• 8 Hours announces bonus rewards and giveaways for early adopters
• Users can earn these by moving EHrT off Bitrue 
• Users can earn more multiple times by creating multiple wallets

Evolution of digital collectibles 

The 1990’s was an era of massive growth for digital pets. Giga pets, Tamagotchi, and Furbies were among the must have toys for people in that era. Still, these toys were limited by the technology of the time, and their respective crazes faded quickly from the mainstream, to the point where people born after the 90’s might not have even heard of them.

Fast forward to 2020, where Playtable and 8 Hours are recreating this toy genre. They are doing that by using the latest in internet, IoT, and blockchain technology, and calling it VIM-world. The internet makes them playable from all over the world, IoT lets you attach them to physical toys, and blockchain gives them value.  

These 90’s toys sparked a buying frenzy

Instead of being cased in plastic with black-and-white LCD screens, the VIMs will be a cryptocurrency “wallet” on the VeChain mainnet with a digital appearance. Owners logging into the VIM world website will be able to feed, care for, and battle their VIMs against other VIM owners. Owners can keep them in their digital-only form or order physical toy representations off the website, which can then be bonded to the VIM using an NFC chip. Users with a DIY attitude will be able to bond an NFC chip to their own creation, like a hand-carved statue, a 3D printed figure, or an old sock. There’s really no limits to what you could do. 

But regardless of what the VIM looks like, the question remains: will users be attracted to this style of toy? Nintendo’s Amiibo figurines and cards were successful, and sold between 15-20 million a year while they were being produced, despite being restricted to consoles such as the Wii U and suffering major shortages of popular characters. 8 Hours is hoping to build the same relationship with their Playtable gaming consoles, while unlike Nintendo, also making their VIMs playable without the hardware. VIMworld will be accessible from any computer (via Vechain Sync) or mobile device (through the VeChain Thor App) making it easy to get started. This opens up VIM ownership to wide swaths of gaming fans, blockchain fans, and fans of digital toys and collectibles. And while VIM might not be launching with popular IPs like Mario and Zelda, the 8 Hours Foundation has long hinted that certain mainstream IPs would be coming to VIMworld. That in itself is something to look forward to as the prospect of battling characters from different game universes has always been appealing. If VIMworld is able to attract some major IPs, combined with community and in-house models, the ecosystem could be an eclectic mixture of popular and unusual digital characters. 

VIMs: Giving value to dedicated gamers 

A key feature of VIMs are their ability to record character progression on the blockchain. VIMs can be progressed by playing, or by storing the EHrT token within the VIM itself. Naturally, higher level VIMs will be more difficult to defeat in battle, making them more valuable on the secondhand market. 

Blok Party is the company behind the Playtable and 8 Hours. Their Co-founder Shane Zhu has a lot of excitement when talking about the upcoming launch of VIMworld, and believes that once players begin to understand the rules behind leveling up the different tiers and types of VIM, they will also be incentivized to take part. He told VeChain101 that the VIM was unique by being not just playable and usable, but also tradable. Once players put that much time and energy into building up a gaming character, they deserve to be able to sell it. 

In their latest announcement on Medium, 8 Hours explained how users could earn rewards for getting involved early. The announcement was far from straightforward, and newcomers might be confused by the constant use of terminology and abbreviations. Here’s a quick rundown:

• VIMs – The digital character itself, existing on the blockchain
• VIMworld – The game itself, including a dashboard, marketplace, and battle arena
• EHrTs – The digital currency used in the 8 Hours gaming ecosystem
• EGGs – A reward for highest level VIMs, such as companions or other rewards
• Treasures – A  reward for early adopters, that will be used in future events

The main idea is that by staking or “feeding” EHrT tokens into VIMs, these digital pets will increase in rank and be harder to defeat in battle (and have higher resale value). High-ranking VIMs will hatch EGGs, which can give the VIM owner more rewards or simply distinguish the VIM from other lower-ranked VIMs. Treasures seem to be a form of consumable reward that can be used to enter events, presumably such as tournaments or other activities. 

Got it all? This might be one of those things that are easier understood once the VIMworld game goes online later this summer.

So what should we do now?

People looking to get a head start on the competition can earn the first batch of VIMs by putting EHrT tokens into a VeChain wallet, such as the official mobile wallet, the Sync wallet, or via a Ledger hardware device. The key here is not which wallet you use, just as long as it’s not on an exchange or a centralized custodial service, because then they’d be getting the VIM, not you. Sync is my personal recommendation, because users will eventually be able to access the VIMworld game directly in the Sync browser. 

As you can see from the chart above, holding 10,000 EHrT in a wallet is enough to earn the lowest tier VIM as well as some Treasures. As the rewards go up, it’s also possible to earn free EHrT, giving users even more incentive to take part. However, each wallet can only get 1 VIM, so if someone held 20,000 EHrT, they’d be better off creating a second VeChain wallet (in Sync, for example) and splitting the EHrT equally between them. Anyone holding over 500,000 EHrT should definitely look into splitting up their funds into additional wallets, so as to maximize their rewards.

The deadline to create these wallets is on July 8, when the snapshot will take place.

So will the future be bright for VIMworld? Shane from Blok Party thinks it will be. He recognizes that the community is anxious to get started, but said that he wants everything to be perfect. “We just want to show people what we can do. I don’t want a substandard product, so we are going to get it right.” For the VeChain community and blockchain gaming fans in general,  we hope that you do, Shane. 

Be sure to share your opinions on our official VeChain101 Twitter.

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