem. A bank run is a real problem. We've already had to design around things EVE never had to think about because EVE can just print more ISK.
Honest tradeoffs we hit:
- New players need on-ramps that don't feel like a paywall. Still iterating.
- Inflation is replaced by the opposite problem: dormant capital. Players hoarding kills market liquidity. Dividends and consumable mechanics help but it's not solved.
- Skepticism is high (rightfully). "Real money in a game" sounds like a scam by default. Trust gets earned slowly.
Pre-registration is free and gets you some early-access perks. Not asking anyone to buy anything — more interested in whether the design holds up to people who've thought about this stuff longer than I have.
Happy to answer questions about specific mechanics if anyone's curious.
🎁 Giveaway — 20 Founder's Edition (OG) Commanders
Founder's Edition Commanders are limited OG units that won't be available again after launch — permanent perks for early supporters.
How to enter:
- Comment on this post (a question, your take, feedback — anything)
- One entry per user
- 20 winners drawn at random via redditraffler.com for transparency
- Draw happens at the end of pre-registration; Commanders delivered when NFTs mint
- Winners announced in a post edit + DM
Website: https://lawoftheabyss.com/